The representation and retention of African Americans have long been issues in higher education. Historically White Institutions (HWIs) have struggled with the ability to promote and retain African American faculty. African American faculty at HWIs have reported issues of hyper visibility, lack of diversity, chilly campus climates, and culture, as factors impacting their workplace satisfaction. In an attempt to understand African American faculty work experiences, more information needs to be gathered on their unique tenure in academia. Despite the increase in the literature on job satisfaction of African Americans, there is a scarcity of information that examines the impact of racial climate or racial identity attitudes on job satisfaction. With the accounts of slavery and racism in the United States and its residual effects on today's society, racial identity can give insight into individual responses to societal racism. Racial climate can also assist with understanding job satisfaction levels of African American faculty, due to the role racism has historically played in the work environment.
This study explores the connections between gender, racial identity, perceived racial climate, and job satisfaction of African American faculty. Data was collected from 100 African American participants who work in various teaching roles at HWIs in the Midwest. A hierarchical regression analysis was employed to investigate the salient 4 intersections of gender and race-related variables. The independent variables included gender, perceived racial climate, and Black racial identity status. The dependent variable was job satisfaction. This study used a block-wise regression analysis, in which gender was entered first; perceived racial climate, as a total score, was entered second; and the four Black racial identity statuses by Helms and Parham (1996) (Pre-Encounter, Post-Encounter, Immersion/Emersion, Internalization)were entered last. The results showed that all three variables contributed to a variance of job satisfaction; however, Black racial identity subscales individually did not significantly contribute variance in job satisfaction. A discussion of the survey instruments, procedures for data collection, and implications were also presented.