Loving Us Through Lifting Others: Black Women, Heavy Lifting, and Leadership

PI: Jatia Wrighten, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University

Grant Amount and Grant Fund: $1,406, Edward Artinian Fund for Publishing

Project Abstract: The goal of this book is to examine the legislative behavior of Black women through a novel intersectional framework, the heavy lifter theory. The heavy lifter theory explains as to why and how Black women differ from both White women and Black men and offers insight to better understand Black women’s political behavior. Black women are continually increasing their representation in U.S. legislative institutions, specifically state legislatures. This research presents a historical context by which to understand and examine the gendered nature of the ascription process of Black women. Specifically, their experience as a marginalized group burdened them with the duty of the heavy lifter. Although being the heavy lifter is a burden, this focus on Black women’s ability to thrive under constant discrimination in the form of racism and sexism should give scholars pause. In looking at Black women legislators’ ability to gain leadership, the heavy lifter identity can potentially be a vehicle through which these Black women legislators can find a sense of purpose and psychological and social strength to forge a path that might not have been expected for them.

Pre-Electoral Opposition Coalitions in Authoritarian Regimes

PI: Ozlem Tuncel Gurlek, Ph.D. Candidate, Georgia State University

Grant Fund and Grant Amount: $2,500, William A. Steiger Fund for Legislative Studies

Project Abstract: As of 2021, more than 68 percent of the world population lives under autocracies. International organizations and think tanks struggle tenaciously to find valuable and applicable mechanisms and strategies to facilitate a transition to democracy while creeping authoritarianism threatens every corner of the world. Contemporary autocracies are unique in the sense that they heavily depend on political parties and elections. This project interrogates the role of opposition parties in these competitive autocratic regimes, particularly examining these parties’ ability to unite against the omnipresent autocrats and oust the incumbent to pave the way for a transition to democracy. This project seeks to understand why some opposition parties in competitive autocratic regimes are able to successfully form a pre-electoral coalition (PEC), while others fail to coordinate. What explains the cooperation of opposition parties in regimes where electoral politics is an uneven playing field, and harassment of opposition is a ubiquitous practice? In this research, I argue that opposition parties that successfully resolve differences among them and resolve conflicts within each party are more likely to form a coalition before elections. I rely on a mixture of evidence to corroborate this theory. I build an original dataset on coalitions, test my findings in disparate parts of the world, and focus on the Turkish opposition parties as a case study. Ultimately, this approach helps me to develop our knowledge on opposition strategies, reversing democratic backsliding, and the survival of authoritarian regimes.

The Persuasive Power of Black Women

PIs: Paul Testa, Assistant Professor, Brown University; Karra McCray, Ph.D. Candidate, Brown University; Kylee Britzman, Assistant Professor, Lewis Clark State University; Tarah Williams, Assistant Professor, Allegheny College

Grant Amount and Grant Fund: $1,309, Women & Politics Fund

Project Abstract: Movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter rely on social media to share individual experiences and personal pleas to galvanize others to take action for social change. The success of these messages depends upon the reach and persuasiveness of their messengers. Due to existing power disparities, race, gender, and the intersection of race and gender, can affect the reach and persuasiveness of messages. Black women may be uniquely trusted messengers for some groups, but they may also have more difficulty getting other groups to listen or to be persuaded. If some people are more or less likely to hear and respond to calls for reform depending on when they are made by a Black woman, a white person, or Black man, this creates both challenges and opportunities for sustaining coalitions for change. Different responses to social movement messengers could also lead to some interests being overlooked by movements and by the broader public. Our research will use qualitative interviews with Black women activists and a choice-based survey experimental design to assess whether people listen to and are convinced by social movement messages from Black women as compared to white women, Black men, and white men. This project has implications for social movement strategy but also broader implications for how we communicate with one another and how we convey who has authority.

Karra McCray
Tarah Williams
Paul Testa
Kylee Britzman