Hidden in Plain Sight: Uncovering the Emotional Labor of Black Women Students at Historically White Colleges and Universities

We utilized the emotional labor triangle to understand how 16 Black women students who attended Historically white colleges and universities (HWCUs) navigated gendered-racialized oppressive environments that mattered to their academic success. This study contributes to a gap in the literature, as much of the research focused on students of color without disaggregating for gender or other social identities. In addition, the literature is scant on experiences of Black women students use of emotional labor. Emotional labor has largely been studied from a management perspective. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews, we examined the emotional labor Black women expended while pursuing their undergraduate degree. We employed a qualitative, intersectional, methodological approach to foreground historically marginalized voices and situated the study in the hypervisibility Black women participants described feeling as space invaders on their historically White undergraduate campus and at the same time the invisibleness of their voice and masking of their feelings as they encountered gendered racism. Further, we emphasized the emotional toll and stress that may occur for Black women when they do not utilize engaged coping mechanisms while expending their emotional labor. The study holds implications for educators to address emotional labor inequities within HWCUs.