c. Unnamed Sisters in Contexts Unrelated to Sex

Research conducted in the last decade by Korn/Ferry International, a large executive recruitment firm, and Catalyst, an organization dedicated to the development and promotion of women in corporate structures, reveal that minority women make up five percent of women corporate officers, who in turn make up only three to five percent of all corporate officers. Consequently, the Department of Labor examined why barriers exist to job advancements for African American corporate women. The Department found that prejudice against African American women continues to be the single most significant barrier to their advancement into the executive ranks. Perceptions, true or not, perpetuate the existence of the glass-ceiling barrier. The Department found that corporate executives continue to factor stereotypes into employment decisions. The study revealed that employers perceived African American women as aggressive, hostile, sly and untrustworthy.

As Patricia J. Williams expressed in 1987, "no matter what degree of professional or professor I became, people would greet and dismiss my black femaleness as unreliable, untrustworthy, hostile, angry, powerless, irrational and probably destitute." These stereotypes can affect public policy as well as routine transactions and employment decisions.