First Black Woman in the United States Senate: A Constructivist Analysis of Political Socialization
Harris, Alexis, Clark Atlanta University
2023-05
2020-2029
This study examines the first Black woman in the United States Senate by using a constructivist analysis to assess the impact of political socialization on her identity politics. Specifically, this intrinsic phenomenological case study of Senator Carol Moseley Braun's full senatorial term explores the evolution of her role orientations and the mechanisms of socialization which impacted her internal political efficacy. Through explorations of Moseley Braun's archived senatorial collection, this research interrogates Senate culture vis-a-vis its commitment to parochial politics during the 103rd, 104th, and 105th Congresses. Using intersectionality as a methodological framework, the study is based on the premise that individuals engage with structures based on their respective socioeconomic realities and political identities. Guided by theories of constructivism and womanism, the study assumes individuals interact with systems based on the meanings and values ascribed to that existing system. Given the history of the institution's founding principles, the Senate is viewed as a system wherein Black women exist as cultural outsiders whose intersectional identities based on race and gender demand a nuanced anomalous approach to legislative politics. A case study approach and content analysis of archived records are utilized to assess the experiences of Senator Carol Moseley Braun'the first Black woman elected to the United States Senate while interviews and literature reviews are used to place her experiences in the broader context of Senate culture. As of November 2021, Kamala Harris is the only other Black woman to serve in the Senate and Vice President Harris is currently presiding over the Senate which renders her senatorial collection inaccessible, according to Senate Historian Betty Koed. Given Harris 's perspective of senatorial socialization would provide further insight to concepts studied herein, Harris 's nonresponse and lack of records are limitations of the study. Lastly, another limitation is that Moseley Braun 's extensive archived collection of more than 800 boxes was not fully retrievable. Nevertheless, the research utilized a substantial part of the senator 's collection. Ultimately, it was determined that as Moseley Braun became more embedded in Senate culture, she was more likely to take advantage of the privileges that made her White male colleagues efficacious.
text
application/pdf
born digital
Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University Theses and Dissertations
dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Clark Atlanta University
Department of Political Science
Boone, William
Georgia--Atlanta
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:2023_harris_alexis
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
