First Advisor

Amy Lubitow

Term of Graduation

Fall 2023

Date of Publication

12-14-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Sociology

Department

Sociology

Language

English

Subjects

Black women, Direct care work, Economic exploitation, Historic and modern oppression, Long term care, Racism and discrimination

DOI

10.15760/etd.3707

Physical Description

1 online resource (viii, 150 pages)

Abstract

This study expands understanding about the experiences of Black women direct care workers (DCWs) experiences with racism, discrimination, and economic exploitation in the long-term care (LTC) sector. It comes at a critical time when COVID-19 has demonstrated the important and essential nature of long-term care work. COVID-19 has also elucidated the challenges of an insufficient workforce and its detrimental impact on the long-term care system’s ability to meet the care needs of those accessing long-term care services. Finally, workforce needs are projected to increase with the impending influx of baby boomers into retirement, making this study a timely effort at understanding the unique needs of these workers so actions can be taken to preserve and grow the workforce. This study finds that Black women experience racism and discrimination across interpersonal and institutional levels. On the structural level, they also experience wage theft. Their experiences are mediated by a host of individual, institutional, social, and structural factors and are contemporary examples of historic oppression. This study underscores important values for Black women who enter and remain in this work. Future efforts at attracting and retaining a sufficient workforce supply should factor these values into the strategies employed.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41149

Additional Files
APPENDIX D IRB 217193-18 APPROVAL.pdf (636 kB)
IRB Approval
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