Dilemmas of the High Achieving Chicana: The Double-Bind Factor in Male/Female Relationships

Abstract

The central research question of this exploratory study is to determine if college educated, ethnically identified and preferred endogamous Chicanas experience significantly more psychological distress due to a conflict between their educational achievements and beliefs that Chicano males are threatened by high achieving women. The specific perceptions are: that Mexican American males feel threatened by their educational accomplishments, tend to exclude them from political and organizational activities, and that college attainment will cause them to be seen as elitist by the larger Chicano community. This study uses descriptive and correlational analysis to explore the relationship between ethnic identification, preferred endogamy and perceptions that Chicanas high achievements pose a threat to Chicano males as predictive factors for higher psychological distress. The sample consists of 508 randomly selected Chicanas at five colleges, varying in selectivity from a private university to a community college. The majority of respondents are single and under thirty. A sample of 160 Chicano males were also randomly selected from three of the same five college campuses and were used to make comparisons on the threat dimension. The instrument is a mail questionnaire.