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Cited by 394Racial and Ethnic Identity ResearchIntergenerational and Educational Inequality StudiesNames, Identity, and Discrimination Research

“If You're Light You're Alright”: Light Skin Color as Social Capital for Women of Color

HUNTER, MARGARET L.·2002·Gender & Society
DOI 10.1177/08912430222104895
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Abstract

This article uses two national survey data sets to analyze the effects of skin color on life outcomes for African American and Mexican American women. Using a historical framework of European colonialism and slavery, this article explains how skin color hierarchies were established and are maintained. The concept of social capital is used to explain how beauty, defined through light skin, works as capital and as a stratifying agent for women on the dimensions of education, income, and spousal status. The analysis shows that light skin predicts higher educational attainment for both groups of women. Light skin directly predicts higher personal earnings for African American women and indirectly affects personal earnings for Mexican American women. Light skin predicts higher spousal status for African American women but not for Mexican American women.

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Crossref · 10.1177/08912430222104895

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  • In the US marriage market, Black women with light skin had a clear advantage over those with darker skin and were more likely to marry men of high-status.

    “For example, Hunter (2002, p. 189) found that when it came to the marriage market, Black women in the USA who had light skin “had a clear advantage” over those with darker skin and were more likely to marry men of high-status.”

    From Skin shade and relationships: how colourism pits Black and mixed Black-White women against each other (2024) · cites this paper as Hunter, 2002

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Authors
HUNTER, M. L.
Affiliations
Loyola Marymount University (US)
Corresponding author
HUNTER, MARGARET L.
ORCID
HUNTER, MARGARET L.
Venue
Gender & Society
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2002-04
Volume
16
Issue
2
Pages
175-193
ISSN
  • 0891-2432 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-3977
DOI
10.1177/08912430222104895
OpenAlex
W2155533726
Cited by
394
References
66
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 18
FWCI
13.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Gender & Society (publishedVersion)
  • Scholar Commons (Santa Clara University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
Keywords
skin color, beauty standards, social capital, racial stratification, African American women, Mexican American women, educational attainment, earnings, spousal status, colonialism, slavery, racial hierarchy

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