The five African American winners for this year’s event are B. Smith, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, B. Smith Enterprises; Hon. Shirley Jackson, Ph.D., President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Audrey Smaltz, CEO and Founder, The Ground Crew Worldwide; Aulana L. Peters, Retired Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; and former Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman, who now serves as Chair and CEO of New Ventures LLC.

“These women have defied expectations and lifted up others along the way,” said Women of Power Co-editorial Director Caroline Clarke. “[They are] creating a legacy that is not merely testament to their stellar personal success, but to a well-rounded life of accomplishment and dedicated service.”

For more information on the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit, visit www.blackenterprise.com/wps.

According to new research, the decision to ‘settle’ may hold more myth than fact.

Economists Betsey Stevenson and Adam Isen, prepared the briefing paper for the Council on Contemporary Families. The two’s findings are based on data collected from 1950 to 2008 about women and marriage trends.

A few highlights include:

• Contrary to Conventional Wisdom, African-American women do not face a “marriage penalty” when they acquire higher education. In fact, black women who have graduated from college or completed some college are more likely to marry than less-educated groups of black women.
• College-educated women are more likely than any other group of women to report themselves happy in their marriage, whatever the level of their family income, and they are much less likely to think that “financial security is the main benefit of marriage.

You can find the full version of the paper here. Hustletown readers, do you believe the so-called marriage penalty is real? Please share your thoughts with us below!