Unique Challenges Black Women Face at Work and What Organizations Can Do About It

Women have long faced inequality in the workplace. While advancements have been made over the years, black women have faced unique challenges in the workplace. Some of these unique challenges have been easy to overlook but they require intentional actions by organizations to improve the workplace environment. From racism and sexism, lack of allies, and stereotypes, black women often find themselves treated like outsiders in the workplace.?

Racism & Competence Challenged

In my Women’s Workplace Confidence Report, black women reported leaving organizations most for unfair treatment of their race and ethnicity when compared to other women of color. Though women face sexism at work, black women have to deal with racism added on top of that.?

Black women have to prove themselves more in the workplace. In Lean In and McKinsey & Company’s annual Women in the Workplace study, 41% of black women reported having their judgment questioned in their area of expertise compared to an average of 38% across all women. When it comes to having their competence questioned, 40% of black women reported having to provide more evidence of their competence. Not all of these biased behaviors are intentional. But unconscious biases are just as damaging to black women and negatively affect their workplace confidence and experience.?

Lack of Allies

Along with facing racism and sexism in the workplace, black women often deal with a lack of strong allies at work. Lean In’s study of allies in the workplace found that while over 80% of white men and women see themselves as allies to other races, only 26% of black women reported having strong allies in the workplace. Black women are also underrepresented in leadership and have less access to support from leadership and their managers. And if they are in leadership roles, they are often the only black woman and experience isolation along with a lack of allies. Ambitious black women or those in leadership can also face stereotypes that can contribute to a hostile work environment.?

Stereotypes

Damaging stereotypes specific to black women are unfortunately all too common in the workplace. It is not uncommon for ambitious black women to be criticized for their desire to lead or earn a promotion. A black woman standing up for herself in the workplace is often stereotyped as an “angry black woman” and can even lose out on promotions because of it. This stereotype causes real harm to workplace relationships and the overall workplace environment for black women. Discounting a black woman’s success and accomplishments due to outside factors like affirmative action or diversity hiring is an equally damaging stereotype, especially when these ideas go unchallenged by anyone in the organization.

Companies can build a more inclusive workplace by taking active steps toward building a more diverse and inclusive work environment. One of the most important first steps is to start talking about and addressing any of the above issues directly. Normalizing these discussions and opening communication is an important step to make employees feel more comfortable and able to talk about issues they are seeing in the workplace. Defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior for employees helps make it clear where the boundaries lie and what will be tolerated.?

Putting policies into place is not enough. By including employees in discussions, trainings, and workshops around unconscious biases, inequality, and stereotypes, they can become part of the solution. With an active approach to building a more inclusive work environment, employees will be more likely to get involved, challenge their biases, become better allies, and correct inappropriate workplace behavior.?

Beyond working with current employees and leadership to start addressing the inequalities against black women, companies can make an effort to hire more diverse employees and therefore create a more diverse workforce. For example, organizations can recruit black women who are qualified but might not otherwise apply due to insecurity or lack of confidence. In order to make the workplace more inclusive and retain black women, companies should evaluate their gender diversity initiatives to ensure they address the intersectionality of gender and race because the workplace experience for black women can be much different compared to non-minority women.

Thanks for reading this article! I'm Velera Wilson, a global speaker, author, and consultant on a mission to help women own their worth and increase workplace confidence so they advance their careers and thrive as leaders. Submit speaking inquiries, get a copy of my book, You're Absolutely Worth It, Women’s Workplace Confidence report, or connect with me on Twitter.