A few years ago I started attending classes for my part-time MBA. What I noticed almost immediately was that my experience in the classroom largely mirrored my experience of close to a decade in corporate America: I’m consistently one of very few black women and black people in the room.
How Black Women Describe Navigating Race and Gender in the Workplace
Interviews with ten professional women of color.
March 26, 2018
Summary.
Interviews with 10 women of color shed light on some of the common challenges faced by black women in the workplace, how they cope with those challenges, and how those coping mechanisms affect their chances of long-term success. Many of the women talked about having to code-switch, or embrace the dominant culture at work. Another pattern was what one of the women called “dimming my light,” or dampening aspects of their personality to avoid making colleagues uncomfortable. Zero of the women interviewed regularly worked with other women of color.
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New!
HBR Learning
Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to build a better, more just workplace.