Leadership Research Summary:
- This study offers a view on narrative inquiries based upon leadership, in order to shed light on women’s of color and multicultural groups experience and nuance understanding of their leadership career path. Since black and other ethnic group women are ‘theoretically erased’ (Crenshaw, 1989: 139), this empirical study offers an insight into how gender, class and race influence on women’s leadership practices in three countries, while it adds to theorizing identity and leadership at schools in different international contexts. This study intends to give voice to women leaders who are making a difference in their organization.
- During the past decade, interest in gender and leadership has grown to the extent that it is slowly becoming part of the leadership norm. Narrative inquiries are treated as a means of a systematic data gathering and analysis which challenges the traditional views of gender discussions (thus gender is predominantly about white women) and incorporating ethnic minority around leadership. Unfolding the stories of women—from multi-ethnic groups and mixed social class-higher education leadership positions in England, and Pakistan, may expose differences of interpretations offered by researchers from a racially and ethnically diverse background (black and white Europeans). Hence, an issue that arises is whether researchers’ cultural background affects data interpretation of studies with a highly qualitative stance.
Leadership Research Implications and Findings:
- These three interwoven research projects reveal that there are many challenges that Black women leaders face in educational institutions. Some of these will be outlined in this section. The list is endless; therefore this section will focus on the following; stereotype, lack of visibility, micro-aggression (which includes sexual and racial incidents), isolation, the notion of color blindness and unequal pay and career progression. Starting with stereotypes, Black women leaders may be recruited in the first instance to fulfill diversity targets and/or to ensure that the school has the perception of being a diverse workplace. If one takes a look through a critical lens it could be described as window dressing which is problematic for both the school and the Black women leaders. The lack of visibility for Black women leaders creates an environment of stress and racial anxiety which in the long-term can have a profound effect on the Black women leader’s mental health and well-being. Black women leaders suffering in silence will compensate for the ongoing barriers by working harder and internalizing the pain.
- Many Black women leaders will experience fatigue and or burnout during their teaching career. Having daily accounts of micro-aggression is something that can contribute to the breakdown of their mental health and well-being. Following their recruitment, they often experience isolation in the workplace. It is a very difficult challenge to accept that their recruitment has resulted in professional jealously. The lack of attention to supporting Black women leaders contributes to the revolving door scenario. In many cases the appointment of Black women leaders could be the first time that the school has risked recruiting somebody that does not look like most in the school community. Once the honeymoon period is over, the Black women leaders are expected to achieve and fit into the school environment which has quickly become hostile, with Black women leaders facing treatment which reflects perceptions of their racial inferiority among White colleagues.
- Racial inferiority is a term used to justify the unequal treatment of the Black women leaders in the workplace. Experiencing any or all of the above is a barrier for Black women leaders, and will erode their confidence and ability to succeed in their careers. Something which attracts very little discussion is ‘color blindness,’ Maylor (2014). In her book ‘Teacher Training and the Education of Black Children’ Mayor examines notions of colour-blindness and colour-consciousness. Colour-blindness is considered to be an instrument of Whiteness.
- Whiteness is a slippery ideology that operates and tolerates its own contradiction in order to maintain its dominance (Bonilla-Silva, 2001; Gallagher, 2003). In her book Duster (2001), suggests that like race, colour-blindness is multifaceted. While producing a dominant social and at times political hierarchy, depending on how it is operated, race is visible in its solid and interchangeable (fluid) state or it takes on the form of ‘non-existence’ (colour-blindness). This invisibility or perceived non-existence results in color blind racism forming ‘an impregnable yet elastic wall that barricades whites … from racial reality, a racial reality whereby minority ethnic groups ‘lag behind whites on almost every measure of quality of life’ (Gallagher, 2003: 17) The biggest barrier facing black women leaders in recent years is unequal pay and lack of career progression. Unequal pay and career progression have been the focus of discussion for many years; however, in recent years it has been viewed in terms of the impact on the lives of Black women leaders. Despite many initiatives such as positive recruitment drives, BME leadership development programmes, conscious bias training for line managers and senior leaders, and coaching, the lives of many Black women leaders have become a constant battle for survival.