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Leadership and Cultural Identity

Sun, April 19, 4:05 to 5:35pm, Swissotel, Floor: Event Centre Second Level, Montreux 1&2

Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on leadership and identity by examining how race, gender and class may confer disadvantage or bestow privilege in accessing leadership positions and enacting the role of leader. I interviewed 130 Black, Asian, and white women leaders in public and private sector organisations in the UK to gather their reflections on how they defined leadership, how their identities as leaders had developed and their experiences of enacting leadership. Findings showed that the BME women experienced notably more challenges and difficulties in their role as leaders, and that they saw their ethnicity as having a clear bearing on their identities, their perception of leadership, and their experience as leaders, Among the white women, barriers were faced in respect of social class and gender, and struggle was evident in understanding the issues BME leaders face in organisations.
While white women academics have written extensively on women’s position in the labour market and within the gender division of labour, this has been primarily from the position of disadvantage in relation to patriarchal power (see for example Rees 1992, Walby 1990, Cockburn 1991). Ethnic minority women are rarely included within these analyses and when they are, the analysis tends to focus on the ‘double disadvantage’ of sexism and racism, such as the ‘concrete ceiling’ facing black female managers (Davidson, 1997). White women (researchers or organisational leaders) have seldom reflected on their own ethnic privilege including how this has impacted on their work (McIntosh 1992 being a notable exception).
We are unaware of research that advances our understanding of BAME women’s experiences in leadership positions. Reviews at the intersection of leadership and diversity, such as Alvesson and Billing (2000) and Powell (2012), do not directly challenge assumptions of ethno-racial homogeneity in women, and implications for leadership. Devine (1989) suggests that many of the common stereotypes of Blacks are transferred into leadership perceptions held of this group. For instance, whereas White leaders would be described as ‘working well under pressure’ (Rudman & Glick 2001: 751), ‘Black leaders are perceived as more incompetent than white leaders’. Understanding this enables us to make sense of the various studies that explore leadership recognition. (Rosette 2011: 1144)
Furthermore, the paper will delve into the leadership perceptions of women who are leaders in public, private and voluntary sector organisations. More importantly, the paper will explore in depth the significance of using an intersectional approach in leadership development.

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