An ally you say? Endorsing White women as allies to encourage perceptions of allyship and organizational identity-safety among Black women

Abstract

Black women often question their belonging in organizational environments, and exposure to an allyship cue, such as a White woman endorsed as an ally, may help mitigate such concerns. We examine whether ally endorsement can help a White female employee cue allyship, and in turn, serve as an effective organizational identity-safety cue for Black women high in stigma consciousness. We found that, relative to viewing a White female employee, Black women that viewed a White female employee endorsed as an ally reported greater perceptions of allyship, which had important downstream consequences for organizational identity-safety. Specifically, perceptions of allyship predicted greater anticipated trust and belonging within the organization among participants both high (Experiments 1 and 2) and low (Experiment 2) in stigma consciousness. The present studies demonstrate that ally endorsement effectively cues allyship, and in turn, signals organizational identity-safety for Black women across varying levels of stigma consciousness.