Preface: Women of Color and Leadership

Abstract

Problem

As the United States continues to advance to become a majority minority workplace, there is a need to support the development and career progression of women of color. Most leadership research on women is based on the prototypical White man and woman leader with the assumption those findings are applicable to all people and women. However, it is likely that women of color, due to their intersectional identities of race or country of origin, gender, and socio-economic class, differ from those of White men and women as their unique intersecting minoritized identities are considered to act as multipliers of disparate treatment and inequities.

Solution

Thus, we propose to use an intersectional framework to examine how women of color enact leadership and the human resource development (HRD) practices which promote these women’s learning, development, and career progression.

Stakeholders

This review benefits HRD scholars and practitioners who study the leadership.

Keywords

career progression executives leader leadership leadership development intersectionality women of color women

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Acker

(1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender and Society, 4(2), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002

Bierema

L. L.

(2010). Resisting HRD’s resistance to diversity. Journal of European Industrial Training, 34(6), 565–576. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591011061239

Bierema

L. L.

(2017). No woman left behind: Critical leadership development to build gender consciousness and transform organizations. In Handbook of research on gender and leadership. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bierema

L. L.

Cseh

(2003). Evaluating AHRD research using a feminist research framework. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 14(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1047

Bierema

L. L.

Fenwick

T. J.

(2005, February). Defining critical human resource development. In Academy of Human Resource Development Conference, Estes Park, CO (pp. 574–581).

Brookfield

S. D.

(2014). Foundations of critical theory. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 16(4), 417–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422314543819

Byrd

M. Y.

Stanley

C. A.

(2009). Bringing the voices together. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 11(5), 657–666. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422309351817

Callahan

J. L.

Elliott

C. J.

(2020). Gender hegemony and its impact on HRD research and practice. Human Resource Development International, 23(5), 469–472.https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1816606

Catalyst . (2020). Women of color in the United States: Quick take, march 19, 2020. https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-of-color-in-the-united-states/

10.

Collinson

(2017). Critical leadership studies: A response to Learmonth and Morrell. Leadership, 13(3), 272–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715017694559

11.

Corpuz

Due

Augoustinos

(2020). Caught in two worlds: A critical review of culture and gender in the leadership literature. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 14(12), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12571

12.

Dorfman

Javidan

Hanges

Dastmalchian

House

. (2012), “GLOBE: A twenty year journey into the intriguing world of culture and leadership”, Journal of World Business, 47(4), 504–518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.004

13.

Frey

W. H.

(2018). U.S. white population declines and Generation ‘Z-Plus’ is minority white, census shows. The Avenue, Brookings EDU. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/06/21/us-white-population-declines-and-generation-z-plus-is-minority-white-census-shows/

14.

Gaffney

A. M.

Rast

D. E.

III Hogg

M. A.

(2018). Uncertainty and influence: The advantages (and disadvantages) of being atypical. Journal of Social Issues, 74(1), 20–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12254

15.

Hackmann

D. G.

(2002). Using portraiture in educational leadership research. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 5(1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603120110057109

16.

Horowitz

J. M.

Parker

Brown

Cox

(2020). Amid national reckoning, American divided on whether increased focus on race will lead to major policy change. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/10/06/amid-national-reckoning-americans-divided-on-whether-increased-focus-on-race-will-lead-to-major-policy-change/

17.

Law

(2020). Women are now the majority of the U.S. Workforce — but working women still face serious challenges. Time Magazine. https://time.com/5766787/women-workforce/ (Accessed 16 January 2020).

18.

Poston

(2020). Big ways that the US will change over the next decade. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/3-big-ways-that-the-us-will-change-over-the-next-decade-126908

19.

Richardson

Loubier

(2008). Intersectionality and leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 3(2), 142–161.

20.

Roberts

L. M.

Mayo

A. J.

Ely

R. J.

Thomas

D. A.

(2018). Beating the odds. Harvard Business Review, 96(2), 126–131.

21.

Sanchez-Hucles

J. V.

Davis

D. D.

(2010). Women and women of color in leadership: Complexity, identity, and intersectionality. American Psychologist, 65(3), 171–181. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017459

22.

Sims

Carter

(2019). Revisiting Parker and ogilvie’s model of African American executive leadership model. Journal of Business Diversity, 19(2), 99–112. https://doi.org/10.33423/jbd.v19i2.2058

23.

Smith

A. N.

Watkins

M. B.

Ladge

J. J.

Carlton

(2019). Making the invisible visible: Paradoxical effects of intersectional invisibility on the career experiences of executive Black women. Academy of Management Journal, 62(6), 1705–1734. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.1513

24.

Stanley

C. A.

(2009). Giving voice from the perspectives of African American women leaders. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 11(5), 551–561. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422309351520

25.

Storberg-Walker

Gardiner

R. A.

(2017). Authentic leadership in HRD—Identity Matters! Critical explorations on leading authentically. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 19(4), 350–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422317728731

26.

Turner

J. R.

Baker

Kellner

(2018), “Theoretical literature review: Tracing the life cycle of a theory and its verified and falsified statements”. Human Resource Development Review, 17(1), 34–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484317749680

27.

Washington

Roberts

L. M.

(2019). Women of color get less support at work. Here’s how managers can change that. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/03/women-of-color-get-less-support-at-work-heres-how-managers-can-change-that