In context of the book, one of the biggest obstacles that Black women face is the expectation that they should solve the challenges they face. Many organisations are still unwilling to interrogate the whys behind the challenges and instead make Black women the problem. This leads into another challenge: self-advocacy. Black women are often penalised when they do take action, whether it is being negatively described as an ‘activist’ or stereotyped as being ‘angry’.
Equity comes before equality. When trying to achieve parity we are looking at parity of white women to men, but we do not acknowledge that there is a not only a difference in experience between Black and white women but also pay, access to opportunity and the extent to which it is easier or more difficult to navigate the workplace. This is specifically where Exploitative Femininity comes into play. It is typically where a white woman fully understands her position within the power pyramid and can exploit the stereotypes of her being a damsel and delicate, to ensure that if a Black woman stands to achieve what she would like to, that she exaggerates these perceived facets to position herself as a victim, thereby eliminating the competition.
We recognise that feminism has not benefited Black women to the same extent as white women and Exploitative Femininity essentially distils how detrimental behaviour hides in plain sight. While this also happens among white women, the impact on the career of Black women is more severe and the book delves into why.
A fix-the-system approach is one that doesn’t blame women. It doesn’t say there are no talented women, but rather asks what are we doing wrong and why can’t we find talented women. The stance and how questions are posed come from a different angle. A fix-the-system approach asks: what can we do more of as an organisation? What are the trends we are seeing in the organisation and how can we improve them, rather than asking women to gain more skills, be more confident or, simply put, asking women to prove that they deserve to be there.
My book is for anyone who wants to be an ally and learn what systemic barriers look like as a Black woman in the workplace. It is for people leaders who have Black women in their team and want to learn how to be effective. It is for business leaders who want to lead an equitable and sustainable organisation and of course it is for Black women. This book is dedicated to Black women to help navigate the workplace if their organisation is not where it should be.
