Black Women Working at the intersections: What Black Women are up against.

Black women face vast obstacles due to racism and sexism.

Living at the intersection of racism and sexism is far from easy. Black Women are discriminated against for being Black and for being women, and they exist in both identities at all times. The story of Black women at work and in life is one of resilience. Despite the challenges and barriers in their way, black women have accomplished so much and continue to make amazing strides. They are highly educated. They are ambitious. They are business owners forging their own paths. Their drive to succeed is often not just for themselves, but also to lift up our communities.

Outside of work, women are at the forefront of social change. As the National Women’s Law Center has stated, “Almost all social justice movements were and are carried on the backs of Black women.” Women contributions to culture—in academia, literature, music, fashion, social media, feminism, and so much more—are undeniable. And women challenge society to be better. As Maya Angelou said in 1978, “Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise. Up from a past that’s rooted in pain, I rise.” Women rise.

 

More than just a few Black Women are highly educated.

• Black women enroll in college at higher rates than men overall and—most notably—at higher rates than white men. this is probably the one of the reasons that Joe Biden wants a Black woman as his VP running mate.

• Between 2004 and 2014, the share of Black women with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased by 24%

Black Women are ambitious—for themselves and to make the workplace better for others.

• As many Black women as white men (41%) say that they want to become top executives

• Of Black women who want to become top executives, about half—more than any other racial or ethnic group of women—say they are motivated by the desire to be role models for others like them

• More than half of Black women who want to become top executives also say that they are driven by a desire to influence the culture of their workplace—again, they are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group of women to name this as a motivation

Final thought

Black Women are the fastest-rising entrepreneurial group among women.

• Between 1997 and 2017, the number of Black women–owned businesses grew by more than 600%, compared to just 39% for white women–owned businesses and 114% for women-owned businesses overall

Systemic Racism at Work: Black women are successful in many ways, but their achievements are in spite of glaring inequality in society—including the workplace. For the last five years, Lean In’s research on Women in the Workplace tells the same story: in so many different ways, Black women have a harder and worse experience than almost everyone else. We’re overrepresented in minimum-wage jobs. We’re hired and promoted more slowly. We are often the only Black woman in the room and experience a greater variety of microaggressions than women of other races and ethnicities. And we’re paid less than men and most other groups of women.

 Black Women are overrepresented in minimum-wage jobs and almost nonexistent in the C-suite.

at the end of a black woman's work career she is tired, and beaten down. 

• Black women make up 7% of the total workforce but account for 12% of minimum-wage earners

• Only 21% of C-suite leaders are women, only 4% are women of color, and only 1% are Black women

• Not a single Fortune 500 or S&P 500 company has a Black woman CEO (as of June 19, 2020)

We face bias and systemic barriers in hiring and promotions.

• For every 100 men hired into manager roles, only 64 Black women are hired

• For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 58 Black women are promoted

• 47% of Black transgender women report being fired, denied a promotion, or not hired because of their gender identity

Black Women mobilize our communities, friends, and families to vote.

• In 2018, 84% of Black women voters said they’d talked to their friends and family about voting, the highest percentage of any racial or ethnic group

• Black women also tend to vote at higher rates than other groups. Despite voter suppression, eligible Black women voted at rates 6 percentage points above the national average in 2018