In February, we celebrated Black History Month, and in March, we celebrated Women’s History Month.
As we come off two months celebrating distinct identities, it is important to take a moment to revisit the experiences of individuals who face double discrimination as a result of intersectional identities. In the 2021 Women in the Workplace report, the trend continues that women of color, and specifically Black women tend to face more microaggressions than white women or an aggregate of all women.
Source: https://womenintheworkplace.com/
In addition to these disproportionate experiences, there also exists a significant gap in how many employees believe they are allies to women of color, vs. those that actually take the appropriate allyship actions. This gap is especially problematic because often ally actions by white colleagues in a position of privilege are a critical way to lift up underrepresented employees who may face a “double bind” or “tightrope” when they overtly advocate for themselves.
Source: https://womenintheworkplace.com/
One of the ways this gap is reinforced is the discrepancy between the actions that women of color identify as the most meaningful actions vs. those that white allies assume are most impactful.
When considering the allyship actions to prioritize, consider:
Advocating for new opportunities for women of color
If seeing discrimination against women of color, actively working to confront it
Publicly acknowledging women of color for their ideas and work
Educating oneself about the experiences of women of color
Mentoring or sponsoring one or more women of color
A resource we’ve been sharing with many of the groups we work with is this article on microaffirmations to counteract the microaggressions that women of color face on a daily basis. These can be applied even more broadly to other underrepresented groups, but at the core it all starts with doing the work to ask (educate yourself), model allyship behaviors (gaining credibility as an ally) and advocating for others through explicit actions to amplify and support.
With more people focusing on the action of allyship, we hope to close the allyship gap for all employees, but encourage those of us in positions of privilege to be especially considerate of those that face even greater barriers within our organizations.