Misogynoir—where racism and sexism intersect—continues to hinder Black women’s career advancement, well-being, and sense of belonging in the workplace.

“I feel like black women are fighting while they’re dying inside. We fight for survival as our bodies break down. We struggle to raise children, we struggle to be strong while our bodies weep under the burden.”

Malorie, teacher

Based on interviews with black women in leadership positions across a range of sectors – including journalism, politics, academia, healthcare, charities and trade unions – this report sheds light on the experiences and challenges they face in the workplace. Traveling through their early career, mid-career, and senior career trajectories, we reveal how women of color understand the intersecting features of their identities—of racialization, gender, disability, and class; how these factors influence their potential to access senior professional positions; and how they are treated when they occupy these positions.

“I’m black. I’m a woman, I’m working class. I have to try 10, 15, 20, 25 times.”

Stella, counselor

The women we spoke to shared their experiences of double standards, unfair pressure to perform, slower career advancement and institutional enlightenment, and the impact this has on their well-being.

“Don’t doubt yourself.”

Harriet, charity worker

Despite these difficult conditions, the women I spoke with each developed strategies to help them retain power and create joy throughout their careers—from building professional support networks, advocating for change, and taking deliberate action to to preserve one’s well-being.

Our recommendations

“I’m sick and tired of your policies, sick and tired of your research, I need implementation, I need action.”

Natalie, union worker

The burden should not be on black women to adapt, but on institutions to address systemic failures. In this report, we set out clear and actionable recommendations for employers, unions, and policymakers to address systemic barriers and create workplaces where women of color can feel safe, valued, and supported to thrive.

For employers

• Employers should create and implement anti-racist action plans to address misogyny. This includes publishing race and gender pay gap reports, establishing clear processes for reporting racism and setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely targets to challenge racism in the workplace.
• Companies should set up structures to ensure that line managers provide fair and equitable outcomes in progression and promotion for employees.

For unions

• Unions should provide more support to women of color who experience misogyny by ensuring that representatives understand the barriers they face and are trained to recognize and challenge these issues.

For the government

• We welcome plans to introduce mandatory ethnic pay gap reporting for all companies employing more than 250 people under the proposed Equality (Race and Disability) Bill and urge the Government to ensure this is effective and to calls for the publication of action plans, disaggregates data based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) ethnic categories and addresses intersectional pay gaps.
• We want to see the new Worker Protection Act extended to all forms of harassment to encourage employers to take a proactive approach to preventing all forms of harassment.
• We are also calling for a well-funded independent body to enforce workers’ rights, greater investment in the Equality Advice Helpline and increased funding for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate employers with a high level of discrimination against black women.

“It is so important that research on the experiences of black women in the workplace is done, heard and acknowledged. All too often we see these experiences dismissed by the mainstream and often these women are left with feelings like “What’s all the fuss about? They need to get over themselves,” compounding the trauma they experience.

In this report, we highlight the unique experience of black women experiencing misogyny in the workplace because it is clear that more research is needed. Only by shining a light on these issues and discussing the changes needed can we hold both individuals and employers accountable for improvement and make workplaces psychologically safer for women of color.”

Professor Dame Donna Kinnair DBE, our Chair of Trustees