The challenges of fitting in: An intersectional framing of minority ethnic women managers’ career experiences in the UK

Intersectional scholarship on work and organizations while focusing on subjectivities and intersections largely overlooks the systemic dynamics of power (Rodriguez et al., 2016). One of the systemic dynamics of power is organizational practice (Acker, 2006). Intersectionality research on minority ethnic women pays relatively less attention to the role of organizational practices in career progression. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the interaction of intersectional identities of second-generation British Pakistani women managers and professionals with organizational practices and norms, and the resulting challenges and career implications.

A qualitative research approach was used with interviews of 37 participants who were in managerial or professional positions.

The research finds a resilience of discrimination because of expectations of compliance with dominant workplace cultures. This expectation presents challenges for minority ethnic women managers. The paper reveals that the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity and religion clashes specifically, with organizational expectations of being male, of being white, and of work-related socializing, which may adversely affect career progression. Organizations, thus, may feed into minority ethnic women managers’ inability to fit in and merge by implicitly demanding compliance or fitting in. These findings carry implications for HRM policies and practices.

Advancing intersectionality scholarship, the research finds the disadvantage caused by the intersection of gender, ethnicity and religion (intersectional identities) continues to be reproduced because of particular organizational demand and expectations and the non-compliance of minority ethnic women managers to merge and fit in. In other words, organizations implicitly demanding fitting in, and the inability to fit in and merge by minority ethnic women managers, hampers their careers.