Black female leaders have to take more risks than any other leaders to reach the top, according to research from Durham University Business School.
Researchers looked at data spanning leadership progression over 200 years – the career challenges faced by women and how they overcame them to become globally recognised leaders.
They found that black female leaders face many of the challenges and negative experiences that were prevalent 200 years ago. The intersectionality between being black and female meant they face compounded challenges compared to white female leaders or even black male leaders, they said.
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The research was led by Dr Spyros Angelopoulos, associate professor at Durham University Business School, alongside researchers from Cambridge University Judge Business School, Cranfield School of Management, the University of Sydney Business School, and Charles Sturt University.
They separated the leaders’ careers into three stages – identification, progression and achievement. Identification focuses on the start of their career, where the leader considers which field they want to work in and how much risk they want to take.
Progression covers the approach they take to moving to a leadership role and the goals they set in doing so; and achievement focuses on when a leader finally gains prominence, acceptance and social endorsement as a leader.
At each of the three stages, black female leaders were more likely to take risks to reach the next stage, despite facing challenges throughout their career.
In the early stages, black women were more likely to take risks to diversify their careers, working in an average of 2.13 sectors. White women worked in an average of 1.59 sectors by comparison.
Throughout their career, white women tended to reduce risk-taking behaviours, while black women increased theirs, the researchers found.
The findings suggest organisations need to improve inclusion for black female leaders so they do not feel they have to take extreme risks to succeed, they advised.
“Despite modest progress in the representation of women in senior leadership positions, black women continue to face unique challenges, being promoted at a slower pace and significantly underrepresented in top leadership roles,” said Dr Angelopoulos. “The statistics reflect this disparity: in 2021, white women held 32.6% of managerial positions in the US, while black women occupied only 4.3% of such positions.
“It’s clear that we need to create a more inclusive environment for black women to flourish in their career, not constantly having to overcome hurdles.”
Research from executive recruitment firm Green Park earlier this year found that women and ethnic minorities often ‘take B roads’ to get to top leadership roles because there is not a natural progression to leadership for them.
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