In recent years, there has been increased attention on diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. While strides have been made in bringing more women and people of color into companies, true inclusion means fostering an environment where all employees feel psychologically safe to fully engage and contribute their unique skills, perspectives, and experiences without fear of repercussions. For Black women in particular, navigating spaces where their race and gender identities intersect often come with unique challenges that leadership must acknowledge and proactively address.
Today we will explore the concept of psychological safety, share research on how gendered racism impacts Black women at work, and offer practical solutions for creating an inclusive culture where psychological safety is a priority, especially for Black women.
Defining Psychological Safety
Psychological safety refers to an employee's perception of the consequences of interpersonal risk taking in the context of their work (Edmondson, 1999). An environment of psychological safety allows people to admit mistakes, ask questions, and propose novel ideas without "being embarrassed, rejected or punished" (Edmondson, 2019). Rather than fearing negative reactions, employees feel supported to challenge the status quo, take calculated risks, and learn from failure. According to research, psychological safety is a crucial factor in team performance and learning behaviors (Edmondson, 1999). Teams where people feel psychologically safe are more innovative, collaborative, and able to address complex problems effectively (Rock & Grant, 2016).
Gendered Racism: Unique Challenges for Black Women
For Black women, navigating corporate spaces comes with the added burden of navigating obstacles related to their intersecting identities (Crenshaw, 1989; Collins, 2002). Research shows they face gendered racism - biases that target someone due to both their race and gender (Lewis & Neville, 2015; Shaw et al., 2020). At work, this can manifest as subtle disrespect, questionings of competence, difficulty securing mentors/allies, and social isolation due to assumptions that they do not "fit" organizational culture (Holder et al., 2015; Rosette & Livingston, 2012). These experiences threaten psychological safety, as Black women must constantly monitor how race and gender stereotypes others hold could impact how their ideas or workplace behaviors might be received.
Promoting Psychological Safety Through Inclusive Leadership
To create an environment where all employees, especially Black women, feel psychologically safe, bringing more diverse voices to decision-making helps challenge unquestioned assumptions.
Research suggests promoting psychological safety involves consistent demonstration of inclusive leadership behaviors. An inclusive leader focuses on developing an organizational culture founded on dignity, belonging, and mutual understanding (Randel et al., 2018). The following framework outlines key leadership actions that cultivate psychological safety:
Role-model inclusive behaviors. Leaders must "walk the walk" by demonstrating through their own words and actions a respect for diverse perspectives and zero tolerance of microaggressions or disrespect towards any group.
Promote diversity, equity and inclusion as core values. Make a sustained, public commitment to DEI through articulating clear policies, allocating resources to support related initiatives and accountability measures like inclusion scorecards.
Make belonging a priority. Fostering inclusion means ensuring employees feel they belong as valued members of teams and are consistently showing respect for each other's experiences through listening without judgment.
Surface biases and blindspots. Leaders should visibly commit to addressing their own biases through activities like inclusion trainings with a focus on reflective practices.
Empower diverse voices. Structures like employee resource groups, diverse talent panels, and DEI participation goals give marginalized groups a seat at the table and signal their perspectives hold value in driving organizational priorities and decision-making.
Create brave spaces for difficult conversations. Psychological safety thrives where people feel empowered to have respectful discussions about challenging topics through establishing group agreements focused on learning rather than debating.
Promoting Psychological Safety for Black Women in Tech
Despite efforts to improve representation, the tech industry remains predominantly white and male (Holder et al., 2015). For Black women, who make up only 1% of the tech workforce, navigating these spaces is especially challenging and impacts well-being and retention (Ligali et al., 2017). Leaders must acknowledge intersecting gendered racism and actively foster an inclusive culture where Black women will feel their full selves are welcomed.
Cultivate Allies and Mentors: Role-modeling allyship by advocating for diverse talent and empowering Black women leaders helps diminish isolating impacts of race and gender dynamics. Formal mentorship programs matching Black women with allies across levels and fostering natural connections through representation in leadership further strengthen ally networks that cultivate psychological safety.
Monitor Inclusion through Data and Storytelling: Disaggregate employee experience data by race and gender subgroups to monitor inclusion indicators like fair treatment, sense of belonging, and ability to contribute ideas. Facilitating spaces where Black women comfortably share both challenges and solutions experienced helps validate experiences and co-create tailored solutions.
Champion Flexible and Supportive Policies: From fair and equitable parental leave to flexible work arrangements, inclusive policies help alleviate undue pressures from intersecting identities that disproportionately impact women of color. Visibly advocating support for such policies through accessible sponsorship programs and leadership role-modeling enhances psychological safety.
Deepen Cultural Competence through Education: Mandatory, ongoing DEI trainings should include nuanced understanding of unconscious bias relating to both race and gender as well as intersectional experiences. Bringing in subject matter experts to educate all employees, especially people in privilege, on structural barriers to inclusion can address blind spots and garner buy-in for systemic changes.
Signal Prioritization through Executive Accountability: Tying executive compensation to clearly defined DEI goals like increasing representation of marginalized groups in leadership ensures sustained commitment beyond performative allyship. Quarterly progress reports with real examples of inclusive behaviors held leadership accountable to both employees and external stakeholders.
Conclusion
In today's climate of amplified social consciousness around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, corporate leadership must move beyond performative allyship and implement substantive, sustained strategies that foster an inclusive culture where all employees feel psychologically safe to bring their whole, authentic selves to work. For Black women navigating the intersecting challenges of gendered racism, specific solutions are needed to support representation and mitigate psychosocial threats that undermine well-being, performance and advancement. By applying principles of inclusive leadership through the frameworks outlined - from developing allies and brave spaces to cultivating cultural competence and executive accountability - companies have a meaningful opportunity to create real change and ensure Black women, along with other marginalized groups, can fully participate and thrive. An investment in psychological safety through inclusion is not only the right thing to do morally - research shows it drives innovation, collaboration and business success. Overall, cultivating an environment where people from diverse backgrounds feel empowered to contribute their perspectives without fear of repercussion will strengthen the workforce and lead to even greater outcomes for companies committed to this important work.
References
Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139-167.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative science quarterly, 44(2), 350-383.
Edmondson, A. C. (2019). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. John Wiley & Sons.
Holder, A. M., Jackson, M. A., & Ponterotto, J. G. (2015). Racial microaggression experiences and coping strategies of Black women in corporate leadership. Qualitative Psychology, 2(2), 164.
Lewis, J. A., & Neville, H. A. (2015). Construction and initial validation of the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale for Black women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 62(2), 289.
Ligali, M., Cotten, S. R., & Hale, T. M. (2017). Tech life perspective: Black women technologists' perspectives on intersecting identities in their field. Information, Communication & Society, 20(7), 1012-1028.
Randel, A. E., Galvin, B. M., Shore, L. M., Ehrhart, K. H., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., & Kedharnath, U. (2018). Inclusive leadership: Realizing positive outcomes through belongingness and being valued for uniqueness. Human Resource Management Review, 28(2), 190-203.
Rock, D., & Grant, H. (2016, June 13). Why diverse teams are smarter. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter
Rosette, A. S., & Livingston, R. W. (2012). Failure is not an option for Black women: Effects of organizational performance on leaders with single versus dual-subordinate identities. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 1162-1167.
Shaw, S., Marks, A., & Puccia, A. L. (2020). A qualitative study of the effects of gendered racism on the mental health of black women. Feminism & Psychology, 30(3), 350-368.
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
