Black Women in Management

Paid Work and Family Formations

Diane Chilangwa Farmer

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781137335425
• eBook ISBN: 9781137335432
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Business Ethics
• Index: Social Sciences

Black Women in Management identifies some of the differences and/or similarities that exist between these women's career choices and progression and explores how they address socio-cultural and gendered expectations of domestic, social and caring commitments as career women living and working in two urban cities – one African, the other European.

1

Introduction

The last 40 years have seen enormous economic and social change with the world witnessing an increase in women’s employment worldwide (Burke and Davidson, 2000, 2011; Wajcman, 1998; Wirth, 2001). However, progress towards gender equality has not been uniform across the world. In Western society, some progress has been made towards gender equality in the public sphere of the labour market and similar changes have been witnessed in the private sphere where intimate relations such as marriage and family structures continue to undergo major transformations (Wajcman, 1998). In sub-Saharan Africa, women’s participation in formal paid employment, though low in comparison with Western figures, has also increased, bringing about major changes and new challenges for society as a whole (Okeke-Ihejirika, 2004). The micro-trends in these various cases, however, are different.

This book sets out to examine the trends which specifically address the career and family lives of professional and managerial Black African women originating from sub-Saharan Africa. Through a mainly sociological understanding, this book explores how such women, with relatively similar colonial histories, cultures, career and professional backgrounds, handle their complex social positioning. I focus on the lives of Black African women living and working within the corporate private sector in Johannesburg and London. As Black African women with careers in major cities on opposite sides of the globe, the professional and managerial women or transnational and emerging Black elite women in my study are unique both in the workplace and in their communities. As I elaborate further in the book, although the women are part of the majority population in South Africa, they remain minorities within the professional and managerial circles of South Africa’s corporate private sector. This is despite a strong sense among some South Africans that of all Historically Disadvantaged South Africans (HDSA), Black African women have benefited the most from employment equality polices. In the United Kingdom, Black Africans form part of the growing Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups in the country (i.e., Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean). However, while the Black African women in my study form part of this growing Black African community in the country, they remain minorities not only within the UK population but also in their role as professional and managerial women within the corporate private sector. This is in spite of Black Africans having fairly high rates of higher education among the country’s BME population (Platt, 2007). I therefore attempt to identify some of the differences and/or similarities that exist between these women’s career choices and progression and find out how they address socio-cultural and gendered expectations of domestic, social and caring commitments as career women living and working in two urban cities – one African, the other European.

In order to place boundaries around the ethnic and racial identity of my research participants, the individuals in my study are of Black African descent, identify themselves as Black and belong to the following racial and ethnic composition:

• African: Black or Black British;

• Mixed: White and Black African; and

• Mixed: Black African and Other.

There are currently differing opinions or inconsistencies regarding the descriptive terminology used for ‘non-white’ individuals. This is primarily due to the varying definitions and complex history of individuals classified as ‘Black’ in both the diaspora¹ and sub-Saharan Africa. As I discuss in Chapter 2, race is defined differently depending on the contexts, resulting in the same physiognomy evoking very different racial responses and assumptions in different contexts. Therefore, in line with countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa – countries from which I draw much of my literature review research on professional and managerial women – unless specified, I use the phrase ‘Black people’ interchangeably throughout the book to refer to Black African Caribbean, Black African, African American, women of color and Black Other.² In a similar way to other theorists whom I quote in this book, I also capitalise ‘Black’ in the same way as Crenshaw (1989), because Blacks, like Asians, Latinos and other non-white/women of color, constitute a specific cultural group and, as such, require denotation as a proper noun. The terms ‘white’ and ‘woman of color’ are not capitalised as they do not constitute specific cultural groups (Crenshaw, 1994:115). However, I am also mindful of the fact that, like ethnicity, race is a socially constructed identity, defined by culture, and that not all persons who fall into these racial and ethnic compositions can be assumed to have the same culture. I therefore use Crenshaw’s definition to define individuals who have joined together to create a common and powerful metaphor for explaining the prejudices which they may experience and identify with in life.

In line with the boundaries I put around my participants’ racial and ethnic identity, I also insisted that my participants’ social and geographical location be that of Black African women:

• born and educated in the United Kingdom/South Africa;

• born outside the United Kingdom/South Africa and educated either in the United Kingdom/South Africa or abroad and living in their respective country as permanent residents;

• living and working in the United Kingdom/South Africa on company contracts (i.e., expatriates).

The reason for this is to create some parity between some aspects of identity in order to address the significance of others.

With the exception of the women in my study who were born in South Africa and currently live and work there, the rest of my research participants are part of the growing number of Black Africans who make up the African Diaspora. There is no single accepted definition of the term ‘Diaspora’. Ionescu (2006:13) broadly defines it as “members of ethnic and national communities, who have left, but maintained links with their homelands”. The African Diaspora has been defined through different periods underlining varying standpoints. Apart from being too complex to interpret without exploring its nature, dimensions and changing configurations, it is all too often misunderstood. As Oucho (2009:4) explains in “African Diaspora and Homeland Post-Conflict Reconstruction in sub-Saharan Africa”, the notion that the African Diaspora is homogenous is both simplistic and unrealistic given both spatial and temporal dimensions of African emigration to the rest of the world. With these definitions in mind, the individuals living in the Diaspora that I refer to in this book are living and working in both South Africa and the United Kingdom³ and form part of the contemporary diasporas of colonisation, decolonisation and the era of structural adjustment (Ifekwunigwe, 2006). Zeleza (2005:55) defines these contemporary African diasporas which formed since the late 19th century as “having emerged out of the disruption and dispositions of colonial conquest, the struggles for independence, and structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), respectively ...” (Zeleza, 2005).

In an effort to make an original contribution to current methodological and epistemological literature in feminist/gender studies and organisational studies on Women in Management, I specifically examine the lives of professional and managerial Black African women originating from English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. The sub-Saharan region I refer to includes areas of Africa located within the eastern, western, central and southern African region – in all consisting of 46 countries. Although many of these groups are heterogeneous in terms of their colonial past, ethnic groups and languages, they nonetheless share a number of similar traits, which include low levels of industrialisation (with the exception of South Africa and some parts of Nigeria and Kenya), massive rural–urban migration patterns, low formal wage participation rates and culturally collective ethos⁴ (Aryee, 2005:262). Furthermore, my reason for focusing on this group of women is that I view them as sharing a more homogenous experience both historically and culturally, having at one point all been colonised by the British. Apart from the shared language, many of their life experiences have more in common with one another than non–English-speaking countries. Although I recognise that there is a substantial scholarship on Black African women in Women and Gender Studies written in Portuguese, French and other languages by non-African and African scholars, given my research focus and language limitations, I restrict my research and literature review to those studies written in English. I specifically review feminist and organisational literature addressing women in professional and managerial occupations in the United States, Europe, Australia and sub-Saharan Africa, focusing my attention on research which addresses the work–family interface of BME women. I concentrate largely on literature in the field of sociology, organisational management theory, history, geography, anthropology, political science, psychology and education – all approached from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Rationale for researching Black African women in Johannesburg and London

The term African woman is too often assumed to denote a poor, powerless and ignorant person whose life is vastly different from that of fellow Western women (Bloch et al., 1998). But as various literatures on African women’s multiple representations and identities illustrate, Black African women have held positions of power and high status as chiefs, spiritual leaders, ritual leaders, family matriarchs and various other positions within their communities for many years (Cromwell, 1986; Hollos, 1998; Mbilinyi, 1998; Okeke-Ihejiriki, 2004). These identities do not in any way resemble the more popular stereotypical negative image often portrayed of Black African women. Like some of these aforementioned African women in traditional positions of power and high status, the women in my study belong to a privileged group within modern-day society. They are highly educated and, in most cases, have attended some of the most renowned universities and academic institutions in America, Europe and Africa. They are employed in professional, middle and senior management positions within the transnational or tertiary sector of private business and financial institutions or organisations in London and Johannesburg. In some cases, they also run their own private business ventures on the side. They are part of the social elite and economically mobile and influential group of Black Africans who form part of sub-Saharan Africa’s growing emerging and transnational elite.

London and Johannesburg’s emerging and transnational elites

With regard to my referring to my research participants as ‘transnational’, I do this in the context of their being part of transnational social formations (structures of relationships) spanning international borders (or in the case of my South African participants – spanning provincial borders). This is the conceptual premise I chose to adopt – owing to the numerous ways in which the meaning of transnationalism has come to be described within the social sciences (Castells, 1996; Vertovec, 2009).⁵ As transnational migrants who form part of the contemporary African Diaspora, my research participants have become part of the world’s modern-day ‘transnational communities’ sustained by a range of modes of social organisation, mobility and communication (Vertovec, 2009:7). As members of the global Diasporas, their ‘Diaspora consciousness’ is marked by dual or multiple identifications, that is their depiction of de-centred attachments, of being simultaneously ‘home away from home’ and ‘here and there’ or, for instance, British and/or Zimbabwean/British Zimbabwean (ibid.). As Glick Schiller et al. (1992:11) point out, ‘the majority seem to maintain several identities that link them simultaneously to more than one nation’. Gilroy (1987, 1993) further adds that the awareness of multi-locality stimulates the desire of the sameness of multi-locality which in turn stimulates the desire of the same ‘routes’ and ‘roots’. Hall (1990) describes this as the condition of Diaspora or transnationalism which comprises ever-changing representations that provide an ‘imaginary coherence’ for the rest of malleable identities.

The term ‘elite’, while widely applied throughout social science scholarship as a means of explaining various divisions and stratifications in social organisations (Mills, 1956), has never acquired any consistent definition. In its popular usage, the term ‘elite’ has been used to describe one’s economic status, while others, namely Marx (1967), Weber (1956) and Bourdieu (1979, 1989), have focused more on addressing the ideas of elite formation, reproduction, and the emergence of new elite, in connection with different types of power and influence, that is military elite, business elite, religious elite and bureaucratic elite (Bourgouin, 2007:7). My approach to the concept of ‘elite’ in this book and my use of the term ‘emerging elites’ are for the most part used to specifically refer to my research participants’ identities as social elites (i.e., society, family) and economic elites (i.e., professionals, directors, managers, CEOs) primarily within the Black African communities. The women form part of sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging ‘educated’ elite who form part of the growing economic and social elite both in Johannesburg and London. I do this to differentiate them from elites of a non-economic basis (i.e., political elites such as politicians and judges; religious elites such as bishops and cardinals; and media elites such as editors, authors, actors and musicians) (Bourgouin, 2007:20). By using the term ‘emerging elite’, I want to clarify, however, that I do not in any way surmise that this social group just appeared out of nowhere in sub-Saharan Africa, as this would be both untrue and in contradiction to what I mentioned earlier about the positions of power and high status (religious, political and social elite) that Black African women have historically held. Rather, I use it as “a term of reference, rather than self-reference” (ibid.:23).

My discussion in this book also focuses on giving some understanding of how my research participants as emerging and transnational elites, who also form part of contemporary African Diaspora migrants, negotiate intergenerational family structures within their countries of origin (in the case of my South African participants) and abroad (for my UK participants). I do this by examining socio-cultural transformations, namely family life and gender relations, and how these are modified, entrenched and strengthened in light of transnational practices.

Black Africans in the United Kingdom and South Africa

The United Kingdom

Black Africans, like other Black people living in the United Kingdom, have been marginalised or ignored in the writings of British history (Killingray, 1994). According to Killingray (1994), while often confused with African American and African Caribbean people living in the United Kingdom, Black Africans are a distinct immigrant minority who have been present in the United Kingdom for some 400 years. Initially brought to the United Kingdom as slaves and for a variety of servile roles such as seamen, manual labourers and children as aristocratic ‘pets’, Africans over time began to arrive in the United Kingdom for academic schooling (Killingray, 1994:3). In the post-colonial era and with the emergence of newly independent African states, a new wave of Africans, either sponsored by their governments or from the elite African community, began coming to the United Kingdom for educational opportunities and skilled training, necessary for their continent’s development (Oucho, 2009). Many returned to their countries of origin, particularly those coming from the elite African community, to form part of their governments or as leaders of their countries.⁶

Over the years, ordinary African citizens have also moved to the United Kingdom for a number of reasons. Declining economies and political instability in many sub-Saharan African countries are just two of the many reasons behind the increase in the number of Black Africans migrating to the United Kingdom. Some nationals arriving in the United Kingdom for educational reasons opted to remain in the United Kingdom due to a lack of available career opportunities or as a lifestyle choice in Africa. This increase in the number of Black Africans opting to remain in the United Kingdom permanently was reflected in the decennial UK census in 1991. This census, which was the first census in the United Kingdom in which people were invited to indicate their ethnic origin,⁷ recorded a total of 201,000 Black Africans living in the United Kingdom. This was a significant increase from earlier census records which suggested the following estimates for Africans living in the United Kingdom: 1911 – 4,540; 1921 – 4,940; 1931 – 5,202; and 1951 – 11,000 (ibid.:2). Following the 1991 census figure of 201,000 Black Africans living in the United Kingdom, this figure increased to 485,277 in the 2001 census (0.9 per cent of the UK population). This increased further to 989,628 in the 2011 census (1.8 per cent of the UK population), making Black Africans the fastest growing minority ethnic group in the country in the last two decades (ONS 2001 and 2011). On the whole, the United Kingdom has witnessed “a rapidly increasing diversity of ethnic groups and cultures” over the past two decades with the total ethnic group population having doubled in size since 1991, from 3 million (or 7 per cent) to almost 8 million (or 14 per cent) (Jivraj, 2012; Lupton and Power, 2004:1). As I elaborate in more detail later on in the book, the UK population grew by 4 per cent during the 1990s, with some 1.6 million or 73 per cent of this growth attributed to BME groups compared to 600,000 in the white population. In 2011, 20 per cent of people in the United Kingdom identified with an ethnic group other than white British compared with 13 per cent in 2011 (Jivraj, 2012).

As is the case for those ethnic minority populations with a more recent history of migration to the United Kingdom,⁸ the Black African working-age population also grew significantly over this same period (ONS, 2010). Census figures indicate that the working-age population for Black Africans increased from 145,987 to 323,593 over a ten-year period.

Although the Black African population in the United Kingdom remains relatively small when compared to other BME groups in the country, their numbers have more than doubled in size between 1991 and 2001 Markkanen et al. (2008:7). They remain heavily concentrated in London, with over three-quarters of Black Africans residing in the inner areas of boro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of Acronyms
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Feminism, Intersectionality and Black Women’s Lives
• 3. Women in Professional and Managerial Occupations: An Overview
• 4. Feminist Research and Representing the Other
• 5. South African Employment Equity Policies: Success or Failure?
• 6. UK Employment Equity Policies and Their Transnational Recipients
• 7. Career Woman, Mother, Wife or Daughter: Untangling the Web and Finding a Balance
• 8. Where to From Here
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index