By Blessing Theophilus-Israel

A new study conducted at City, University of London, sheds light on the experiences of black women in UK boardrooms. The first of its kind, the study reveals that although over half of the black women who sit on the boards of some of the most prestigious public and private companies in the UK have had positive experiences, their experiences were also mixed with a myriad of challenges related to both their ethnicity and gender. The study, carried out between May and October 2019, interviewed 15 black women in the UK who sit on public and private company boards.

The study included participants from FTSE 100 companies as well as government boards. Nine of the participants were of Caribbean descent, five were of African descent, and one was of mixed-race origin. The participants were drawn from boards from the following sectors: technology, business, private, government, law enforcement, education, law, media, arts, retail, sports, religion and charity boards. All of the participants were highly educated with some having gone to Russell Group universities, all of them were senior executives within their sector, and had board experiences spanning between 3 to 40 years.

This study was carried out with the aim of finding out the experiences of black women in UK boardrooms, and what we could learn from them, about how to increase diversity on public and private boards.

The study found that over half of the participants had positive experiences of being a board member. Being a board member gave the participants the opportunity to make a difference and give back to their communities, provided exposure and the opportunity for self-development, as well as the prospect to network with high calibre individuals.

Nevertheless, the positive experiences were also mixed with challenges which they experienced as a result of both their colour and their gender. Some felt stereotyped, imposture syndrome which was “compounded by our blackness”, loneliness, unconscious bias and micro-aggression which were issues that did not just begin in the boardroom but in the school system. Samantha, with seven years’ experience on private, public and arts board recalls how lonely it can feel being the only person of colour around the table:

“Everybody’s experience is different. For me, you are not part of the mainstream culture. And there are things that go with that, whether it is micro aggression, or sort of minor or major reminders that you are a bit of an outsider…. there have been times when either the language or the debates are raised in a way which reminds you whether you are ever going to be quite on the inner inner circle”.

The fact that over half of the women said they had not experience challenges in being a board member by virtue of being black is an interesting finding and indicates that being a board member can be very rewarding.

It was insightful that some of the women had experienced more challenges due to their colour in their working lives than in their role as a board member. This may help us to understand the reasons there are so few BAME managers at the top (Beech et al., 2017). An important discovery with the findings was the role that the personality attributes and mindset of a person affects their ability to become a successful board member, in line with the human capital theory proposed by Becker, (1960).

In line with the Kakabadse et al, (2015) study, the women interviewed all had a) good resources in terms of good education, b) they were senior executives in their day jobs, c) almost all of them got their first board positions through networks and relationships, d) being a board member gave them exposure and was a tool for self-development, e) and they also had mixed feelings around quotas and targets, in particular about the Parker Review recommendations.

Similar to the Report by the Government Equalities Office (Sealy, Doldor, & Vinnicombe, (2009), this study also found that there were a number of barriers preventing black women becoming board members due to closed networks. Some of the participants were of the opinion that it was “almost impossible” to become a board member on a FTSE 100 board if you are a black woman, unless you had “Honours” after your name.

The report also confirms the findings from the Beech et al., 2017 study, in that its participants also advocated for the need 1) to learn from the gender agenda and report publicly on Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME), 2) for better data to drive progress on race and ethnicity, 3) for influential sponsors to support BAME leaders, 4) the need for role models and mentors. This study goes beyond the past studies in that it outlines the important role that personality attributes and mindset can play in becoming a black board member because it is “tough”.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature around boardroom leadership because it shows the importance of diversity, not just from the gender perspective, but from the ethnicity dimension, it took an “intersectional approach”. The report shows there are unique challenges that black women face in the boardroom which policy makers and organisations should be aware of.

One of the most common reasons to explain the small number of female board membership is that they lack the required skills and experience for directorships of large companies (Rhode & Packel, 2014). It was called “deficit model” by one of our participants, however, according to most participants, there are many capable black women who are boardroom ready, but the problem is that they are “invisible”, because they are not on the radar of the top search firms. This study therefore confirms what Singh et al., (2007) found in their analysis, which is that black women are highly educated and many of them have senior executive positions.

Another common reason cited for the under-representation of black women on UK boards is unconscious bias. This is where people only recruit board members or directors who look just like them (Stewart, 2016). Indeed, this study confirms this phenomenon.

Many lessons can be learned from these women about how to increase diversity. Firstly, the study highlights the importance of having the right personality attributes and mindset such as a “can do attitude”, being “resilient” and “positive”.  Secondly it confirms the importance of networks and building relationships. Thirdly it highlights the need for changing recruitment practices and finally the need for developing strategies for increasing the pipeline.

The findings of this study have practical implications for policy makers, companies, and black women. For ethnic diversity to increase, some participants called for the “government [to] actually put together a working committee” and to get “publicly behind this [Parker Review] and pushing this agenda forward”.

Likewise, companies and search firms could consider changing their recruitment practices to make it more “inclusive” and “diverse” although, it would require an “influential sponsor” to champion. For a black woman to get onto a FTSE 100, FTSE 250 or government boards, a good education, having a senior executive role, and the skills needed is the minimum requirement.

What black women have to work on if they wish to become successful in this space, is to intentionally develop their networks and relationships as well as the personality attributes and mindset which were identified as being important for board roles. Future research could explore the important role that personality attributes and mindset plays in the success of board members. The study  was carried out within the Organisational Psychology department of the University, by Blessing Theophilus-Israel, under the supervision of Dr Julia Yates.

References

Beech, N., Cornelius, N., Gordon, L., Healy, G., Ogbonna, E., Sanghera, G., et al. (2017). Delivering diversity: Race and ethnicity in the management pipeline. https://0-www-magonlinelibrary-com.wam.city.ac.uk/doi/full/10.12968/bjha.2017.11.8.399

Becker, G. S. (1960). Underinvestment in college education? The American Economic Review, , 346-354.

Kakabadse, N. K., Figueira, C., Nicolopoulou, K., Hong Yang, J., Kakabadse, A. P., & Özbilgin, M. F. (2015). Gender diversity and board performance: Women’s experiences and perspectives. Human Resource Management, 54(2), 265-281.

Sealy, R., Doldor, E., & Vinnicombe, S. (2009b). Increasing diversity on public and private sector boards-part 2 what is being done to improve diversity on boards and how effective is this? Cranfield University.

Rhode, D. L., & Packel, A. K. (2014). Diversity on corporate boards: How much difference does difference make. Del.J.Corp.L., 39, 377.

Singh, V. (2007). Ethnic diversity on top corporate boards: A resource dependency perspective. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(12), 2128-2146. Stewart, C. (2016). How diverse is your pipeline? developing the talent pipeline for women and black and ethnic minority employees. Industrial and Commercial Training, 48(2), 61-66.