Black women’s intersectional complexities

Abstract

Recent educational literature has produced a plethora of gendered experiences encountered by women working towards leadership positions in education. Gender plays a complex role that shapes the relationship between perceived ideals of womanhood and leadership. This paper focuses on the variations in leadership and management distributed in the early years and the competencies needed in areas of socio-economic deprivation. The paper has focused on the findings taken from a research study (2014) that involved the lived experience of eight black women leaders within the UK. The study by Curtis (published 2014, see text for details) highlights a number of demanding complexities that do include gendered assumptions relating to the role of leadership within educational establishments. These issues pertain to certain identifying factors, such as a leader’s accent or choice of dress and traditional hairstyles (e.g. braids, afro, dreads or weaves). Alongside women’s choice of food, including any personal dietary requirements linked to religious beliefs, are areas that identify black women leaders with identities separate from those dominant within society. Such ideals may include a prescriptive view of women as leaders. The road to leadership demands a crescendo of shared voices and visions that support the diversity in the expression of women’s values, shaped by their perception, intuitive lenses, worldviews and lived experiences. This paper is intended to present black women’s intersections as one in which black women share skilfully their biculturalism and their abilities to act as a bridge for others sharing their cultural competencies.