The Intersectionality of Race and Trajectories of African Women into the Nursing Career in the United States.

Linda L Semu

doi:10.3390/bs10040069

Abstract

This paper uses narratives of Malawian-born registered nurses working in the United States to capture pathways through which African women are entering the nursing profession. The paper highlights how race, immigrant status and language acts as potential sources of discrimination within the nursing profession. The paper utilizes intersectionality as a feminist framework that places black women’s experiences at the center of analysis to capture the multidimensionality of their experiences. The qualitative study highlights the multiple pathways through which African immigrant women enter the nursing profession and how being African, immigrant female nurses predisposes them to discrimination in their interactions with employment institutions and patients. Focusing on African women’s experiences as recent immigrants enriches the global migration narrative and helps contextualize the intersectionality of race, gender and discrimination within particular contexts.

Highlights

This article is part of the growing literature that is focusing on immigrant African women’s experiences as part of the global migration narrative which brings to focus their identity as black, immigrant and female in the workplace [1,2]
The findings analyzed in this article are based on a qualitative study that utilized snowball sampling to solicit responses from Malawian-born registered nurses working in the United States on a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions, followed by discussions and in-depth interviews
Qualitative analyses and descriptive data (Table 1) are based on the Malawian-born Registered Nurses (RNs) practicing in the United States

Summary

Introduction

This article is part of the growing literature that is focusing on immigrant African women’s experiences as part of the global migration narrative which brings to focus their identity as black, immigrant and female in the workplace [1,2]. The findings analyzed in this article are based on a qualitative study that utilized snowball sampling to solicit responses from Malawian-born registered nurses working in the United States on a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions, followed by discussions and in-depth interviews. Showers conducted in-depth interviews with forty-two female registered nurses living and working in Washington DC from the top four sending countries of immigration in West Africa: Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia [1]. In the United Kingdom study of registered nurses in the National Health

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