Doing the ‘gender dance’: Black women professionals negotiating gender, race, work and family in post-apartheid South Africa

ABSTRACT

Transformation imperatives in contemporary South Africa require greater workforce participation by Black South African women but we know very little about their lived experiences. To address this gap, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with black mothers employed in professional occupations. We use an intersectionality lens to show how the interplay of race, gender and organisational culture hinders the advancement of Black women professionals. In doing so, we lay the groundwork for the development of new theory and the implementation of strategies that incorporate contemporary insights on race, gender, work and family.

RÉSUMÉ

Les impératifs de transformation en Afrique du Sud contemporaine nécessitent une plus grande participation de la main-d’œuvre des femmes noires Sud-africaines, mais nous manquons d’information de terrain sur leurs expériences. Pour combler cette lacune, nous avons mené des entretiens semi-ouverts approfondis auprès de dix-neuf mères noires ayant une activité professionnelle. Nous utilisons une approche intersectionnelle pour montrer comment la race, le genre et la culture organisationnelle entravent l’avancement des femmes noires dans leurs vies professionnelles. Ce faisant, nous posons les bases pour le développement d’une nouvelle théorie et la mise en œuvre de stratégies qui intègrent les connaissances contemporaines sur la race, le genre, le travail et la famille.

KEYWORDS:

• Work-family
• gender
• Black women
• race
• intersectionality
• South Africa

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Travail-famille
• genre
• femmes noires
• race
• intersectionnalité
• Afrique du Sud

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Ameeta Jaga is a Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology, School of Management Studies, at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests are work-family issues related to culture and gender. Current research projects include supporting breastfeeding at work, working mothers in South Africa, and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Dr. Bhavani Arabandi is an affiliated Fellow in the Transnational Asia Research Initiative at the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University. Her research interests are on the impact of outsourcing on emerging economies, work-family arrangements and changing gender relations. Her current research project examines the durability of gender inequalities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Prof. Jeffrey Bagraim is Professor of Organisational Psychology, School of Management Studies, at the University of Cape Town. His research interest are in the areas of work-family, corporate culture and entrepreneurial intentions. Current research includes flexible work arrangements, fathers at work and breastfeeding at work.

Ms Sibusiso Mdlongwa holds a master’s degree in Organisational Psychology from the University of Cape Town. She consults in the field of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour.

Notes

1 The term ‘Blacks’ is used for the African population group only, while ‘black’ (with a lowercase ‘b’) is an inclusive term used for the racially classified populations groups: coloureds, Indians and Africans in Apartheid South Africa (Manzo, 1998, p. 107).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa.