This post is all about how womanist theory could improve workplace culture and DEI.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) has been around for over 50 years. But employers are still terrible at creating inclusive workplace cultures. People with intersectional identities are uniquely positioned to identify and address injustice. But companies rarely harness our perspectives. This post explores womanist theory, a justice ideology that centers Black women, and explains how its teachings could improve DEI.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What’s the problem with traditional DEI?
Why was womanist theory created?
What are 5 lessons womanist theory can teach failing workplace DEI?
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH TRADITIONAL DEI?
Many companies have policies that address DEI. As of July 2022, all Fortune 100 companies had made public commitments to some combination of diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI has been around since the 1960s, but only 10 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are women. And the numbers are even worse for Black women and people of color.
Like many underrepresented communities, Black women still have to curate our personas just to fit in at work. We spend years perfecting our speech patterns and wrestling our natural hair straight to avoid bias. We learn to smile (instead of going TF off) when someone else gets credit for our work. And it’s more than exhausting. Studies show that policing one’s cultural traits can lead to burnout, mental health issues, and even lower job performance.
To do its job, DEI needs an overhaul. No more surface-level programs. And no more token figureheads. Transformative DEI must center minority perspectives and learn from our experiences. And womanist theory could be a great place to start.
WHY WAS WOMANIST THEORY CREATED?
Womanist theory was born in the 1980s. At the time, two major groups claimed to represent Black women but failed to truly include them.
On one hand, mainstream feminists were notoriously racist. White women’s rights activists protested Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” speech because they didn’t want a Black woman to speak publicly. Later, white feminists prioritized the issues they cared about, like abortion and sexuality, over Black women’s concerns about racism-related violence and poverty.
Black women also dealt with sexism. They commonly experienced gender discrimination and sexual harassment by Civil Rights leaders. And some Black men disregarded them as “the breeders, the feeders, the follow-the-leaders,” of the racial justice movements. The Department of Labor’s 1965 Moynihan report also blamed Black women for the Black community’s economic challenges.
Faced with racism in the feminist movement and sexism within racial justice circles, Black women had to choose between being marginalized or creating their own spaces. So Alice Walker birthed womanist theory as an ideology specifically for Black women.
“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”
WHAT IS WOMANISM?
Alice Walker first used the word “womanist” in “Coming Apart,” a 1979 short story about a Black woman grappling with her sexuality. She later wrote a 4-part definition of the term in her 1983 book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. These definitions highlight three major characteristics of womanist theory:
Womanism centers Black women and marginalized people.
Walker described the main character of “Coming Apart” as “of course, a ‘womanist’…a feminist, only more common.” And in the first definition in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Walker characterized womanists as ”black feminist[s] or feminist[s] of color.” She further separated womanism from feminism by writing, “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”
These quotes illustrate womanism’s commitment to disassociating with majority, oppressive cultures. Womanism created a space specifically for Black women, apart from the movements that historically excluded them. This showed womanist theory’s commitment to safe spaces that center marginalized groups.
Womanism prioritizes what’s best for the community over individualism.
In her second definition from In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Walker described a womanist as:
“A woman who loves other women, sexually, and/or nonsexually…Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female…Traditionally a universalist, as in: ‘Mama why are we brown, pink, and yellow, and our cousins are white, beige and black?’ Ans. ‘Well you know the colored race is just like a flower garden, with every color flower represented.’”
By listing a range of skin tones, Walker highlighted the diversity among Black women’s appearances and life experiences. Despite these differences, Walker intended that womanism benefit all Black women, including lesbians, and even men. In this way, womanist theory inclusively works for the good of whole, diverse communities.
Womanism adapts to achieve justice in different contexts.
Walker created womanism to represent Black women’s concerns and values when broader communities didn’t. According to Professor Justine Tally, womanism was motivated by a “faith in the future and the new possibilities…the ‘urge to create a new set of values that [would] suit the lives and purposes of women as seen by women’.”
Womanist theory has continued to evolve as a justice-centered framework. Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins described it as “always in the making…..a…system of ideas…that continually evolves through its rejection of all forms of oppression and commitment to social justice.”
Hence, the third major characteristic of womanist theory is its dynamism. Womanists are flexible and open to new ways to achieve justice in new situations.
WHAT ARE 5 LESSONS WOMANIST THEORY CAN TEACH FAILING WORKPLACE DEI?
Womanist values apply whenever people work to dismantle systemic barriers. They are particularly useful in workplaces, which have historically been breeding grounds for bias and discrimination. If employers follow them, the following womanist teachings could dramatically improve DEI and help achieve transformative inclusion in the workplace:
1. Focusing on minority experiences benefits the entire community.
Even though womanist theory centers Black women, it also benefits our communities. In the workplace, improving the experiences of employees with marginalized identities similarly benefits all employees. For example, research shows that ethnically diverse companies perform 36% better than less diverse companies. Improving minority experiences also fosters a organization-wide culture of inclusion, which benefits all workforce members.
2. Inclusive environments make room for intra-group community.
Womanist theory creates a space for Black women to build a sense of belonging with each other. Similarly, workplace DEI must include identity-based resource groups, which researchers now see as key to building inclusive workplaces. Luckily, these are common. Chances are, your company has an organization like a Black Affinity or Women’s Alliance.
[RELATED POST: 5 Ways to Spot Inclusion in the Workplace]
3. Change comes from prioritizing equity and justice, not equality or merit.
Womanism isn’t an equal-opportunity ideology. Walker reserved the term “womanist” specifically for Black women and women of color. Womanists are committed to universal justice, but they prioritize uplifting members of historically excluded communities.
Similarly, transformative DEI requires employers to abandon their obsession with equality. Instead, they should focus on equitable policies and practices, since systems of oppression don’t impact employees equally. For example, a study found that when managers rewarded employees based on “individual merits,” companies paid women and racial minorities less than white men for the same work. And even paying everyone equally would not address the staggering wage gap between white men and everyone else over the course of their careers. DEI-minded employers must have equitable policies to address inequitable harms. Equality is not going to cut it.
4. True inclusivity acknowledges intersectionality and intra-group diversity.
Womanism addresses Black women’s specific, intersectional needs. Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to define when Black women’s race and gender interacted to cause a unique type of discrimination. While we are both women and Black, Black women experience injustice differently than white women and Black men.
True DEI must also address intersectionality. Employers can begin by scheduling identity-specific events at different times so people can attend various programs. More deeply, organizations should investigate how intersectionality adds to workplace challenges. For instance, if women speak out about a dress code policy, management should consider whether the policy more severely impacts queer women and women of color. Leaders should also recognize diversity within minority groups. For example, resource group leaders should never be the only source of feedback from diverse employees. A group-wide survey or culture assessment would better capture a full range of viewpoints.
5. Justice requires unconventional thinking and flexibility.
Alice Walker dreamt up womanism when the frameworks that existed didn’t meet Black women’s needs. This is the creative nature of justice work: people imagine a fairer world than what exists. Then they work to make their dreams come true, even when they seem far off from reality.
To create meaningful DEI, employers have to think in new ways. DEI work relies on stakeholder buy-in, so professionals have to acknowledge the existing workplace norms. But it’s possible to understand an organization while also committing to a new level of equity. Asking minority groups about our experiences (and incorporating our feedback) might be a good place to start. We often face injustices that most leaders wouldn’t independently see. But companies shouldn’t expect free labor. They should pay workers for the time they spend helping improve their organizations.
Womanist theory is a dynamic ideology that values fairness, intra-group diversity, intersectionality, and justice. Companies that incorporate these concepts will at least have a fighting chance at achieving real workplace DEI.
This post was all about womanist theory and how it could improve the workplace.
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