Difficult conversations

White Anglo patriarchal possession in organizations: Unequal vertical career progressions among Anglo White & non‐Anglo White highly skilled immigrant women

“…Both Moreton-Robinson (2004) and Churchill et al (2015) have called for researchers to consider the White practices and norms inscribed on the White Anglo institutions in Australia. A Whiteness framework allows us to theorize about White privilege and power (Churchill et al, 2015;Frankerberg, 1993) while considering the space where immigrant women enter. Rodriguez et al (2016) have stressed how the existing research on intersectionality in the field of work and organizations needs to be developed as it remains a field in a rather embryonic stage.…”

“…Rodriguez et al (2016) have stressed how the existing research on intersectionality in the field of work and organizations needs to be developed as it remains a field in a rather embryonic stage. To uncover the existence of White Anglo privilege/possession (Churchill et al, 2015;Dunn & Nelson, 2011;Moreton-Robinson, 2004) and analyze simultaneously the career progression of both Anglo White and non-Anglo White highly skilled immigrant women, I have thus developed a framework, a multi-intersectional lens on the gaze of Whiteness (Figure 1). Here, gender and race are theorized as lived working realities within a White Anglo patriarchal hegemonic system.…”

“…The concept of Other, therefore, has a different connotation in Australia (Huggins, 1991) as the racialized Other is used to address immigrants, Indigenous Australians, and asylum seekers (Churchill et al, 2015). It therefore includes diverse groups that differ from the dominant hegemonic group and from each other.…”

“…Although the discipline of Whiteness studies began with African‐American scholars such as Du Bois (1998), Churchill et al. (2015), and Moreton‐Robinson (2004) highlight how Critical Whiteness Theory can also be applied to Australian society. According to Du Bois (1998), Whiteness, as a discursive creation, shapes both White and non‐White people's lives.…”

“…Hawthorne (2001) found that NESB nurses faced major labor market barriers in contrast to the ESB ones, who had more chances of progressing into senior levels of employment. Drawing insights from the field of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWT) (Churchill et al., 2015; Moreton‐Robinson, 2004) and the theory of intersectionality (Anthias, 2014; Crenshaw, 1991; Essed, 1991), I go beyond the colonial dichotomy of NESB/ESB largely found in the Australian literature of skilled immigration. Through this study, I demonstrate how the dichotomy is not sufficient to explain the racial/ ethnic /gendered dynamics lived by skilled immigrant women as it does not enquire into the nature of “racialized”/gendered conditions in the working spaces.…”