Gender, race and power: an intersectional reading of “opting out”

Abstract

PurposeThis paper considers the phenomenon of “opting out” from an intersectional lens, bringing in hitherto undertheorized dimensions of gender, race and power into the conversation related to why and how some women of color may make the “choice” to leave an organization.Design/methodology/approachThrough a single case study approach, our research elucidates how identity-connected experiences unconnected to work/life balance constraints and tensions caused one immigrant woman of color to leave the workplace. We expand upon the current use of intersectionality in management and organization studies by applying it as a lens to bring into consideration power relations in organizations and structural inequality as the context for understanding why and how some women of color may leave their places of employment.FindingsBased on our in-depth case study, we demonstrate that microaggressions, power relations, and structural inequities contribute to some women of color opting out.Originality/valueThis paper is of value to scholars interested in intersectionality framework applications.

Marginalized to double marginalized: My mutational intersectionality between the East and the West

“…I explore how some identities become more salient than others in a given context and consequently alter the intensity of oppression and marginalization. In so doing, I echo Meléndez and Özkazanç‐Pan (2020) in expanding intersectional analysis beyond a micro‐focused approach to emphasize the meso organizational practices and macro structural arrangements as sites where oppression and marginalization occur.…”

“…Intersectionality allows better understanding of the differences between women's experiences intertwined with oppression and marginalization (Crenshaw, 1991; Meléndez & Özkazanç‐Pan, 2020; Ressia, Strachan, & Bailey, 2017). From an intersectional feminism lens, I reflected elsewhere (Abdellatif & Gatto 2020) on my pandemic experience and how the intersection of my identities as a woman, single parent, and a PhD student has positioned me in a disadvantaged situation under the UK lockdown.…”

“…Management and organization scholars recently focused on examining various intersecting identities such as gender, race, and power (Meléndez & Özkazanç‐Pan, 2020); ethnicity, gender, and nationality (Opara et al, 2020); gender and foreignness (Strauβ & Boncori, 2020); and gender and precarity (Steinþórsdóttir, Smidt, Pétursdóttir, Einarsdóttir, & Le Feuvre, 2019). In sharing my fragmented experience, I mirror Rodriguez, Holvino, Fletcher, and Nkomo (2016) in moving beyond the favored triumvirate of gender, race, and class.…”

Identity work by a young petite female academic home comer: quest for social power in masculine settings

“…Intersectionality of gender is well-researched (Meléndez and Özkazanç-Pan, 2020), yet the intersectional approach to identity framed by one’s physical stature and gender (i.e., petite female) remains less known. We live in a world where physical appearance matters.…”

Racialized experiences as in-betweenness in academia

“…Intersectionality underscores the need to consider how social experiences are manifest of complex intersecting identities related to gender, race, class, and other bases of social differentiation (e.g. Collins, 2000;Crenshaw, 1991;Holvino, 2010;McCall, 2005;Meléndez and Özkazanç-Pan, 2021). Although race is often included in organizational discourses related to diversity-as one of the many sources of workplace discrimination-contextually situated questions about the subtle ways in which race and racialization materialize remain understudied in the discipline (Bell et al, 2021;Liu, 2020;Prasad and Qureshi, 2017)-and in business school scholarship more broadly (Annisette and Prasad, 2017).…”