Abstract
This paper examines how Global Majority Women (GMW) working in the UK health sector experience flexible working arrangements (FWAs), and how these experiences shape work–family balance (WFB) and wellbeing. While flexible working is widely promoted within UK healthcare policy as a mechanism for improving workforce wellbeing and retention, existing research has largely adopted gender-neutral or single-axis approaches that overlook intersecting inequalities related to race, ethnicity, religion, and migration status. Drawing on intersectionality theory, boundary theory, and spillover theory, this study conceptualises flexible working as a socially situated and unevenly experienced organisational practice rather than a universally accessible resource.
The paper is based on qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with Global Majority Women working across NHS and community healthcare settings. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings show that flexible working is experienced as a holistic life-management strategy that can support wellbeing and work–family balance, but its effectiveness is highly contingent on managerial discretion, organisational culture, and structural inequalities. Intersectional barriers related to race, gender, religion, and migration status frequently undermine the intended benefits of flexibility, resulting in boundary blurring, intensified workloads, and negative spillover into family life. The paper contributes to work–family and critical management scholarship by advancing an intersectional understanding of flexible working in healthcare and by highlighting the limitations of individualised flexibility policies in the absence of structural organisational reform.