Abstract
Leadership and gender scholarship has often approached race and gender as separate
analytical categories, frequently centering the experiences around marginalized race and
gender identities, for example, white women or black men, while overlooking those who
inhabit both identities simultaneously. This study draws on intersectionality and identity work
theory to examine how Black female leaders in the UK experience and navigate leadership
and career progression within everyday gendered and racialized organizational contexts, and
how these experiences shape their sense of self at work. To gain rich insights, we conducted
an interpretive qualitative study with 25 Black female leaders in the UK private sector. Key
insights reveal how the career hindering behaviours by colleagues trigger important tensions,
consisting of ongoing negotiations, between a stigmatized Black female and professional
identity at work. Participants report having to work 10 times harder for legitimacy and to
pave the way for others with similar lived experiences.