With President Trump and his administration making racist changes to civil laws and policies, there is a concern about an increase in hate and discrimination crimes. With the widespread rollback of D.E.I (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies and programs, marginalized communities fear that workplace discrimination will make a rapid and loud return to the job environment.
A new report by the California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute (CABWCEI) provides critical insights into the lived experience of Black women in the workplace. The report, Invisible Labor, Visible Struggles: The Intersections of Race, Gender, and Workplace Equity for Black Women in California, draws on research conducted by EVITARUS that surveyed 452 Black women living in California.
The report exposes five key barriers to workplace equity, from systemic discrimination to racialized beauty standards, and presents urgent policy recommendations to drive transformative change.
“In 2023, we conducted a study that involved Black women in California about wage disparity, workplace equity, and discrimination of gender and race,” Dr. Sharon Uche, Researcher, CA Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute, said in a briefing with Ethnic Media Service. “ Even though Black women are usually the most educated at their jobs, they make significantly less than their White counterparts for both male and female. The study also revealed that some barely make California median wage.”
Discrimination in the workplace also shows up in the form of microaggressions, with 67 percent of the Black women surveyed having a personal experience or witnessing it happen in the workplace. Microaggressions refer to indirect, discreet, or subtle everyday occurrences of racism or marginalization regardless of intention.
Workplace discrimination leaves a harmful mental and physical impact on Black women in California. Nearly half of the Black women surveyed, 48 percent, felt their accomplishments were undervalued in the workplace. They also reported that 44 percent of women were being subjected to stereotypes and not being fairly compensated for additional responsibilities. Actions like these affect self-worth, self-efficacy, and overall mental wellness. Some stigmas mentioned speak to the “angry Black woman” trope.
“I’m the only African American in my department,” said a 38-year-old frontline nonprofit staff member based in Los Angeles, surveyed in the report. “I’m held to a different standard than many coworkers who share the same ethnicity as my supervisor.”
Nearly one-third of Black women, or 32 percent, had a supervisor make a negative comment about them, with 81 percent saying it was unjustified; race or ethnicity was cited as a key factor in these comments.
Despite these figures, a solid majority of 64 percent were able to find “at least some level of support in the workplace from supervisors and/or colleagues”; levels of reported satisfaction were 10 points higher for women with Black supervisors than with those of other ethnicities.
“Having more Black women colleagues makes a difference for advancement opportunities and satisfaction with the workplace environment,” added EVITARUS researcher, Dr. Shakari Byerly. “Currently, Black women are being excluded … Race- and gender-based harm requires race- and gender-based redress.
One recent win on this front is California Senate Bill 1137, authored by Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and passed in November 2024, explicitly recognizing that state laws prohibiting discrimination based on factors like race, color, ancestry, national origin, and sex also apply to cases where these intersect, leading to compounded discrimination.