Activating the Power Within: Sponsorship Among Black Women Professionals

Abstract

This study examined how Black women professionals activate their power by sponsoring other Black women to remediate the chronic problem of the underrepresentation of Black women in positions of organizational leadership. This qualitative, multi-case, exploratory study animated the quantitative data about Black women professionals by giving them a voice and an opportunity to share their lived experiences as they related to the findings about studies on the leadership development of Black women. The firsthand insights of the Black women in this study provided data about the effects that race, gender, laws, policies, identity, and ethics have on Black women professionals’ efforts to leverage their influence and elevate other Black women to leadership, i.e., sponsorship. The data revealed the consensus of concern among the Black women in the study about the lack of Black women leaders. Major findings from the study include: the challenges that Black women experience in society and in the workplace that hinder them from practicing sponsorship; the origination of the Theory of Concentric Positionality of Identity, i.e., Concentricity, as a means to understand how positionality, identity, and in-group affiliations affect the practice of sponsorship among Black women; the historical and temporal factors that have affected the practice of sponsorship among Black women; and data that demonstrated the viability and effectiveness of sponsorship among Black women as a leadership development strategy to increase the number of Black women leaders. Keywords: Black women, sponsorship, underrepresentation, education, leadership, identity, intersectionality, race, gender, women, law, ethics, ethical considerations, positionality, concentric, Theory of Concentricity, Concentric Positionality of Identity.