Cross posted from Black Women in Europe:
As it releases the results of a two-year investigation, which reveals for the first time the full scale of the workplace penalties faced by Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean women, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) is today calling for a fundamental cultural shift in the way black and Asian women are treated at work and by public policy makers.
Moving on Up: Ethnic Minority Women at Work, the largest investigation of its kind in Great Britain, has established that Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean women face significantly greater penalties than white women in the workplace. Those who want to work are finding it more difficult to get jobs, progress within them and are more likely to be segregated into certain types of work, despite leaving school with the same career aspirations as white girls and similar or better qualifications than white boys.
In areas with above average numbers of black and Asian women participating in the local labour market, BME women are entirely absent from 3 out of 10 workplaces and under-represented in almost 3 out of 5 workplaces. The EOC’s report suggests it’s not too late to set the country on a different course. 28% of employers surveyed said they intended to introduce steps to improve the recruitment and progression of black and Asian women. However, the same percentage said they were unsure what action to take.
The EOC is today urging Britain’s employers and policy makers to catch up with the diversity of modern Britain and develop ‘cultural intelligence’ – the awareness, understanding and confidence to communicate and relate positively to people from different cultural backgrounds, to get the best from them at work and design policy that meets their needs.
The EOC warns that cultural intelligence is absolutely crucial if Britain is to avoid paying a high economic and social price. Between 2001 and 2020, ethnic minority people are expected to account for over 70% of the growth in the UK population aged 16-59. With Britain’s employers facing skills shortages, it is crucial to tap into a growing and increasingly well-qualified pool of young Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean women’s talent if we are to maintain economic growth.
And with access to jobs being a key ingredient of community cohesion, policy makers will fail to build stronger communities unless black and Asian women’s skills and ambitions translate into better-paid jobs in a wider range of organisations.
Read more here.
By the numbers:
Breakdown of Black Caribbean women in English cities (Sources: ONS (2004) Census 2001: CD Supplement to the National report for England and Wales; GROS (2004) Scotland’s Census 2001: CD 5 Volume 1.):
Birmingham: 25,700
Bradford: 1,500
Leeds: 3,600
Leicester: 2,500
London: 191,500
Manchester: 4,700
adrianne, good post. this is so common and something that worries me since i hope to be working in London after graduation next year. where will i find a workplace where people look like me? I am shocked at how small the number is in Leicester since that is the ONLY town in the UK where the ethnic population is larger than the white one.
what are your views? do you think the lack of black and asian women in the workplace would make ‘racial sexism’ more of an issue
This was great! Thanks for the knowledge.
This is why I love the “Spear”
Hej Aulelia, I am not sure if the problem is racial sexism or not, but I too was troubled by this study. I had always looked to England as one of the places in Europe where sisters were doing “ok”. As the study says they are educated and qualified, yet under represented. I do not know if it will take a social movement to improve things. I doubt that there will be something like Affirmative Action put into place. But often times awareness is all that is needed to motivate people to demand a change. Let’s keep watching this issue, and good luck working in London. I worked there and loved it, so there is no reason why you won’t either. Adrianne
Hi guys. This is my first time at this blog. Nice place. I came over from Ali Eteraz. I have lived in London while going to school there and I must say, I was shocked at the small number of black men on campus. There was also a clear absence of Carribean men with most of the black men on campus being of African descent, i.e. Nigerian and Ghanian. Perhaps it was because of the fact that I was going to a small school that was apart of the University of London. Unlike the U.S. there is no such thing as a black middle class anywhere in Europe.
Ageorgegal didnt you notice that while in England?
i definitely noticed that bikhair. at my university, it is mostly african men, not west indians. what uni did u go to?
i would disagree with you on the black middle class thing. i think there is but the assimilation has happened more in UK than US.
Hej Bikhair, while I was in London I wasn’t in the university crowd. I was working at PolyGram records, now a part of Universal Music. I was the only sister in my department, and in fact I didn’t see or meet any black men there either. My experience was brief, only 6 months, but I did meet the owner of a huge reggae label and he was of Caribbean descent.
I went to SOAS. Its such a small school I hate to say that I did. There was only a handful of blacks at the school but the school was tiny anyway.
Assimilation? I dont even know what that word means. Depending on who is making the argument, against or for assimilation, it seems that it has a number of meaning- most of which is incohrent ethnic and religious baiting.
The notion of a black middle class in Europe is interesting to me. The 4 years I lived in Brussels I was surprised that I only met one francophone sister who had gone to University and had a professional job. That is not to say that more didn’t exist, I was just surprised that I didn’t meet any of them.
I did meet another sister from the States working at the EU. But I love that Brussels has a vibrant African community. I just couldn’t figure out what the sisters were doing if they weren’t working in the hair shops or restaurants.
OK, I remember now knowing of a sister that worked at Procter and Gamble. And I went to Boston University Brussels’ graduate program with a sister with Frican roots who grew up in the States.
there are not that many black people @ my university (i think about 40 or 50) but it’s incredible how easy it is to congregate and find so many of us when we just look 4 each other!
one thing i definitely have noticed though is the ”little britain” mentality of some black girls in UK. my friend coined that phrase and she uses it to refer to black girls who want to be the ”only black in the village” and i agree with that statement to an extent for those black girls who want to remain ”exotic” for their white friends. it happens so much @ my university…
assimilation in a black british context has bad connotations but that is only because some black british people do not want even to be seen as black or african or afro-caribbean.
Hej Aulelia,
I wonder how mcuh of the black middle class you saw in Paris were French nationals or expats? Perhaps a mix of both? I just wonder. And assimilating in the US still has a negative connotation for many. It may be one reason why hip hop has gone the way it has. And I love your “little britain” analogy. That’s a bit sad really. Anyway, I want to invite you to join a new social network I’ve set up for sisters in Europe. We’re about 26 members in 3 days: http://blackwomenineurope.ning.com. It will be great to have you there! And feel free to oinvite other sisters you know that would be interested. Adrianne