Black Mothers at Work: A Contemplative and Anti-Oppressive Approach to Dismantling Workplace Oppression

Abstract

Diversity management continues to be a subject of importance in organizations of all types. Therefore, the purpose of our research was to explore the experiences of oppression for Black mothers at work with the goal of providing managers and Black mothers a means of addressing workplace oppression. We conducted qualitative interviews with Black mothers about their experiences of workplace oppression, and then we conducted an interdisciplinary literature review of Womanism in the Black Church around the subject of oppression, as well as the concepts of workplace oppression and anti-oppressive practice. By tracing both contemplative and anti-oppressive practices, we are highlighting the legacy of Black women as architects for inspiring change. We built our Contemplative AntiOppressive Practice (CAOP) framework in light of our findings. While contemplative practice and anti-oppressive practice have been explored separately in management literature, they have yet to be explored in combination as a possible framework to dismantle oppression. We offer this framework as an approach for managers and employees to enable them to address both the inner and outer work that needs to be done in order to dismantle workplace oppression.