Diversity and the Marginalisation of Black Women's Issues

This article describes and evaluates information gained from a programme of workshops that took place during the late 1990s for approximately one hundred black women who originated from the African diaspora and worked in the social housing sector. The programme was designed to utilise group working in order to promote feminist thinking and self-actualisation from a black female perspective. Most of the participants saw it as a means of personal and career development. In the event it also provided valuable research information. Stories were told and feelings explored about the effect on black women of living and working in a predominantly white society that publicly acknowledges itself as diverse but holds on to its economic privileges and notions of its innate superiority. The participants focused on the impact on black women of diversity as it is practised in employer organisations, diversity training, ascribed images and roles and interactions with family and community.