An intersectionality of race and ethnicity: the glass ceiling in the banking sector in Kenya and South Africa
Date
2021-12
Authors
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Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
Even though progress has been made in the Kenyan and South African banking sector, Black African women remain a minority in Top Executive leadership positions. Previous research on the “glass ceiling” focuses on Black African women as one homogenous group not acknowledging the diversity dimensions of Black African women from Africa. Invisible factors such as race and ethnicity have been stated to contribute to the glass ceiling in the banking sector, yet this has not been investigated making Black African women more invisible.
This research primarily aims to provide an understanding of the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This research further aims: to describe the obstacles that Black African women still face, to analyse the diversity of Black African women in management, to identify the reasons as to why some Black African women have been able to crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector and to give recommendations to stakeholders as to how they can help crack the glass ceiling for Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector.
To address the research objectives, this research applied a qualitative Intercatergorical Intersectionality Approach to provide an understanding of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This was facilitated by the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups that were carried out with the participants being Black African women managers in the Kenyan and South African banking sector in Nairobi and Johannesburg, respectively. Data collected from the interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis in which themes and patterns were identified to address the research objectives.
Firstly, findings from the research illustrated a relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender. The extent of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender was discussed by the role of race, the role of ethnicity, the intersectionality of race and gender, and the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender in the career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. Secondly, the findings identified the obstacles that Black African women still face in the banking sector, which were discussed and described into three groups: Black African women are their own worst enemies in the banking sector. Thirdly, the findings illustrated the diversity dimensions of Black African women managers from the Kenyan and South African banking sector in relation to their race, ethnicity, and the positions that they held in the banks they were working for. Fourthly, the findings highlighted reasons as to why some Black African women managers had cracked the glass ceiling (discussed with the use of the glass ceiling scale). Fifthly, the findings recommend that stakeholders have to be fully committed if they want to help Black African women crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. In conclusion, through the findings, this research provides a conceptual framework to understand the glass ceiling in relation to the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector.
Description
This thesis is presented in partial fulfilment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand.
Keywords
Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Black African women, Intersectionality, Glass ceiling, Kenyan and South African banking sector, UCTD, UCTD