This thesis examines the career experiences and opportunities of ethnic minority women through a critical review and analysis of the current literature and new empirical work. It seeks to give visibility to ethnic minority women's experiences by adopting a qualitative
methodology, which provides the participants with the time and space to convey, and reflect on, their views. The focus is placed on the participants' perceptions, attitudes or concerns with regard to their careers and how their career choices may impact on other aspects of their lives, such as family and community expectations and responsibilities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ethnic minority women as the main sample, with managers in two case study organisations and with a smaller sample of ethnic minority men, white women and men. The rationale for this was to provide an insight into the broader organisational context ethnic minority women work and strive to succeed.
It is argued that ethnic minority women's experiences at work has been an under-researched area, where research involving women in management has been generalised to include all women regardless of 'race', ethnicity or class. The theoretical framework adopted for this study acknowledges an interaction between the dimensions of structure, culture and agency in the analysis of career experiences and opportunities. The structural dimension includes organisational and family structure, and culture is divided into organisational and social group culture. Agency is the final dimension of the framework, where the effect of strategies and personal determination on career experiences and opportunities is examined. Ethnic minority women are seen as social actors within organisational and social group structures and cultures, which may affect their strategies and plans and may also be affected
by them.
The empirical work undertaken for this study has indicated that the majority of ethnic minority women participants occupy lower levels of the organisational hierarchy, they face racial and gender stereotypes which are often exacerbated by stereotypical perceptions concerning their culture and religion, they have problems identifying mentors and are often excluded from influential networks. If these women ascribe to their cultural or religious
expectations, they face tensions between balancing work and private life expectations. Ethnic minority women's agency, in the form of career strategies and determination, IS
deemed to be a crucial factor in their career experiences and opportunities.