Black History Month: Celebrating the Black women evolving the workplace

October 2021 is Black History Month in the UK, where we celebrate the contributions of Black British people. It’s a time for recognition and honouring of the huge and often-overlooked contributions of Black individuals in the health and wellbeing sector. 

We’re going to celebrate Black women, a demographic that is discriminated against in ways that often do not fit neatly within the legal categories of either “racism” or “sexism” — but as a combination of both racism and sexism. 

 

Why black women?

First coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, this is known as intersectionality – a description of the way multiple oppressions are experienced. This can refer to other identities too. Different identities interplay, instead of existing separately. It’s about feeling different to the rest of the group – an example is saying ‘women and people of colour’, which suggests ‘women’ only refers to white women. 

This can lead to individuals, in this case, Black women, feeling psychologically unsafe in the workplace – this emotional tax can lead to high turnover. Leaders must create a culture of safety so employees feel supported and able to discuss these topics.

Most of these are amazing women we work with at Feel Good, supplemented by other inspirational, relevant experts in the field. 

 

 

YUWA AGHEDO ND. BSC RCNHC, Feel Good Speaker

Yuwa is an experienced and science-based naturopath and nutritional therapist who runs most of our nutrition-related workshops at Feel Good. Her passion for natural health is undeniable and within her clinical practice, Yuwa is committed to assisting her clients to improve their health and overall well being through simple, sustainable choices. 

As an experienced lecturer in nutrition, Yuwa is known for her ability to make complex material understandable and enjoyable. She is currently undertaking an MSc in personalised nutrition with a functional medicine approach to further develop her clinical skills.

 

 

DR GRACE MANSAH-OWUSU, PHD, Feel Good Speaker

Grace is a woman of many skills, and with a keen interest in diversity and inclusion, she runs our diversity workshops. She has a background in psychology, with a PhD in Business Psychology. 

Currently working as a talent consultant at the British Heart Foundation, Grace effectively programme manages award-winning early careers provision including graduate schemes and apprenticeships. Grace also informs the diversity and inclusion strategy including managing the development of employee groups, creating content including blog posts, podcasts and articles. 

 

 

DR AMANDA MWALE, CPSYCHOL, Panellist

Amanda is a Clinical Psychologist at Guys & St Thomas NHS Hospital Trust. She is particularly passionate about empowering others, especially those who have experienced disadvantages in some respect. 

She has worked in a variety of clinical settings including health psychology and adult mental health. With her knowledge of her career path (an often difficult one to break into), Amanda co-authored a book titled ‘Becoming a Clinical Psychologist: Everything you need to know’. She openly speaks about the racial inequalities in the career and the discriminatory hurdles that aspiring Black Psychologists face. 

Amanda spoke at our recent mental wellbeing & inclusivity event. Explore the summary. 

 

 

 

Guilaine Kinouani, Psychologist, Founder of Race Reflections

Guilaine is a woman of many roles: a feminist, radical psychologist, therapist and equality consultant. She is also an award-nominated writer of the blog, RaceReflections.co.uk, where she writes disruptive articles and think pieces on the interface of psychology, mental health, social justice, inequalities and difference. 

Guilaine is the author of ‘Living While Black’, which promises to empower Black people to adopt radical self-care tools that improve day-to-day wellness and thrive in the face of racial adversity. She is also in the final stages of working towards a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, conducting her thesis on factors that underpin experiences of racial injustice and racial trauma in people of African descent, with a particular focus on intersectionality.

 

 

MAGGIE SEMPLE, OBE

Maggie is a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur – she is passionate and driven by fairness and equality and works boldly in areas concerned with race from a black female perspective.

Alongside a ​​fashion brand, she owns a consultancy business, working with global companies designing and delivering development programmes for senior leaders and board members. She currently serves on a range of boards in a non-executive/advisory role for organisations such as the Jamaica National Bank UK and Cambridge University, and is a member of the Queen’s Counsel Appointments Panel.

Maggie is the creator of e-learning course ‘Let’s Talk About Race in the Workplace’ (you can find it on marshallelearning.co.uk). It is a race equality training course aimed at leaders to teach that racism is not just about explicit racist language, abuse or discrimination, it can take the form of inequality and inadvertent bias ingrained in the way organisations and society is run.

 

 

 

SANDRA KERR, OBE

Sandra is the Race Director at Business in the Community, the largest and longest established business-led membership organisation dedicated to responsible business, where she works together with business leaders and government policymakers to influence action on race in the UK. 

She is also the National Campaign Director for Business in the Community’s Race Equality campaign, a business-led network of organisations from the private and public sector working and committed to race equality as part of their good business practice. 

Sandra is particularly passionate about inclusive leaders and raising the profile of senior role models from diverse backgrounds to inspire the next generation and creating an inclusive environment through mentoring and sponsorship. In 2012 Sandra was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to Black and Minority Ethnic People.

Sandra spoke at our recent mental wellbeing & inclusivity event. Explore the summary. 

 

Let’s talk about you

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