Black Women With Natural Hairstyles Less Likely To Get Job Interviews, Study Reveals
Black women with natural hairstyles, such as Afros, braids or twists, are often perceived as less professional than Black women with straightened hair, a new study has revealed.
The research, conducted at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, offers evidence that discrimination against natural Black hairstyles is prevalent in the workplace and perpetuates race discrimination.
Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, a management professor and a senior associate dean at the university, said, “The impact of a woman’s hairstyle may seem minute, but for Black women, it’s a serious consideration and may contribute to the lack of representation for Blacks in some organizational settings.
“In the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and the corresponding protests, many organizations have rightly focused on tactics to help eradicate racism at systemic and structural levels. But our individually held biases often precede the type of racist practices that become embedded and normalized within organizations.”
To detect bias against Black women with natural hair, the researchers recruited participants of different races and asked them to assume the role of recruiters screening job candidates. Participants were given profiles of Black and white female job candidates and asked to rate them on professionalism, competence and other factors.
Black women with natural hairstyles received lower scores on professionalism and competence and were not recommended as frequently for interviews compared with three other types of candidates: Black women with straightened hair, white women with curly hair and white women with straight hair, the researchers found.
“In many Western societies, whites have historically been the dominant social group, and, as a result, the standard for professional appearance is often based on the physical appearance of whites. For women’s hair, that benchmark is having straightened hair,” said Rosette, who collaborated on this study with...
