Running head WORKPLACE BARRIERS1WORKPLACE BARRIERS27.docx

Running head: WORKPLACE BARRIERS 1
WORKPLACE BARRIERS 27
Workplace Barriers facing Black Caribbean Women in the
United States
Tracey Joseph
Abstract
This research investigates workplace barriers experienced by
Black Caribbean women in the US. Cases of workplace
discrimination are still rampant in the US despite changes in
economic policies that discourage gender and racial
discrimination. The research examines the different types of
discrimination experienced by this study population in different
work environments. The study also explores the effects of the
barriers to emotional, physical, psychological health of the
population, and the socioeconomic implications of the barriers.

A sample group of Black Caribbean women will be selected,
and semi-structured open-ended questions will be answered by
individual respondents. The expected results express the
existence of workplace barriers against Black Caribbean
women, and negative effects associated with the barriers. The
results will be used to draw a conclusion on the workplace
barriers, and appropriate recommendations will be proposed.
Keywords: workplace barriers, Black Caribbean women, race,
discrimination, inequality
What are the misconceptions Leading to Workplace Barriers
facing Black Caribbean men and Women in the United States
Introduction
Black Caribbean’s mostly reside in the Western and Southern
regions in the United States. There have been tremendous
improvements in employment practices, and economic
legislation in the US to encourage equality in the past century.
The changes have been aimed at adjusting the disparities that
exist in the labor market, and organizational cultures, both in
the private and public sectors, and gender and ethnic equality at
the workplace. However, despite the changes in labor and
economic policies, there has been a noticeable disparity in
labor, and organizational cultures that bar Black Caribbean
women from enjoying equal privileges like employees from
other races (Assari & Moghani Lankarani, 2018). This research
seeks to reveal workplace inequalities in the workplace against
Back Caribbean women.
The workplace inequalities that will be investigated include:
educational levels, organizational culture, and privileges
offered in different organizations among various races.

Employees are accorded training and educational privileges in
order to improve their skills so that they can be able to handle
more demanding duties and to be best suited for promotions.
These privileges have been provided in biased ways in many
organizations in which Black Caribbean women are among the
least privileged (Black-Chen, 2013). This research will examine
the cultures of different organizations and show that there is a
discriminatory trend in educational privileges against Black
Caribbean women.
Another workplace culture that this research seeks to examine is
the trend in which employees in many organizations have been
placed in different socioeconomic levels. Research has shown
that the level of how important an employee is considered in
socioeconomically stratified organizations is measured by their
races, financial status, and gender (Bridgewater & Buzzanell,
2010). These attitudes have placed Black Caribbean women in
low-rank hierarchies irrespective of their integrity and
competence at the workplace. This research will explore
different ways through which Black Caribbean women have
been stereotyped in socioeconomically stratified organizations
and the resultant negative effects they experience.
Equality in job distribution encompasses equitable distribution
of positions depending on the diversity of the applicants and the
number of employees of the same race in the department of
concern. It also requires that employees should be competent in
all areas such as sciences, engineering, or other technical
departments irrespective of their race and gender, as long as
they are sufficiently skilled and competent in the professions
(Boumlik, Reem& Alberts, 2017). This research explores job
distribution and presents findings that indicate that there are
fewer Black Caribbean women in technical and managerial
positions as compared to perceived racially superior races such
as White women.
Interviews will be conducted to examine different disparities
that contribute to workplace barriers, which obstruct Black
Caribbean women from enjoying privileges given to other

perceived superior workplace colleagues. The feedback
expected from the questionnaires is that all Black Caribbean
women experience one or more difficulties in the workplace.
The difficulties are expected to be related to race, individual
respondent’s culture, organizational culture, and socioeconomic
classes consistent with previous researches (Stockman, Hayashi
& Campbell, 2015: Black-Chen, 2013). The expected results
should prove that the workplace barriers contribute to Black
Caribbean women’s: poor motivation in the workplace, sexual
harassment, contemptuous attitudes towards them, and health
complications such as stress and depression as a result of the
workplace issues.
Background
The widespread diversification of the American and global
economy has given rise to unprecedented market development
and economic opportunities. Consequently, minority groups
have made giant steps in the workplace since the removal of
segregationist and discriminatory laws in the United States
(Holder et al. 2015). The tremendous transformation of the
American workplace environment has been described as the
feminization of the workplace and the changing complexion of
the workforce. In spite of the increasing pace of diversification
of the working population, persons of color still continue to be
underrepresented both at the skills-based job positions and
leadership levels in the American corporate society (Holder et
al. 2015). This is especially true for the black women
professionals, who constitute only one percent of the country’s
corporate officials’ Black women form a significant component
of a growing source of talent for the corporate America and
have for a long time been considered in the middle-level
management (Holder et al. 2015). Nonetheless, as they undergo
career progression to the leadership status, they face numerous
challenges. These problems pose obstructions to their ascension
to corporate senior executive levels, and their eventual overall
career advancements. Holder et al. (2015). mention racism as a
crucial factor in explaining the underrepresentation of women

of color in the workplace and the stressful experiences that they
undergo as they try to improve their careers. A significant
fraction of business firms in the United States also express
hesitance to hire black women out of the widespread belief that
they lack skills, leadership capabilities, savvy, and able to
spearhead successful competition in the corporate society.
Numerous studies often focus their attention on the general
black women population. Consequently, there is still paucity in
research about the specific workplace challenges that black
Caribbean women face in the United States. The population of
black Caribbean women has been on the rise in the United
States. In the last 50 years, the United States has witnessed
approximately 1.5 million increases in the Caribbean immigrant
population (Wells-Wilbon & Vakalahi, 2015). Most people of
Caribbean descent living in the United States are from more
than 15 countries. Out of these nations, 90 percent identify
themselves as blacks from countries such as Cuba, Jamaica,
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Trinidad. There is major group
diversity among the black Caribbean women as reflected in their
language variations. Although the most dominant language
among black Caribbean women is English, others speak
Spanish, French, and Dutch. Over 80 percent of Caribbean
blacks come to the United States due to the strong family
connections that they have with their American counterparts and
the proximity of the Florida coast to the Caribbean (Wells-
Wilbon & Vakalahi, 2015). A majority of Caribbean women
reside in Florida and New York. Nonetheless, there is an
increasing pattern of their migration and spread to other parts of
the country, such as New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Georgia.
By 2008, about 69 percent of Caribbean blacks were legally
authorized to live and work in the United States (Wells-Wilbon
& Vakalahi, 2015). Like their European immigrant counterparts
during the Progressive Era, modern black Caribbean groups
settle in concentrated urban communities or in close proximity
to urban centers where there are employment opportunities and
social amenities. Since 90 percent of Caribbean women are from

English-speaking nations, their rate of participation in the
American labor force is high, approximated at 75 percent
(Wells-Wilbon & Vakalahi, 2015). However, black Caribbean
women are less educated than their African and African
American women. More than half of black Caribbean population
have at least a high school level of education and are hired
mainly in service-related jobs, construction, extraction and
transportation. A few of this group find themselves in
administrative jobs.
There is a wide gender disparity among Caribbean women in the
American workforce. While the females have higher degree of
immigration and 73 percent are participants in the labor force,
they often lag in terms of earnings by 9 percent to 13 percent,
thereby resulting in economic problems (Wells-Wilbon &
Vakalahi, 2015).Although they have a strong and long-standing
immigration history to the United States, black Caribbean
women still remain a disadvantaged and underserved population
due to racism and anti-foreign attitudes. While such attitudes
have improved gradually over time, they continue to permeate
into almost all aspects of the American social system. For
instance, health problems, lower level of education, and
increased rates of single parent households, frustrate their
efforts to seek employment opportunities in the United States.
During their childhood, black Caribbean girls, experience
strenuous problems due to urban lifestyle (Wells-Wilbon &
Vakalahi, 2015). These include social isolation from America’s
mainstream culture, exposure to slum culture, and an attitude of
materialism as a result of the excessive consumption of media
contents. Those who reside in communities with insufficient
resources, inadequate schools, and high rates of domestic
violence often face the biggest obstacles to seeking a decent
employment opportunity. In the face of these adversities,
Caribbean black women, especially those who reside in urban
centers, often maintain that their Caribbean heritage and
identity is still significant to them in their effort to buffer the
challenges of residing in an urban neighborhood (Wells-Wilbon

& Vakalahi, 2015). Cultural barriers also frustrate their efforts
to operate within the mainstream American cultural workplace.
While Americans embrace the dominant culture of
individualism, most Caribbean women are collectivized in
nature. Conflicting values make it harder for them to be easily
integrated into the American workplace (Wells-Wilbon &
Vakalahi, 2015). Collectivism and maintained cultural identity
should be regarded as strength when organizations work with
Caribbean women in the workplace. Thus, conflicting cultural
traditions, values, and beliefs frustrate their efforts to adapt to
the American workforce.
Some of the challenges that Caribbean black women face
in the American workforce have deep historical origins. Blank
(2013) argues that the historical and the modern gender and
social class relationships among the British, French, and
Spanish in the Caribbean islands mainly emphasized on the
Afro-Caribbean people. This includes the negative gender
relations during slavery and the gender roles during the periods
after emancipation. According to Blank (2013), such relations
and experiences have been passed into the modern American
workforce. The complexities of gender and slavery in the
Caribbean were influenced by the region’s multicultural
diversity. Most of the region’s occupants currently descended
from the enslaved Africans. Traces of beliefs and customs,
coupled with European norms, and family values that were
present under slavery, have all resulted in the defining of
gender roles in the workplace. Such mixtures have been further
strengthened by the heritage of indigenous American Indian
populations and the impacts of immigrants from the Middle East
and Asia. During slavery, certain roles and job responsibilities
were available to either gender on plantations, whereas tasks
were sex-specific. Adults of both sexes worked hard in field
groups on sugar plantations, in their masters’ houses as
domestic slaves and petty traders. This practice disadvantaged
Caribbean women since only male slaves were allowed to hold
elite, and skilled-based job positions as field commanders and

artisans. On the other hand, slave women only served as
domestic workers, hucksters, petty traders, and unskilled
employees. Although slavery ended more than a century ago,
this practice of assigning Caribbean workers unskilled jobs still
persists in the American system.
Blank (2013) observes that white men in some cases often
sue female black Caribbean employees as their sexual
concubines, a practice that had its historical roots in slavery,
where white men used to sexually harass black women.
Although they married white women, they continued to engage
in extra-marital sexual harassments with their Caribbean
employees. In the same way, pregnancy in the workplace is still
discouraged by many companies since it reduces the time that
women take in the organization to work. According to Blank
(2013), this practice had slavery roots. During that time,
childbearing was discouraged since it minimized the length of
time that a woman would take in the fields. Some pregnant
slaves would attempt to abort their fetuses or commit
infanticide in order to avoid bringing up their children as
slaves. In the event that slave Caribbean women gave birth, they
were assigned older female slaves to provide care for the baby
as they worked in the fields.
The workforce participation of Caribbean black women is
still dependent on gender roles and power relations in the
United States. Despite the increasing trends of high female
involvement in family issues, Caribbean cultures and traditions
still remain male-dominated (Blank, 2013). In such patriarchal
societies, even some women continue to quote the Bible to
provide rationale that it is men rather than women, who should
hold prestigious position in the workplace. This cultural
practice has been extended to low representation of women in
powerful political and religious seats. However, there is a
gradual struggle that is gaining space among the genders as men
continue to slowly lose some of their privileged statuses in the
Caribbean culture (Blank, 2013). As a result, the overall
Caribbean women hold fewer positions at the highest levels of

political, economic, and religious decision-making in
comparison with their male counterparts. Thus, while many
women are employed, they hold less powerful ranks, especially
within the formal sector of the economy compared to Caribbean
black men. This pattern can be easily observed among Haiti
women who live in the United States. The Haiti black women
are often less educated than men. For instance, teenage boys of
Haiti descent are most likely to attend high school education
than girls their age. In the same vein, Haiti working class men
are often more educated than Haiti women of the same social
status. Consequently, Haiti black women are normally treated as
second class citizens with some legal codes that can be traced
back to the nineteenth century (Blank, 2013). This trend has
increased rates of domestic violence among Caribbean against
Caribbean black women, thereby adversely affecting their
performance in the workplace.
Reinforcing the findings of Blank (2013), McFarlane
(2017) asserts that discrimination of Caribbean black women in
the American education sector frustrates their quest for decent
income and excellent educational attainment. According to
McFarlane (2017), the experiences of women of color within the
United States education offers a distinct opportunity to explore
the sophisticated influences of interesting identities within the
context of changing social situations. To examine how social
categories of gender, class, race, and nationality interplay in the
Caribbean immigrant women’s experiences of being college
students affects their perception of themselves in the general
American society (McFarlane, 2017). For most Caribbean
women, when they move to the United States, they believe that
they come from gendered cultural traditions that determine their
social roles within the Caribbean. For most female students,
such rules continue to operate in the United States. Thus, the
gendered rules and traditions still influence how black
Caribbean women view the society in general. Caribbean
women’s decisions to migrate to the United States are not often
driven by their personal ambitions. Instead, they move to the

United States in pursuit of opportunities for their families
(McFarlane, 2017). While in America, they still struggle with
the uphill task of adapting to the American traditions and
cultures. This is particularly true for Caribbean women in the
corporate society and those enrolled in higher education. They
encounter a complex set of hindrances. A lot of attention has
often been placed on race and ethnicity issues more than social
class and sexuality for black Caribbean women’s cross-cultural
transitions. Therefore, social identity theory stresses on the
significance of group memberships for wellbeing.
In the American environment, cultural factors, race, social class
and gender are strong bases of affiliation for minorities such as
black Caribbean women. Moreover, the social contexts are
important for social identification (Flabbi, Piras & Abrahams,
2016). This is especially true when contexts change
significantly. In such situations, Caribbean women seek support
for identities that shift and individuals who make efforts to
maintain their significant identities (Flabbi, Piras & Abrahams,
2016). For instance, Caribbean black women who operate in
predominantly Anglo workplaces and have strong ethnic
identities, often maintain their attempts to preserve their ethnic
identities within new environments by joining cultural groups
and establishing friendships with their fellow Caribbean women.
Caribbean black women are an important resource in the
American labor market. They are increasingly taking time in
large numbers than any specific point in time in history (Flabbi,
Piras & Abrahams, 2016). This is owed to the new and
emerging pattern in which Caribbean black women acquire
education at higher rates than their male counterparts. This is a
widely recognized trend in developed economies. Since 1990s,
more and more Caribbean black women than men have been
enrolled in school both at the high school and college levels
(Flabbi, Piras & Abrahams, 2016). While the United States is
registering a high rate of gender parity in the general working
population, Caribbean black women still face the challenge of
underrepresentation in leadership positions in organizations.

Research Questions
1. Do black Caribbean women face the challenge of getting high
quality-work?
2. Are there low number of black Caribbean women in STEM
courses and jobs?
3. Do gender stereotypes reduce Caribbean women’s
participation in high-skilled employment?
4. Does gender-based violence at home and workplace affect
Afro-Caribbean women’s job performance?
5. Do cross-cultural communication problems affect Caribbean
black women’s coping skills in the American workforce?
2. Literature Review
The workplace environment of black Caribbean men and
women, like other parts of the world, has been influenced by
racial and cultural factors that influence the ways in which they
operate in the American corporate environment. For ordinary
Caribbean women, workplace survival in male-dominated
societies cannot be overlooked. In the United States, social
patterns that emerged among them seek to answer the exigencies
of life under global capitalism Gender roles of black Caribbean
women continue to be the same despite emancipation from
slavery.
Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate workplace
barriers for Caribbean men and women in the US. One of the
most insightful studies can be traced back to 1999,
whenBerleant-Schiller (1999) attributed workplace challenges
to marriage systems and family roles of Caribbean. According
toBerleant-Schiller (1999), continued deviance to the American
culture and ways of the slave masters have made it harder for
Caribbean women to adapt to the United States work
environments and cultures. However, they observe that the rise
of feminism increased Caribbean women’s interests in white-
collar jobs in early 1970s.
Reddock (2007) attributes workplace barriers among black
Caribbean men and women to gender-based inequality in a

male-dominated world. According to Reddock (2007) the
interplay of gender inequality, race, and ethnicity, has made it
difficult for black Caribbean men and women to improve their
status and promotions in the workplace. Stereotyping of black
men and Caribbean women as lazy and less educated has
resulted in few women in the workplace. Gender-based
inequalities have also made it difficult for Caribbean women to
pursue technical workplace roles.
While Reddock (2007) faults gender inequality as the leading
cause of workplace barriers, on the other hand, Novta and Wong
(2017) states that Caribbean women have progressed in job
participation. According to Novta and Wong (2017), women
across the world continue to be underutilized in the workplace.
However, they observe that Caribbean women are increasingly
gaining in terms of more women participation in the labor force.
Still, Novta and Wong (2017) states that Caribbean women have
a long way to go in terms of closing the pay gap with their male
counterparts.
Paris (2016) discusses workplace injustices among Caribbean
black women, especially those who are deaf through historical
point of view.The author observes that deaf Caribbean black
women teachers constitute only about 0.7% of the total
population of teachers attending to K-12 classes in the Western
region of the US, which represents a small number compared to
other tribes.The small number of Caribbean black women
teachers attending to K-12 classes can be attributed to past
historical injustices that were perpetrated by colonist, who were
against the education of aboriginal Indian tribes (Paris, 2016).
Caribbean black women who teach in schools of the deaf are not
very much respected and are not given leadership positions due
to the perception that they do not receive proper education.
For Caribbean black women being deaf and speaking in sign
language is considered a tribe and a blessing, which other tribes
view as a disease thereby sidelining deaf Black Indians from
leadership positions.According to Paris (2016), 25.3% of
Caribbean black women above 18 years suffer from hearing

impairments that range from mild to severe. As such, the
community is not favored much about diverse workplace
leadership positions and eligibility for promotion. The author
explains discrimination against Caribbean black women at the
workplace in terms of intersectionality, which is the
combination of many aspects of identity in social community
systems (Paris, 2016).The author suggests that the deafness
among Black Indian women is a traditionally oppressed identity
from the colonial period.The perception that Caribbean black
women are likely to have hearing impairments contribute to
their not being potential candidates for leadership positions and
promotion at the workplace.
Kimerling, Alvarez, Pavao, Mack, Smith and Baumrind (2009)
conducted a research to find out the difficulties that Caribbean
black women go through at the workplace with regards to
intimate partner violence.Their findings show that Caribbean
black women experience low to severe intimate partner violence
from time to time.The violence can be physical, verbal, or
emotional abuse.Most Caribbean black women who have been
victims of Intimate partner violence have reported
psychological distress at the workplace, and employment
instability (Kimerling, Alvarez, Pavao, Mack, Smith and
Baumrind, 2009).The abused women become depressed and
stressed up at the workplace, a situation that causes them to be
viewed as incompetent by their colleagues at the workplace.The
women are thus disrespected and looked down upon by their
colleagues and bosses at the workplace. This is because they are
viewed as incompetent since most of them do not reveal
domestic problems that they experience to their workmates
(Kimerling, Alvarez, Pavao, Mack, Smith and Baumrind,
2009).The domestic violence experienced by Caribbean black
women brings them many employment-related problems. The
problems include suspensions from work and forced leaves or
even termination of employment due to the incompetence
caused by depression and stress from intimate partner violence
(Kimerling, Alvarez, Pavao, Mack, Smith and Baumrind,

2009).Caribbean black women who sometimes report or share
their negative experiences at home are ridiculed by their
workmates, which worsens their stress and depression. Others
are lured into sexual traps by men who pretend to console them
yet are up to taking advantage of the situation that the women
are going through.
Burnette (2017) discusses work-based challenges that Caribbean
black women face through a qualitative research using the great
recession as an example.The author observes that the great
recession increased unemployment rates of Caribbean black
women from 4.6% to 9% (Burnette, 2017).Data from the
author’s research show that there is a significantly big wage gap
between Black women and White women, showing that there is
racial discrimination in remunerating employees.Caribbean
black women’s salaries and wages are below that of White
women by up to 10% yet they do the same job, and are in the
same rank (Burnette, 2017). The discrimination against
Caribbean black women is as a result of the perception that they
are inferior to White women in terms of skills and efficiency,
although no research has been done to verify the claim.Burnette
(2017) notes that during the great recession, Caribbean black
women were among the most affected group of people in terms
of salary cuts and termination of employment. According to
Burnette (2017), Caribbean black women were among the
people who were faced by the challenges of tougher labor
market, with loss of jobs, forced leaves and suspension rate of
up to 8.4% higher than White women. This is an indication that
White women are favored more than Caribbean black women in
the United States.
Lookism is a form of preferential treatment in which people
who are considered attractive by others are treated well whereas
those who they consider less attractive or physically desirable
are discriminated (Sims, 2017).According to Sims (2017),
Caribbean black women are severely discriminated against by
light-skinned workmates not because they are less competent or
talented, but because of lookism.The lookism attitude affects

Caribbean black women across many sectors from transport to
hotelier industry.In many work environments, Caribbean black
women are discriminated against by workmates and bosses in
favor of light-skinned counterparts due to the perception that
they are not as physically attractive as White women (Sims,
2017). This discrimination on the basis of skin color and
physical appearance sometimes gets out of hand to the extent
where Caribbean black women are overworked and underpaid
and are sometimes physically and verbally abused by workmates
and bosses (Sims, 2017).
Violence by intimate partners has brought stress and depression
in the workplace. Labor market inequality and unfair wage
distribution affect Caribbean black women than their White
colleagues. Sexual and harassment is also a big barrier to
success and efficiency for Caribbean black women at the
workplace. Discrimination based on physical appearance is also
another issue of concern affecting Caribbean black women in
the workplace.
Caribbean black women often face cross-cultural
communication challenges in their American workplace.
Bridgewater and Patrice (2010) argue that Caribbean women
immigrants often struggle to position themselves in a way that
make sense of their workplace communication. They utilize
storytelling approaches to enhance communication with their
American colleagues. In their effort to investigate these
communication challenges, Bridgewater and Patrice (2010)
utilized constant comparative technique to analyze 25 Caribbean
immigrants. The study found two discursive positioning that
included cultural moral narratives of the American Dream and
stories that generate and resist specific intercultural workplace
communication. Thus, personal sense making stories broke
down the monolithic cultural and moral narratives of the
American Dream to reflect the participants’ perceptions
regarding communicative strategies, as well as discursive self-
positioning for dealing with their distinct workplace
experiences. Caribbean women tried to make sense of their

experiences through invocation of difference discourses, which
include class, gender, and immigrant status.
Gender-based violence is a rampant problem among
Caribbean black women. According to a study conducted by
Stockman, Hayashi and Campbell (2015), minority women are
adversely affected by gender-based violence both at home and
in the workplace. This results in underperformance and low
productivity in the workplace. The study further states that
marginalized Caribbean women such as those who are foreign
born are more likely to experience different forms of violence
than those who are born in the United States. According to
Stockman, Hayashi and Campbell (2015), Caribbean women are
more likely to experience sexual; -related gender-based violence
in the workplace and at home in comparison with their
counterparts who are born in the United States. The effects of
gender-based violence include trauma, HIV/ STI infections,
depression, and physical injuries that adversely affect their
overall performance, productivity, and job satisfaction in the
workplace.
Gender-based stereotyping is one of the most common
challenges that deter Caribbean black women from pursuing
high-skilled careers. A qualitative survey undertaken by Miller
(2017) sought to examine the issues associated with science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Using
grounded case study, Miller found that there is high level of
underrepresentation and low participation of Caribbean women
in STEM-related professions. However, Miller notes that
Caribbean black women from Panama are increasingly becoming
successful in their efforts to navigate across the difficult race
and gender barriers associated with education and employment
in STEM. After gathering data and triangulating information
through interviews, Miller (2017) found that socio-cultural
values and strategies from Caribbean communities offered the
support required to strengthen a positive sense of self-identity.
Moreover, Miller (2017) argues that inculcation of middle-class
values such as educational; realization and hard work is

supportive of their persistence through STEM education.
Afro- Caribbean women in the United States continue to grapple
with the challenge of underrepresentation in technical
workplaces. According to Boumilk, Reem and Ian (2017), fewer
Caribbean women major in STEM than in liberal arts and social
sciences, a problem that results in their low numbers in
technical courses. Using data from students’ responses and
surveys, Boumilk, Reem and Ian (2017) argue that the need to
recruit more diverse women in the workforce in the STEM
fields has been a challenge that could be traced back to the
Sputnik crisis and America’s responses to the perceived
technological disparity between the United States and rival
countries in the 1950s. This perception of gender inequalities is
partly associated with attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that the
Caribbean’s’ culture associate with individual’s biological sex.
Such gender inequality barriers hamper their development in
specific areas of technical careers.
Level of education significantly affects ability of women
to seek employment opportunities compared to their male
counterparts. According to Black-Chen (2013), Caribbean
women have been dragging behind in terms of basic and college
education enrollments compared to other minority groups.
However, Black-Chen (2013) observes that there is a
remarkable increase in the continuing education enrollments
among non-traditional-aged families in Jamaica and United
States. In an effort to investigate the academic experiences of
Jamaican women going back to college, Black-Chen placed
emphasis on support services within the higher education
institutions attended. Black-Chen asserts that policymakers
should focus their attention on support services within the
higher education institutions to address the challenges and
develop strategies for successful academic and social
integration into the higher education environment. Further, the
researcher suggests the need to amplify women’s voices as a
way to understand the efficacy of education in providing women
competitive job opportunities.

3. Methodology
The purpose of this study was to investigate the workplace
barriers facing Caribbean black women in the United States. To
achieve this objective, a descriptive qualitative design was
used. Descriptive design was selected because it is effective in
describing in an accurate and systematic way the facts and
characteristics of a specific population (Caribbean black
women). The design is also instrumental in offering an accurate
portrayal or account of characteristics of a specific group of
people, situations and their challenges.
The qualitative research selected offered depth of
understanding on the research topic. This was particularly true
when it came to examine the nuances in attitudes and behaviors
of Caribbean black women, and assessing social processes over
time. Consequently, the main strength of this method rests in
the depth of understanding that it permits. While some
quantitative research methodologies may be challenged as
superficial, this problem is rarely associated with qualitative
research (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). Further, the qualitative
method that was selected was flexible in nature. This is one of
the leading strengths of qualitative design, since it gives room
for the modification of the research design at any specific point
in time.
A total of 200 participants were selected for the study. The
participants were Caribbean black women who form part of the
American workforce, drawn from both the formal and informal
sectors. The participants were selected through random
stratified sampling. This method entailed dividing the
population into subgroups or strata and taking a random sample
from each stratum through simple random or systematic
sampling. This sampling procedure was selected since it
supports representation of all groups of participants within the
selected study population. These include Caribbean black
women who are young, old, and from different countries and
sectors.
The participants were administered with personal

interviews and questionnaires as the main data gathering
methods. Personal interviews were conducted to collect
qualitative data about their views, feelings, and attitudes about
working in the American job labor force. The interviews were
done in different places, including the interviewees’
workplaces, homes, and factory sites. Respondents were
contacted, and informed consent gained from them. The data
collected were analyzed using content analysis procedures.
.
4. Discussion and Conclusion
To investigate the research questions, participants were
administered with questionnaires and interviews. The leading
barriers that were identified by participants included: racial
stereotyping of Caribbean black women (80 percent), challenge
of getting formal employment and technical jobs (78 percent),
challenge of having career progression and leadership company
leadership positions (75 percent), and violence and harassments
against Caribbean women both at home and in the workplace
(69 percent). After further investigations, the study found that a
lower fraction of black Caribbean women in the United States
are often admitted to higher levels of employment or white-
collar jobs. In the last five years, there has been a significant
increase in Black Caribbean women participating in low-quality
jobs, both in the formal and the informal sectors of the
American economy. For instance, many Caribbean black women
often work in temporary contracts and casual labor.
Consequently, they do not have the prospect of climbing the
employment ladder to managerial and executive positions. This
problem has also led to high turnover rates in the proportion of
female laborers on temporary contracts. In low quality levels of
employment, black Caribbean women are often subject to high
turnover rates and increased unemployment, coupled with
reduced social benefits and stagnant wages. This results in
economic insecurity. Consequently, they suffer from minimal
prospects of being admitted to high-quality work.

Like their African American counterparts, very few black
Caribbean women are enrolled in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Consequently,
very few of them are often seen employed in technical careers.
This problem is partly attributed to racial stereotypes of black
women as people who are mainly talented in sports, social
sciences and art courses and careers (McGee & Bentlay, 2017).
In addition, challenges such as structural racism, sexism, and
race-gender biases are salient among black Caribbean women in
the STEM contexts. Such experiences are often sources of strain
and depression, which the women battle with in ways that show
both resilience and trauma (King Miller, 2017). Such negative
experiences often motivate organizations to provide support for
high-performing students who in some cases face the risks from
multiple sources. There has been widespread
underrepresentation of Afro-Caribbean women. For instance,
Panamanian and Jamaican Afro-Caribbean women often face
challenges associated with navigation of race and gender
barriers associated with education and employment in the STEM
(King Miller, 2017). Like other women in the white
communities, Afro-Caribbean women are often brandished as
individuals who are less intelligent to pursue STEM programs
and careers. This has perpetuated long-term underrepresentation
of black Caribbean women in STEM education and employment.
In a male dominated society, Caribbean women’s cultural roles
are restricted to the kitchen and household chores. Patriarchal
systems are often stronger among Caribbean black women
compared to the white society. As a result, a significant number
of Caribbean women still hold the cultural view that men are the
breadwinners (King Miller, 2017). As such, the role of women
is to settle household chores as men pursue white-collar
employment. This problem has resulted in the widening of
gender disparity in the employment of black Caribbean women
in formal employments. Irrespective of their class and levels of
income, black Caribbean women still believe that men should
direct them on the right career choices to make. They also

believe that men are their overall heads and what they tell them
to do should be the right decision to make. In such
environments, some men often seek to financially dominate
their wives, thus telling them to go for low-cadre jobs. In
response to this problem, there has been an upsurge in the
number of Caribbean women, who struggle to effect social and
political change in the general society. Since power is not only
held by men, but it also enforced through ideological,
economic, and social mechanisms, the women have launched
massive activism to empower fellow Caribbean women to free
themselves from male domination. This includes engaging in
activities aimed at bringing policy changes and creating
perspectives for the common good of women to minimize
inequalities and other social problems that deter women from
making it in the workplace.
Gender-based violence against black Caribbean women at
home and in the workplace adversely affects their physical and
mental wellbeing. This results in underperformance and low
productivity when they are at work. Caribbean black women
who undergo intimate partner violence normally show high
signs of depression and lack of concentration in their respective
workplaces (Stockman, Hayashi & Campbell, 2015). This can be
a potential barrier to their prospects of ever advancing in their
career lives. Marginalized groups such as black Caribbean
women who are foreign-born run the highest risks of
experiencing intimate partner violence than their counterparts
born within the United States. For instance, black Caribbean
women are more likely to experience sexual-related intimate
partner violence in comparison with women from other racial
groups (Stockman, Hayashi & Campbell, 2015). The impacts of
intimate partner violence on their professional and career
development are adverse. This is because intimate partner
violence is strongly related to many negative physical and
mental conditions and health risk behaviors among women of
Caribbean backgrounds. Chronic pains, severe depression, and
traumatic brain injuries may keep women from going to the

workplace.
Cultural differences influence how Caribbean black women
communicate with fellow employees from the mainstream
American culture. Although a significant number of black
Caribbean women speak in the English language, there is a
major difference in their dialects compared to their American
counterparts (Bridgewater & Buzzanell, 2010). This creates
major potentials for conflicts and disagreements in the
workplace.
There is little representation of Caribbean black women in
the corporate leadership. Flabbi, Claudia and Scott (2017)
attempted to estimate if the measures of female corporate
leadership at the firm are associated with the organizational
performance in America and the Caribbean region. The
researchers found that despite gender parity in the general
working population, the higher people look at the leadership in
terms of ranks within an organization, the lower the number of
women they will find. According to Flabbi, Claudia and Scott
(2017), this underrepresentation of women in higher positions is
more pronounced among black Caribbean women and Latin
Americans. Although the American continent is one of the most
important regions in the world, the researchers assert that
women are not fairly represented in company leadership despite
having comparatively the same levels of education as their male
counterparts. Moreover, they conclude that under-representation
is most common among Caribbean women.
Wage discrimination sis a problem that continues to affect
black Caribbean women in the United States. Although they are
qualified for the same jobs as their counterparts, most continue
to be paid lower wages for the same efforts that they deliver.
According to Elliot (2006), the earnings that Caribbean women
are still faced with socioeconomic problems despite having
superior human capital. Using Jamaica as a case study, Elliot
(2006) examined female lifestyles and found that they are
advances because discipline-specific theories have failed to
explain the occupational clustering and the resultant earnings

gap. Elliot (2006) argues that lifestyle constraints can be
associated with characteristics of black Caribbean women’s
social environments. Since such constraints affect different
groups of women in varying ways, then policies meant to
minimize occupational dissimilarities and female-male earnings
gaps should adapt a disaggregated analysis.
Caribbean black women are less likely to get decent jobs in the
United States compared to other minority groups. A study
conducted by Hamilton, Easley and Dixon (2018) found that
black Caribbean women still find themselves in certain types of
employment niches that are mainly informal in nature. Even
after upgrading their level of education, black Caribbean women
still face the challenge of getting white collar job opportunities
in the United States. Hamilton, Easley and Dixon (2018) note
that immigrant Caribbean women are found in occupational
niches that are not only informal, but also contribute to the low
wage gaps that they continue to face in the country. Using data
from the American Community Survey, Hamilton, Easley and
Dixon (2018) found that compared to US-born blacks, most
Caribbean women immigrants have similar or greater
representation in different occupational niches. However,
employment in a specific niche has a minimal but positive
association with earnings. They also note that not all Caribbean
women have this problem. For instance, black Caribbean
immigrants from English-speaking nations such as West Indies
have higher labor force participation rates, higher employment
rates, as well as higher earnings than their American-born
blacks.
Caribbean black women are some of the immigrants who
face racial discrimination in the American workplace.
According to Assari and Maryam (2018), this problem is partly
attributed to racial imbalances in the composition of workers in
the employment population. This problem is partly attributed to
socioeconomic status, which protect populations and people
from health challenges. Assari and Maryam (2018) remark that
while racial composition of the workplace may be a mechanism

through which high socioeconomic status increase
discriminatory experiences for blacks, males and females do not
differ in this respect.
There are various factors that pose obstruction to career
progression of black Caribbean women. A research undertaken
by Wyss (2015) revealed that there is no shortage of educated
Caribbean women in the workplace. However, very few make it
to top government positions and company leadership. This
problem is bought by gender stereotyping and limiting
traditions that limit the role of women to domestic chores.
Conclusion
The contemporary workplace environment in the US has
many challenges that negatively affect marginalized groups and
ethnic minorities such as Black Caribbean women. Evidences
from researches show that Black Caribbean women experience
many workplace barriers most of which result from ethnic
stereotypes and racial profiling rather than their incompetence.
No research has shown that there is a race that is superior to the
other, or that Black Caribbean women are less competent than
people from other racial backgrounds. As such, the workplace
culture in which Black Caribbean women are typified as inferior
or secondary to perceived superior races such as Whites results
from prejudice against rather than incompetence of the Black
Caribbean women. This is because even highly successful Black
Caribbean women are also despised and envied by Whites, in
equal measure as less fortunate Black Caribbean women in low
hierarchy positions. The biggest workplace barriers experienced
by Black Caribbean women include but not limited to racial
discrimination, rape, insults, battery, denial of freedoms and
opportunities to participate in work-related planning and
professional contribution, intimidation, being overburdened
with work, poor working conditions, and stress and burnouts.
These barriers often lead to health complications such as stress
and anxiety disorders, which ultimately cause poor motivation
and incompetence.
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MGT 312: Decision Making Problem SolvingSECOND
SEMESTER 2018-19ASSIGNMENT-2
Course:
MGT312
Student name:
Academic Year
1439-1440 H
Students number:

Semester:
2nd
student grade:
To be filled by Faculty
Section:
CRN:
Level of the Mark:
To be filled by Faculty
Instructions for Assignment
Due date for Submission
End of Week 9
Maximum Marks:
05
Submission Mode
through blackboard
Word Count
1500
Submission method
Only WORD DOCUMENT
PDF not acceptedAssignment Regulations:
· Word Count 1500
· All students are encouraged to use their own word.
· Student must apply Harvard Referencing Style within their
reports.
· A mark of zero will be given for any submission that includes
copying from other resource without referencing it
· Should be zero Plagiarism
ASSIGNMENT -II
1. Suppose you are Sales Manager for Almarai-L’usine division.
It has product such as Cup Cakes, muffins, croissant, Bread,
Burger, Buns and Sandwich Rolls. Sales in your department are
low. Overall revenue is down. And the big boss wants to know

why. As the sales manager, it’s up to you to get to the bottom of
the issue, to make changes, and to fix the problem so that your
sales team doesn’t fall short of its goals. Define the problem
and determine the root cause of the problem by using the 5
Whys?
Answer
Define the Problem:
1
Why?
21
Why?
3
Why?
4
Why?
5
Why?
Counter Measure:
How do we stop this from happening again?

2. “You Are manager in a large commercial bank. You discover
that Lucy, a loan officer who reports to you, has forged an
approval signature on a customer loan that requires signatures
from two loan officers. When you confront Lucy with the
forgery, she apologizes profusely and says that her husband has
been very ill. The day she forged the signature, he was going
into surgery and she just didn’t have time to find another loan
officer to sign the authorization for the loan. Lucy has been with
your bank for 15 years and has a spotless record.”
What is the ethical issue in the above case? As a manager what
decision you will take for the problem and what are the steps
you follow for implementing decision?
3. “Critical thinking is the opposite of creative thinking.” Do
you agree? Identify the differences between both. Provide
examples of why you agree or disagree.

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