Navigating organisational contexts as women leaders

This chapter explores the complex realities of women leaders, with particular attention to Global Majority (GM) women navigating Eurocentric organisational structures and alternative feminist spaces. Drawing on two distinct yet interconnected case studies—an empirical study involving 22 GM women leaders across sectors and an oral history project with Bristol Crisis Service for Women—the chapter interrogates how racialised and gendered dynamics shape leadership identities, opportunities, and resistance. Using critical feminist and Critical Race Theory (CRT) lenses, the authors identify four historical tropes—Sapphire, Jezebel, Black Mammy, and Queen of Sheba—that continue to influence the perceptions and treatment of GM women leaders in mainstream settings. These tropes, often internalised and institutionally embedded, contribute to organisationally induced trauma and stress (OiTS), silencing, and hyper-surveillance.

The chapter further examines how women challenge these dominant narratives through relational leadership and peer support, offering counter-narratives of resistance, care, and community. The Bristol Crisis Service for Women exemplifies how grassroots, women-only peer support structures can disrupt the re-traumatising tendencies of mainstream mental health services and promote relational safety. Throughout, the authors highlight the critical role of insider/outsider identities and advocate for leadership models rooted in reciprocity, solidarity, and psychological safety. Implications for social work practice are outlined, with a call for anti-racist, feminist-informed, trauma-aware leadership that values women’s agency and lived experience.