Microaggressions in Leadership Spaces
A Thousand Small Cuts Still Bleed
A thousand small cuts still bleed. Not one at a time, not always in ways others can see, but steadily and deeply. That is the nature of microaggressions in leadership spaces, especially for Black women.
Microaggressions are those subtle but constant digs: being interrupted, dismissed, or doubted. They are the raised eyebrow when you speak with authority. They are the “Are you sure?” after you give direction. They are the times you lay out a clear idea, only to hear it repeated by someone else who gets the credit.
One moment like that may feel small. Yet when it happens every day,
it is anything but.The Daily Interruptions
Picture the routine: you are speaking, and someone cuts across you mid-sentence. You redirect, try again, and another voice slides over yours. These are not just conversational hiccups. They are interruptions that cut into credibility.
The pattern extends further. A leader is called on to share her perspective, offers her words, and is then ignored or dismissed. The invitation was performative. The listening was selective. The effect is corrosive.
Dismissals take many forms. A shrug. A quick pivot to another topic. Silence that lingers until someone else repeats your point, and suddenly the room lights up with agreement. Scholars describe this as “credibility discounting” (Basford, Offermann, & Behrend, 2014), a subtle yet powerful form of exclusion.
Then comes the role many Black women know too well: the enforcer. Tasked with carrying out directives, often without the full backing of the system. Sometimes given misdirection, sometimes given none at all, and then expected to manage the fallout. It is a setup dressed up as leadership.
A String of Cuts
When I was new to an organization, I sat at a table meeting colleagues for the first time. A woman across from me asked a simple question about who I was. I shared that I was from New York and that I had Jamaican heritage. Her immediate response was, “How poor that island is, how much poverty those poor people live in.”
I was stunned into silence. My silence may have been for the best, because my response at that moment would not have been measured. Still, that silence carried its own weight. It was not just a passing comment. It was a cut. A reminder that even in a professional space, my heritage could be diminished to a stereotype of poverty and pity.
That experience echoed later at a recognition event. The host speaker reflected fondly on what she called the good old days, describing how Black prisoners from the state prison worked on her family’s property, mowing lawns and trimming hedges. I looked around the room. The expressions on the faces of the Black women and men were familiar:
disbelief mixed with resignation.
A silent chorus of “I cannot believe she said that, though I am not surprised that it was said.” Another cut, this one embedded in nostalgia.
Then there was the table. A room filled with twenty tables, and I happened to be sitting with colleagues I knew well. We were the only table of Black professionals. Someone walked over, looked at us, and asked a very serious question, “Why are all the Black people sitting together?” Before we could respond, she went further, explaining that her family was not particularly fond of Black people, but she was different. The comment landed heavy, not because it was unexpected, but because it was so predictable. What should have been a moment of connection was turned into suspicion and confession. One more cut, layered on top of the others.
The Toll It Takes
Research calls microaggressions cumulative. Psychologist Derald Wing Sue wrote that they are “constant, continuing, and cumulative assaults on an individual’s well-being” (Sue et al., 2007). The numbers tell the story. A 2020 McKinsey & LeanIn study found that 58 percent of Black women report facing workplace microaggressions, compared with 41 percent of white women. Catalyst (2019) reported that women who experience frequent microaggressions are three times more likely to think about leaving their jobs.
Stress becomes rumination. Rumination becomes exhaustion. Exhaustion, over time, becomes burnout.
A Long Shadow
These daily cuts are not isolated to boardrooms or staff meetings. They are tied to a long history of doubting Black women’s authority. The stereotype of the “angry Black woman” has roots in slavery and Reconstruction, used to delegitimize leadership and silence truths. bell hooks described it as the constant “policing of Black women’s speech,” a way of narrowing what leadership is allowed to sound like. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s framework of intersectionality reminds us that Black women carry the compounded weight of racism and sexism, and microaggressions are the daily expression of that tension.
When Direction Turns to Misdirection
Sometimes leadership is not about leading. It is about being positioned as the one to clean up what others will not. Black women leaders often find themselves asked to enforce rules, discipline staff, or carry out directives they had no role in creating. When things go wrong, the blame falls on them. When things go right, the credit flows elsewhere.
The double standard is striking. Assertiveness is read as “commanding” for men and “intimidating” for women. Firmness is seen as professionalism for some, hostility for others. The rules change depending on who holds the mic.
Why Organizations Should Care
The irony is that microaggressions do not only harm the individual. They harm the organization. Productivity falls when leaders are second-guessed. Innovation stalls when voices are interrupted. Retention collapses when women leaders decide the cuts are too deep to stay. LeanIn’s 2021 report found that one in three Black women leaders considered leaving their jobs that year because of microaggressions and lack of support.
A culture that tolerates daily cuts will eventually bleed talent.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Naming the problem is the first step. Creating systems of accountability is the second. Mentorship helps, but without structural change, mentorship alone cannot stop the bleeding.
A thousand small cuts still bleed.
The question is not whether microaggressions exist. The question is whether we will stop pretending they are harmless.
References
Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271–286.
Basford, T. E., Offermann, L. R., & Behrend, T. S. (2014). Do you see what I see? Perceptions of gender microaggressions in the workplace. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38(3), 340–349.
Catalyst. (2019). Interrupting everyday bias: Making the invisible visible. Catalyst.org.
McKinsey & Company & LeanIn.Org. (2020). Women in the Workplace Report.
LeanIn.Org & McKinsey. (2021). Women in the Workplace.
