Black mothers at work: A contemplative and anti-oppressive approach to dismantling workplace oppression

Diversity management continues to be a subject of importance in organiza¬tions of all types. Therefore, the purpose of our research was to explore the experien- ces of oppression for Black mothers at work with the goal of providing managers and Black mothers a means of addressing workplace oppression. We conducted qualita¬tive interviews with Black mothers about their experiences of workplace oppression, and then we conducted an interdisciplinary literature review of Womanism in the Black Church around the subject of oppression, as well as the concepts of workplace oppression and anti-oppressive practice. By tracing both contemplative and anti¬oppressive practices, we are highlighting the legacy of Black women as architects for inspiring change. We built our Contemplative Anti- Oppressive Practice (CAOP) frame¬work in light of our findings. While contemplative practice and anti-oppressive prac¬tice have been explored separately in management literature, they have yet to be explored in combination as a possible framework to dismantle oppression. We offer this framework as an approach for managers and employees to enable them to ad- dress both the inner and outer work that needs to be done in order to dismantle workplace oppression.