African American women have historically embraced leadership roles in their communities, balancing careers and motherhood without seeing conflict, yet they face greater challenges and isolation in the workplace compared to their white counterparts, often lacking the necessary support and sponsorship for advancement.

Men can become better allies in their organizations by understanding that women’s empowerment is not a competition, committing to gender equality, actively listening to women, and embracing the opportunity to create meaningful social change.

In this video lesson, inclusion strategist Ruchika Malhotra highlights the unfair distribution of “office housework,” which disproportionately burdens women and people of color, and offers strategies for ensuring a fairer division of tasks to support career advancement.

Code-switching, a natural behavior adjustment based on context, becomes unhealthy when it requires suppressing one’s identity to avoid discrimination, as explored by inclusion strategist Ruchika Malhotra, who highlights its psychological toll and suggests methods to identify unconscious biases.

In this video lesson, inclusion strategist Ruchika Malhotra explores how intersecting marginalized identities can compound workplace challenges, emphasizing the need for inclusive cultures to support women of color, who often face both hypervisibility and invisibility, and are frequently underestimated in their career progression.

In a video lesson, inclusion strategist Ruchika Malhotra discusses how workplace messages contribute to imposter syndrome in women, particularly women of color, and offers strategies to foster a more inclusive and equitable environment.