Intersectionality in the Business School Experience Research Study

What is this Study?

The purpose of this study is to understand how students' identities results in different experiences at business schools and how these interact with career choices. These can be experiences that make you feel like you do not fit in at business schools or that feel discriminatory, as well as experiences that make you feel supported and empowered to succeed. This study is being conducted across a number of business schools. 

Why is this Research Important?

Unlike STEM, business schools remain understudied in regards to how identities such as gender, ethnicity/race or class matter, and in particular, how they come to matter when they intersect (e.g., gender and race/ethnicity; or race/ethnicity and class and disabilities; or race/ethnicity and sexual orientation, etc.). The intersections can be varied and multiple.

At times, when people have intersecting identities, they may feel like they do not fit the 'status quo', that they face additional challenges, biases, or are being marginalized. At other times, they might feel like their identities open opportunities and enable them to gain privileges that others may not experience.  

While we may not have a good understanding of experiences, there is evidence that demonstrates how identities do matter. Statistics produced by the organization that accredits business schools -- the AACSB (2019)-- consistently finds that:

• Female and male enrollment and graduation from undergraduate programs in business schools is not equal (females ≅ 45%; males ≅ 55%; non-binaries are not reported);
• Minorities are extremely under-represented (Whites ≅ 61.4%; Latino/Hispanic ≅ 14.1%; Black/African American ≅ 8.5%; Asians ≅ 8.4%);

Why is this the case? And what happens when we start to combine identities (i.e. female minorities versus male minorities)?  

We want to use this study to address these questions and to hear about your experiences of business schools and how these experiences in turn shape your continued pursuit of your degree in business and perspective of potential career choices.

Sources: Enrollment in Undergraduate Business Degrees -- AACSB (2019) Proportion of USA population (ages 15-24) - US Census Bureau (2018)

What is an Intersectionality Perspective?

An intersectionality perspective studies what practices, norms, and/or systems (such as the education system in your country) can magnify oppressions versus privileges for those who have overlapping identity categories (e.g., gender, ethnicity/race, and class). Its goal is to find ways to change these problematic practices, norms, and/or systems.  

The need for an intersectionality perspective emerged from the work of Black activities and intellectuals starting in the late 1890s, and was taken forward during the civil rights movement by critical race scholars in the 1960s and by Black feminist in the feminist movements in the 1970s. These 'knowledge projects' tried to make evident the way minority males and females experienced injustices differently then their counterparts. The term "intersectionality" was eventually coined by a Black female legal scholar, Kimberlé Crenshaw, when she revealed how the law failed to protect Black women.  Black women, she argued, experienced discrimination differently than their Black male and White female counterparts -- incurring an intersectional oppression.

"Because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated."

- Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989, p, 140)

How Are We Conducting This Research?

The research is done primarily through focus groups and interviews including students with a broad array of intersectional identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disabilities, socio-economic status, etc.). All focus groups and interviews have an approximate length between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours. These focus groups can be conducted in person or virtually over zoom.

Call To Action

Do you want to share your experience at a business school? We are seeking students who would be willing to be included in a focus group that explores an intersectionality perspective of the business school experience. We are particularly interested in capturing the voices of students with intersectional identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity or expressions, class, different ableism-levels), and hearing about their experiences inside/outside the classroom and how this has shaped their overall experiences of business schools and early career decisions.

To share your story or perspective, sign up for a focus group or interview by contacting: intersectionalitybschools@bentley.edu.

Who is Involved in this Study?

Laurel Steinfield

The Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Laurel Steinfield, is an Assistant Professor at Bentley University. Her research focuses on social stratifications (or the way we create and maintain differences and power hierarchies in society), including stratifications based on gender, class, racial/ethnic, and global North-South relations. As a sociologist, transformative consumer researcher and marketing professor, she studies how these social stratifications interact with marketplace dynamics and social systems and practices, and how resulting injustices may be transformed. Having experienced sexism in her schooling and career, ranging from sexual harassment to micro-aggressions, hearing her students and co-workers of color discuss the additional challenges they face because of racial stereotypes, and studying the ways inter-locking discriminatory systems affect African female entrepreneurs, she has become an advocate for an intersectionality perspective. In this project in particularly she wants to shed light on the way business 'operating as usual', and its supporting institutions -- notably business schools --- can perpetuate or disrupt the problematic status quo. For her most recent publication on intersectionality and business, see the collaborative work "Transformative intersectionality: Moving business towards a critical praxis" in the Journal of Business Research, 2019, 100 (July): 366-375. 

Kiana Pierre-Louis

Kiana Pierre-Louis, Esq. (Co-investigator) is a Senior Law Lecturer and a Course Coordinator at Bentley University in the Law, Taxation, and Financial Planning Department.  Kiana teaches a number of business law courses and courses that deal with diversity and inclusion such as Race and the Law and Social Justice Law. In addition to being a Professor at Bentley University, Kiana is also an alumnus of Bentley University having graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Communications and a minor in English in 1999.  She received a Juris Doctorate, from Suffolk University Law School in 2002 cum laude and passed the bar that same year.

Kiana has a passion for Social Justice and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Her work at Bentley and in her hometown centers on social justice advocacy. She has won numerous awards that recognize her work in advising and mentoring students, her leadership and dedication to advancing diversity initiatives, and her outstanding teaching capabilities. She sits on the Board of Directors for KodeConnect, Inc. a non-profit organization helping marginalized youth to get access to STEM classes for little to no cost. Her current research areas deals with maternal mortality in women of color and the laws around chemicals used in the United States that affect women and in particular women of color.

Mateo Cruz

Dr. Mateo Cruz (Co-investigator) is an Assistant Professor of Management at Bentley University. His primary research focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in workplace contexts using an intersectional lens. His most recent projects examine the different ways women and people of color contend with systemic stereotype threat in occupations where they face chronic underrepresentation. His work has been published in top management outlets and presented to academic and executive audiences nationwide.

As a scholar-practitioner, Mateo’s work is guided by one central goal: To design and deliver evidence-based interventions that advance change leaders at the intersection of identities. He holds 15+ years of experience as an organization development (OD) consultant specializing in inclusive leadership, group & team dynamics, and organization change all from a systems psychodynamic perspective. He currently serves as a faculty advisor to Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business and as a member of Bentley’s Racial Justice Task Force.

Sonja Martin Poole

Sonja Martin Poole (Co-Investigator) is an Associated Professor of Marketing at the University of San Francisco. She is an internationally recognized lecturer and researcher on transformative and multicultural marketing strategy and marketing education. With particular emphases on creating and communicating value for nonprofit and public sector organizations and the social impact of marketing, Poole explores topics in the domains of marketing ethics, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, diversity, education, public policy, and social welfare.

Wendy Hein

Dr. Wendy Hein (Co-investigator) is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Birkbeck, University of London. Stemming from several years of living and working across Europe, Wendy developed her expertise in interpreting cultures through self-integration within diverse communities. Based on these experiences, Wendy developed a profound interest in the pursuit of equalities, particularly based on gender and cultures. Her research focuses on consumer culture, interpretive consumer research linked to feminism, gender, and critical studies of men and masculinities. She is also interested in practical and entrepreneurial implications of gender in consumer research, and especially gender and business education. She is coordinator of marketing as a subject discipline in the United Nations PRME gender equality working group, which seeks to promote and enhance gender perspective in marketing education. In this capacity she has contributed to several books and journal articles. She is co-chair of Athena Swan in the department of Management at Birkbeck, which seeks to advance gender equality and women’s advances in higher education and research. She was a contributor to the European FP7 funded TRIGGER project, aimed at transforming institutions by gendering contents and gender equality in research.     

Are Students Involved in this Study?

Bentley students are key team members to our project, conducting interviews with their peers. Students who have been involved with the study include: Roma Gujarathi, Patrick Goldner, Melanie Vargas, Jana Harris, Rachel Zuckerberg, Mariangella Larach, Manasi Shinde, Beamz Siverly, and Merve Yolcu.

Jana Harris

I am currently a junior majoring in Information Design and Corporate Communications with a double minor in Law and Sociology. I felt compelled to join this research team as I felt the subject matter was directly related to my college experience. I was interested in learning in depth about the role of race and gender on my experience at a business school. Talking with other students has allowed me to reflect on the ways gender, race, among other differences like religion or age, impacted my experiences and interactions with people. In the classroom I often felt there were biases, often unconscious, directed towards me in regards to race and gender from my peers, and professors. It felt like a hurdle to jump over just to prove I was equal, and could perform just as well as another classmate. This study has provided insight that this is not just something I am facing, but something students at my school as well as students across the country studying at other business universities are facing too.

Manasi Shinde

I am currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Marketing Analytics at Bentley University. I was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Dallas. Being an international student for over 5 years, I have already been able to experience certain biases towards certain groups in an academic setting. However, these experiences may not relate to causality, and this research opportunity gives me a chance to explore more into how demographics can play a part in university experiences and academic biases. This research was particularly intriguing to me, as it would give me an in-depth understanding of how students from different backgrounds can have a different experience despite being in the same classroom.

Melania Vargas

I am a Sophomore at Bentley University majoring in Marketing with a dual Liberal Studies major in Media Arts & Society. I was born and raised in Nicaragua, and I am the oldest of four sisters. Nicaragua is what many consider to be a "machista" country-- a country where men tend to dominate and are viewed as being the ones who should be "breadwinners", while being a woman almost automatically places you in the category of belonging in the "domestic sphere". Many people in Nicaragua think that a woman's place is supposed to be in the home instead of the business world. As an older sister, as a daughter, as a friend and as a human in a world full of biases and discriminations against women and minorities, I have made it my personal goal to fight for equality. Interviewing people in this research has only made it more evident that these biases, unconscious or not, are utterly present in business schools all over the world. Becoming aware that there is a problem is the first step to change. This is why this study is so important to me personally, and why I feel that it is a necessary step towards equality.