ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the literature on leadership and identity by examining how race, gender and class may confer disadvantage or bestow privilege in accessing leadership positions and enacting leadership roles. I interviewed 130 white and Black Minority Ethnic (BME) women leaders in public and private sector organizations in the UK to gather their reflections on how they defined leadership, how their identities as leaders had developed and their experiences enacting leadership. Findings showed that the BME women experienced notably more challenges and difficulties in their role as leaders, and that they saw their ethnicity as having a clear bearing on their identities, their perception of leadership, and their experience as leaders, white women, faced barriers in respect of social class and gender, and struggle was evident in understanding the issues BME leaders face in organizations.
