Performative contortions: How White women and people of colour navigate elite leadership roles

Abstract

How do non‐traditional leaders negotiate their entrance and inclusion in elite leadership roles? This study explores the intentional strategies used by non‐traditional leaders to obtain and sustain elite leadership positions. While previous research has documented the barriers that limit the advancement of White women and people of colour, this study extends our understanding to the deliberate, intentional strategies outsiders use to negotiate their entrance to and inclusion in elite leadership roles. We use Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Puwar’s bodies out of place perspective to analyse the ‘performative contortions’ of outsiders who occupy elite roles. Our analysis relies on 32 in‐depth interviews with White women and men and women of colour who occupy senior leadership positions in large organizations. Our findings uncover a range of embodied, cultural and interactional strategies outsiders employ to gain entrance to top positions and thus reveal the ways gender and race are embedded in the ‘hidden curriculum’ of elite organizations. The ongoing labour required of organizational outsiders to negotiate their own inclusion sheds light on the continuing failure of current efforts to achieve equity and inclusion among elite leadership ranks.

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