81.Why Intersectionality Matters for Leadership with Dominica McBride, Founder of BECOME

Why does intersectionality matters for leadership?

For this Women of Color Rise Podcast, I talk with Dr. Dominica McBride, Founder of BECOME. Dominica founded BECOME from a belief that communities should be at the center of creating the reality they want and need and that culturally responsive evaluation can be a tool for social justice and thriving communities.

Dominica is also the author of Becoming Change Makers: The Exquisite Path to Leadership and Liberation for Women of Color. She highlights healing, relationships, owning our power, and intersectionality to help women of color recognize their own unique potential and power to lead, grow their self-efficacy, and spark transformation.

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw provided the definition of intersectionality: “Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking.”

Dominica and I dive into intersectionality and how it can help us own all parts of ourselves and leverage them for leadership:

• Recognize differences – Depending on our identity (such as gender, race, class, and age), our experiences differ. A Black middle-aged woman and a White gay male will experience the same situation differently.

• Know thyself – We already have the solutions and strengths within ourselves. We can draw from our culture, for example Dominica with her Haitian background and Analiza from her Filipino background.

• Shape who we want to be – Society teaches us values and ways of being that we don’t have to buy into. We can choose who we want to be. For example, society stresses individualism, that women need to be superheroes who do it all by ourselves. However, we can choose to let go of the superhero cape, not do everything, and ask from help from our community.

We can also affirm who we are with these daily practices:

• Affirmations – Tell yourself positive affirmations such as, I’m worthy, beautiful, and strong.

• Look at yourself – Spend two minutes each day to look in the mirror and see yourself and develop a relationship with yourself.

• Journal – We are taught that knowledge can only be acquired from outside of ourselves, but actually, the answers are already within. Ask a question and allow yourself to write out the answer.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-81-why-intersectionality-matters-for-leadership-with-dominica-mcbride-founder-of-become