South Asian American women and leadership: How race and gender identity influence perceptions and enactment of leadership

Abstract

This dissertation explored how second-generation South Asian American women describe, define, and enact leadership. Using intersectionality and DesiCrit as a theoretical framework, this narrative inquiry study was guided by the following research questions: (1) How do racial and gender identities influence second-generation South Asian American women college students’ descriptions of leadership? (2) How do racial and gender identities influence second-generation South Asian American women college students’ enactment of leadership?Ten South Asian American women college students from a university in the Mid-Atlantic participated in this study. Participants completed one interview and submitted a participant-generated visual method (PGVM) depicting their conceptualizations of leadership. This dissertation includes individual narratives for each participant, outlining their unique experiences, perspectives, and meaning-making related to leadership and their identities, as well as a collective narrative outlining themes that cut across the participants’ individual narratives. The themes from the collective narrative include: (1) learning leadership, particularly through women in their communities; (2) connections to South Asian community and identity; (3) navigating a bicultural identity and stereotypes; (4) leadership grounded in community; (5) leadership grounded in advocacy; and (6) developing an integrated South Asian American woman leader identity.