On the dynamics of intersectional (in)visibility: Women early career researchers negotiating authenticity at work

Torbor, Mabel; Sarpong, David; Maclean, Mairi; Fletcher, Luke

Abstract

How do women negotiate and express authenticity in professional contexts where their presence and identities are largely rendered (in)visible? We draw on intersectional invisibility as our conceptual lens to explore how women early career researchers subjectively negotiate authenticity given prevailing conditions of visibility, invisibility and hypervisibility at work. Based on semi-structured interviews with recipients of the Organisation for Women in Science from Developing Countries (OWSD)-Elsevier award, we illuminate how (in)visible conditions shape the subjective negotiation of authenticity, informing the agentic capacity of women researchers to express themselves authentically in professional settings. Our findings reveal the negotiation of authenticity is closely tied to gender performance in a manner that aligns with perceived professionalism. This entails compartmentalising personal values when feeling invisible, experiencing a heightened awareness of context-specific boundaries when visibility increases and enacting adaptive agency when hypervisible. We thus posit authenticity as a continuous process of ongoing identity construction and negotiation rather than a static ideal.

Citation

Torbor, M., Sarpong, D., Maclean, M., & Fletcher, L. (2025). On the dynamics of intersectional (in)visibility: Women early career researchers negotiating authenticity at work. Human Relations, https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251323854

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 6, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Mar 17, 2025
• Publication Date: Mar 17, 2025
• Deposit Date: Feb 21, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 17, 2025
• Journal: Human Relations
• Print ISSN: 0018-7267
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-282X
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251323854
• Keywords: Authenticity; intersectional invisibility; early-career researchers; masculinisation; performance of gender; professionalism; visibility
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/45599443
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00187267251323854