Multiracial Women’s Experiences and Responses to Discrimination in the Workplace and Engagement in Social Issues: The Mediating Role of Workplace Support

Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0005-5703-2227

Degree Year

2026

Document Type

Thesis - Oberlin Community Only

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Rebecca Totton

Committee Member(s)

Christine Wu
Cindy McPherson

Keywords

DEI, Women of color, Workplace, Multiracial women, Discrimination

Abstract

DEI initiatives are currently being dismantled, leaving Women of Color (WOC) without support to combat systemic barriers to workplace success, which is especially important for Multiracial Women, a historically overlooked population within both WOC and DEI policy. Using a combination of theories including identity work support perceptions, and social identity threat, this study expands a qualitative framework created by Bhattacharyya and Berdahl (2023) describing different types of discrimination and response pathways of WOC to include how Multiracial Women respond through social change, while also investigating workplace support as a key mechanism in their responses. I conducted an online survey of self-identifying Multiracial Women employed in the U.S. (n = 224) to explore their experiences of discrimination, how they respond, and how workplace support influences these responses. I find that high workplace support leads to Approach responses and is positively related to both structural change (e.g., DEI workgroups, mentorship) and external social change, while low workplace support leads to Withdrawal. I also find that the greater discrimination experienced, the more likely Multiracial Women are to engage in social change. Interestly, unambiguous discrimination is a stronger predictor of Withdrawal than ambiguous discrimination, which suggests different mechanisms for Multiracial Women compared to WOC generally. This research extends past work on WOC discrimination by highlighting Multiracial Women’s engagement in social change inside and outside of the workplace, which is critical for organizations to understand how to support and protect this historically overlooked population especially as their supports are being stripped away.

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