Black women in Cleveland and across Northeast Ohio continue to face significant adversity at work, in school and at the doctor’s office, according to a report released today by a Cleveland workplace equity organization.
After a 2020 Bloomberg CityLab report ranked Cleveland the worst place in the U.S. for Black women, Enlightened Solutions, a local advocacy organization, formed a working group called Project Noir to investigate the issue.
The group issued a survey and report for 2020, which covered a range of topics based on experiences across the workplace, health care and education systems. The 2024 survey was updated to gather data amid another presidential election and the wake of the global pandemic.
In its 2024 report, the group surveyed 1,300 Black women in Northeast Ohio and outlined common themes and policy solutions.
The results showed systemic racism still impacts Black women in the community, even as more women attain higher education, and showed Black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, said Bethany Studenic, co-founder of Enlightened Solutions.
“The more we push back, instead of investing in the fact that we are a Black-majority city with amazing talent, educational institutions, health care institutions, we're going to fall behind," Studenic said.
The report found Northeast Ohio's Black women commonly see health care professionals who lack empathy and dismiss their concerns. Those surveyed also reported experiencing gossip and false accusations that damaged their professional reputations.
Participants also spoke of persistent stereotypes that Black women aren’t as smart or experienced, said Chinenye Nkemere, also a co-founder at Enlightened Solutions. Those beliefs held by their professors and peers alienated them in the classroom.
“Isolation is a theme that is particularly dangerous and insidious for Black women," Nkemere said. "It affects your mental health and it affects self-esteem and confidence.”
Nkemere said she hopes local leaders and employers will read the report and make investments and commitments to better serve Black women.
The full report can be found at https://www.projectnoircle.org/.
In 2023, Ideastream Public Media teamed up with Enlightened Solutions and others to produce Living for We, a podcast series that explored, "Is Cleveland really as bad as they say it is for Black women?" For more information and to listen to the podcast, visit the show page.
