Research Methods

Fourteen women of color participated in this study. They identified as Black, Asian, and Latinx. Participants’ foci and roles varied but each were engaged in the GBV field. They were advocates, leaders, researchers, and practitioners who worked with survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, or childhood sexual abuse. Participants had been in the movement ranging from 2 years to 30 years. Some participants left the movement and did not plan to come back, while others came back after leaving for many years, and some participants were still active in the movement.

NRCDV developed a list of people in the GBV field who had expertise in women of color leadership. Arlene Vassell and Dr. Nkiru Nnawulezi initially invited 18 people across racial and gender identities to participate in the study. We used snowball and purposive sampling to ensure that people who left of the movement were included. Of those 18, 14 people agreed and completed an interview. The semi-structured interview guide was comprised of five questions focused on participant’s beliefs about what contributed to the under representation of women of color in GBV leadership positions, their knowledge about current efforts to increase women of color representation, and recommendations to increase representation.

Dr. Nnawulezi employed inductive thematic analysis to code the interview data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The author read the transcripts multiple times, conducted first and second cycle coding on the data, and then developed significant themes. Afterwards, the report author shared the findings back with the NRCDV Women of Color Caucus using the Expectations to Change process (Adams, Nnawulezi, & Vandenburg, 2016). The Caucus provided additional interpretations and recommendations, which were compiled in the recommendations section below.