April 24, 2025
Written by Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi, Founder and President of Accelerate Her Future
Allyship and sponsorship are often spoken about as essential elements for advancing Indigenous, Black, and racialized women in the workplace, but as Dr. Barnini Bhattacharyya, Assistant Professor at Ivey Business School, shared during our recent panel at AHF’s Virtual Summit 2024: Flourish, not all allyship is created equal.
Dr. Bhattacharyya’s groundbreaking research, titled “Not All Allies Are Created Equal: An Intersectional Examination of Relational Allyship for Women of Color at Work,” and its powerful findings inspired the creation of this panel, guiding us toward a deeper understanding of what truly impactful allyship entails, especially in centering and amplifying the voices and agency of Indigenous, Black, and racialized women in the workplace.
The project behind Dr. Bhattacharyya’s research was born from stories shared by women of colour about their experiences with allies who, despite having the best intentions, were not necessarily contributing to the outcomes these women needed. Through the study, Dr. Bhattacharyya and her colleagues explored the dynamics between women of colour and the allies they identified within their workplaces. What they found was eye-opening.
She emphasized that true allyship involves actively engaging with the unequal power dynamics at play and challenging them, even when it’s uncomfortable. Importantly, she underscored that women of colour have their own understanding of what they want from allies, making it crucial to let them lead the conversation about what support looks like for them.
“True allyship provides space for women of colour to play a leading role in their own liberation,” she explained. “They don’t need ‘handholding’ or paternalistic approaches; what they need is space, support, and a willingness from their allies to challenge existing systems of power.”
Dr. Bhattacharyya’s study revealed that many women of colour had allies who were showing up in a way that they thought was supportive, but it wasn’t always making a real difference.
“One of the challenges is that women of colour often have very few allies they can rely on, which means that even minimal support is often valued. But true allyship, has to be action-oriented,” Dr. Bhattacharyya emphasized.
Effective allyship isn’t just about commiserating with someone after an incident, it’s about speaking up in the moment. When an injustice occurs in a meeting and no one challenges the status quo, allies are actually reinforcing the very systems of power they’re supposed to be challenging.
Dr. Bhattacharyya made it clear that being an ally can be risky, especially for those in positions of privilege. As she explained, for a white male ally, the risks they face when calling out injustice are vastly different from those faced by, for example, a junior woman of colour. Allies must be willing to evaluate the level of risk they are facing and take calculated actions for the greater good of dismantling inequitable systems. It’s not easy, but we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable according to Dr. Bhattcharya.
One of the most powerful insights Dr. Bhattacharyya shared was about moving away from the paternalistic mindset that often pervades well-intentioned allyship.
“Allies can sometimes assume they know what’s best for women of colour and impose their own frameworks of support,” explained Dr. Bhattacharyya. “This approach fails to recognize the agency of women of colour and their expertise in their own lives.”
Drawing on her research, Dr. Bhattacharyya highlighted three key elements essential to effective allyship. First, allies must avoid generalizations and acknowledge that each woman has unique needs. There is no broad brush with which to paint an entire community. Second, allyship should involve conversations to identify and pursue shared goals around equity, fostering mutual understanding and respect. Third, effective allyship is an ongoing, evolving relationship, treating the person you support as the expert on their experiences and systems of power.
Dr. Bhattacharyya also firmly challenged the dangerous assumption that shared marginalization automatically equates to understanding across different communities.
“As a South Asian woman I can’t impose my own framework of allyship onto other women with different identities and lived experiences than mine,” explained Dr. Bhattacharyya. “We’ve seen in recent times that there is anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism in the South Asian community that we must confront. As marginalized individuals ourselves, we must critically examine our own privileges and biases, especially relative to communities facing historical marginalization in ways we have not.”
Reinforcing her point, she emphasized the quote by Mikki Kenda, “It’s never the privileged outsider who gets to decide if they’re a good ally. It’s always the person you’re supporting who must determine that.”
True allyship requires ongoing learning and humility. It’s about letting the person define what success and allyship action look like for them.
Dr. Bhattacharyya also talked about sponsorship as a component of allyship. Sponsorship is about using your position of power as a senior leader to actively advocate for women of colour, ensuring they have access to opportunities, promotions, and salary increases.
But as Dr. Bhattacharyya made clear, sponsorship alone is not enough.
Simply bringing a woman of colour into an organization or promoting her to a higher level without changing the systemic and structural challenges she faces will not lead to her success or flourishing.
Dr. Bhattacharyya explained that sponsorship must be backed by a cultural shift within organizations, creating an environment that genuinely supports the advancement and inclusion of women of colour. That’s where allyship comes in.
So, what does it take to be an effective ally? Dr. Bhattacharyya’s research offers some important takeaways for anyone looking to make a real impact:
Dr. Bhattacharyya challenges us not only to rethink allyship but to commit fiercely to the difficult, necessary work of dismantling inequitable systems. True allyship demands courage, action, consistency and unwavering solidarity.
“We all have privilege,” explained Dr. Bhattacharyya. “How can we use our privilege to change outcomes for other people who may be relatively less privileged than us.”
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