Personal Branding and Self-Promotion as a tool for career elevation for women of colour in the creative industry

Abstract

This research study was conducted to understand the relationship between personal branding and elevating the careers of women of colour in the creative industry of South Africa. It was conducted in order to understand whether having a strong personal brand could have an effect on - by elevating or alleviating - the extent to which women of colour experience gender and racial biases in the workplace. The main argument was that if women of colour take the time to build strong personal brands and use self-promotion to advertise their skills, this would help them in building strong career trajectories and lessen inequality from a perspective of gender and race in the workplace. The research investigated the relationship between personal branding and elevating the careers of women of colour in senior-level executive positions. A qualitative data collection method was chosen in order to gather human truths about whether personal branding can be used as a tool. The research highlights that, although personal branding and self-promotion can be used as a tool to elevate one's career, it does not solve the problem of inequality in the workplace. Because women of colour need to put in more effort to advance in their professions, personal branding is a justified tool in this regard. It is apparent that both racism and sexism influence the career path of professional women of colour, particularly those in leadership positions. Ongoing sexual harassment in the workplace, and inherent doubts in some sectors of society about the skills and abilities of women of colour, need more attention.