Table 2.

Analysis of the interviews

Theme  Focused code	Examples	Instancesa
Gender  Bigoted remarks;  sexist treatment	“When I took the job working with the community and development as a chairperson, I received a lot of negativity from my male counterparts and senior colleagues. Six months into the job all I got was ‘women cannot do this job’ and I was never taken seriously.” (ID 10) “Sometimes I found the expectation for a woman was to make tea and coffee in the boardroom.” (ID 14)	120
Ethnicity and Religion  Negative comments;  indirect discrimination	“Senior colleagues would make inappropriate remarks, such as ‘oh it’s Ramadan, I hope you don’t pull any sickies.’” (ID 8) “In general, I think racism does exist within different organisations but it is difficult to prove and you need to be 100% sure.” (ID 13)	62
Perceptions;  Cultural indicators	“Being an ethnic minority woman has helped me to progress in my career. To be honest it’s down to your appearance and how you speak. Because I am westernised in my appearance and how I come across is not much of a hindrance. Say if I was to wear a hijab or a shalwar qameez [traditional South Asian trousers and top], then I may be perceived differently.” (ID 6)	69
Family  Marriage and children;  family traditions	“I do think Muslim women are held back because of family traditions; this stops some of them to apply for promotions.” (ID 13) “In the early age, say 20s, when many women are going to university or starting their career, in some Muslim families, women are expected to get married and have children—straight after their studies.” (ID 12)	71
Intersectionality  Overlapping of gender, ethnicity and religion	“What I found was all males recently had the opportunity to attend the conference but I was not allowed to go. I think the CEO was probably thinking how an Asian woman is going to present herself in a male-dominated environment.” (ID 15) “Gender doesn’t act alone but race also has a part in it if you are from an ethnic minority group. I was a race relations officer, I could not carry out certain tasks and I was working with two Black females and one White male. The male was allowed to carry out the tasks that were specified in the job description but the two ladies and I could not carry out what was stated in our job description.” (ID 10)	57
Agency  Social support;  confidence; training	“When I got married my career carried on, I have a very supportive spouse, as well as having two children. Alongside my job I am currently doing my PhD part-time “(ID 17). “The biggest challenge I faced as a Muslim woman was having to juggle with work life balance and the lack of confidence. I was always unsure if I could take the business to the next level.” (ID 15)	59

^aAll themes were expressed by all 20 interviewees at least one time. Instances reflects the number of discrete occurrences across all participants