Women of Color are Redefining the Culture of Remote Work

Waking at 6 a.m., Aundréa Murray meditates every morning before touching any technology. Living in the depths of her email inbox is a reality of the past, and setting the day's tone is a must before tackling her to-do list. Some afternoons she joins expats and digital nomads working from laptops at a local cafe and on others, she’s adventuring to a waterfall hike or a bustling Balinese market.

Murray is one of the millions of Americans who’ve left an office job and claimed their freedom by becoming location independent. Since leaving Hartford, Connecticut in 2016 she has studied, worked abroad and spent the past year working remotely as a marketing campaign manager while traveling throughout six southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, picking up new clients, new friends, and new inspiration during her travels.

“Being able to work outside of an office has been critical to my mental health and the success of my work - without it, I lose momentum, motivation and passion for what I am doing,” says Murray.

“The sooner employers understand that their employees thrive from having this freedom, the sooner they can see the growth in their companies.”

The remote work lifestyle has been steadily pushing the boundaries and redefining work culture in the U.S. for more than a decade now. From 2005 to 2017, the number of people telecommuting in the U.S. increased by 159%, according to U.S. Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics data collected by Global Workplace Analytics.

As professionals continue to pull away from traditional routines and conventional office spaces, remote working will maintain its upward trend as individuals are more intentional about prioritizing a work-life balance, improved health, and well-being. In a collective report published by Buffer last year, 2,500 remote workers of all ages shared their individual experiences and 99% said they would work remotely for the rest of their careers.

The rise in remote work coupled with a desire to travel birthed the ‘digital nomad’, which has now become an international subculture for many professionals uprooting their lives to explore foreign countries and cities around the world, tethered only to their laptops and a strong WiFi connection. In 2019, 7.3 million Americans describe themselves as digital nomads, according to MBO partners, a provider of back-office services to independent workers that studies the freelance economy.

More often than not, we’ve seen the digital nomad experience and its narratives shared in the media from a privileged white lens, but professionals from a variety of backgrounds and races have been just as present in shifting work culture, including many women of color like Murray. In some cases, remote work has even helped to decrease gender and racial gaps in work industries, especially tech. And through social media and blogs, women of color are building community and influencing their peers to join the movement.

“Nomadism is different for everybody, and for me, it’s been an interesting ride,” says Murray about her experience traveling as a Black woman. “The downside has been not seeing too many women of color in certain countries and feeling isolated and lonely, but checking Facebook and Instagram to see who’s in your city can remind you you’re not at all alone.”

For San Francisco native Yosh Han, a clairvoyant and scent artist running her own perfume company remotely, digital nomadism looks like a constant exploration of culture, collaboration, and building community.

“I love working with talented people and broadening my work, whether it be with local artisans or entrepreneurs,” she says.

After complete burnout and back-to-back heartbreak left her craving a big life change, Han left San Francisco in December 2016 to join a 78-person travel group on Remote Year, a company that organizes international travel for professionals from different backgrounds and industries. As a Tawainese-American woman, Han says she has had to constantly clarify her heritage during her travels.

“Sometimes being a woman of color helped me fit in and gave me some advantages in countries where brown skin is the norm, and other times, especially in Europe, people would insist I am from China,” she says. Her advice to other women of color who are navigating the day-to-day of digital nomadism is to make local friends and really get involved in the communities.

“It’s so expanding to learn about other cultures, even dating in other countries is a huge eye-opener.”

Work travel programs and companies, including Remote Year, are now becoming more intentional about inclusivity for both their employees and their program groups. Akua Sencherey, a Black woman digital nomad and former Remote Year program consultant, says that she noticed a change in the racial and ethnic makeup of the groups during 2018 when she worked for the company, including more African Americans.

“I believe the biggest driver of this was the pioneering members of the early Remote Year groups being honest with their experiences and sharing that perspective with prospective travelers.”

Sencherey also shared her experiences as a Black woman abroad, describing a range of experiences in Brazil, Montenegro, South Africa and other countries where she faced blatantly racist acts.

“One thing that I now know for sure is that the world doesn’t really know who women of color are, especially those from the U.S. They have a stereotypical view of us from the media and Hollywood – I’ve often been referred to as Serena Williams, Beyonce, Obama Family. Our international identity is also mixed within the context of each country’s own history with people of color and, more recently, those who have landed in their country for various reasons from Africa.”

But she says she refuses to let the ignorance of others stop her from journeying, and others shouldn't let it stop them either. Her advice to other women of color travelers is to set an intention for the life path they want to go after, even if it means putting all eggs in one basket, and see what doors will open if you step into that path with your truest self.

“Discrimination and prejudice are everywhere and in different contexts, and they act out differently, but each race or gender challenge that I’m faced with brings me to closer to my true identity—it teaches me to maintain my light and my smile and the fullness of myself regardless of how someone responds to me or what I think anyone else’s expectations of me are,” says Sencherey. “There’s no place on earth I will not travel because of the color of my skin or because I am a woman.”