Rhonda Broussard, Founder of the Nonprofit Beloved Community, Gets Real About Supporting Black, Queer Women at Work – and So-Called “Professional Attire”

Learn what Beloved Community Founder and CEO Rhonda Broussard has to say about the women who inspire her, the worst career advice she ever got, and the meeting that changed her life.

The Female Quotient: Name a woman who has inspired you in your line of work recently. What did she do and how did she do it? 

Rhonda Broussard: Gabrielle Wyatt, Founder of The Highland Project, has inspired me so much this year. Gabrielle exemplifies the phrase “dream bigger.” With her vision for The Highland Project, she is challenging, supporting, and funding Black women to plan for multigenerational wealth. I thought my current vision was big enough until Gabrielle asked what our legacy would look like in seven generations. I’m still trying to answer that question.

FQ: What’s one example of how you and/or your organization are moving the equality needle — at work or in life? 

RB: At Beloved Community, we are a pro-Black, pro-queer, pro-woman organization. This means that we design our worklife to acknowledge the specific ways that our communities have been undervalued in the workplace and we design and redefine operating practices to consistently support Black, queer women at work. One way that we move the equality needle in our organization and our sector is by building in pay equity audits and transparency about compensation for all roles. We shouldn’t have to teach women to negotiate in order for businesses to give them equal pay.

Excerpted from the FQuestionnaire, a regular forum where we talk to change agents across different industries to learn from their unique perspectives on career building, as well as how they are advancing equality in their work and personal lives. Read more here.