Virtual Work Challenges and Resilience: An Intersectional Exploration of Workplace Team Experiences of Women of Color

Virtual collaboration is now common, yet the everyday realities of Women of Color (WoC) in virtual teams remain underexamined. This study investigated how WoC experience virtual teamwork, the barriers they face, and the strategies that sustain performance and well-being. A basic qualitative design was used. Purposeful sampling yielded 13 WoC in the United States, ages 25 to 49, working across banking, oil and gas, retail, healthcare, and higher education. Semi-structured Zoom interviews of approximately 45 min were recorded and transcribed. Analysis followed a reflexive thematic approach supported by NVivo, with credibility strengthened through transcript verification, member checking, and analytic triangulation. Five themes emerged: (1) intersectional barriers intensify online, shaping access, belonging, and advancement; (2) marginalization produces recurring emotional and psychological strain; (3) virtual practices can obscure contributions, creating visibility and recognition gaps; (4) participants mobilize resilient tactics such as asserting presence, setting boundaries, building relationships, and amplifying ideas, alongside women for women support; and (5) structural and social supports, especially inclusive leadership, mentoring networks, and confidence building, enable fair participation and growth. Overall, virtual work can magnify inequities while also revealing practical levers that organizations can use to improve psychological safety, make contributions visible, and create equitable paths to advancement for WoC in distributed teams. Implications for Human Resource Development (HRD) include auditing visibility practices in virtual workflows, aligning evaluation with collaborative outputs, and targeting supports where inequities cluster.