The Hidden Strength and the Necessary Change
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. For many women of colour in professional spaces, few things quietly impact day-to-day wellbeing more than code-switching.
Most WoC already know the feeling. It shows up in the slight shift in tone, the careful word choice, the calculation of how much of yourself to bring into a room. It happens quickly, often below the level of conscious thought, and it is not unique to any one industry or career stage.
The Danish Wrinkle
Working in Denmark adds a specific dimension to this conversation. The cultural norm of not speaking too highly of yourself, often described through the lens of the Law of Jante, can feel particularly pointed for non-Danish women who are already calibrating how much professional confidence to display.
In many professional cultures, visibility and self-promotion are considered core to advancement. In Denmark, that same behaviour can read as arrogant or socially tone-deaf. For WoC navigating both racial dynamics and a new cultural register, the combination can feel like a double constraint.
But women can still find their way through it. The Danish preference for understatement doesn’t mean that impact goes unnoticed — it means that how it is communicated matters. Building trust through consistency and advocating through relationships rather than solo performances can be a genuine fit for women who were never comfortable with louder models of self-promotion.
Seen through this lens, the Law of Jante is not a ceiling but a set of rules that, once understood, can be worked with rather than against.
What the Research Shows
Code-switching has a measurable footprint. A 2022 Catalyst study surveyed more than 3,000 employees from marginalised racial and ethnic groups across several Western countries. The study found that 61% of PoC report being on guard against bias due to race, ethnicity, or gender at work. Among women specifically, that figure was 56%.
Catalyst frames this as an Emotional Tax — the energy spent anticipating, managing, and adapting to environments where difference can be penalised. According to the same research, employees who carry it are three times less likely to stay at their organisation and three times less likely to feel engaged with their work.
Recognising and Deciding What to Do with the Pattern
Many professional WoC are becoming more empowered when it comes to code-switching because they are changing their relationship to it. They are doing this by focusing on observing, evaluating and making deliberate choices about how and if they respond to it.
That distinction matters. Code-switching is not inherently a concession. Research on bilingualism and professional identity describes it as a form of social intelligence and cognitive flexibility — the ability to read a room, adapt to its dynamics, and communicate across difference. That is a skill, and one that many WoC have developed with considerable depth simply by navigating multiple cultural contexts throughout their lives.
The difference lies in whether the adjustment feels chosen or compelled, and whether the version of yourself left behind is one you can afford to lose. Naming that distinction is itself useful. Recognising when an adaptation is strategic versus when it is driven by anxiety shifts the experience from something passive to something that can be assessed, which is essential for building agency.
Three Strategies for Building Presence at Work
1. Separate style from substance.
Adapting communication style to different audiences is a skill, not a compromise of identity. The question worth returning to is whether the core of what is being communicated — the ideas, the values, the contributions — remains intact. When adaptation starts reaching into that territory, it is worth pausing.
2. Document impact in concrete terms.
In environments where speaking loudly about achievements is not culturally expected or personally comfortable, a clear record of contributions becomes essential. Specific outcomes, not just responsibilities, give women something to draw on in performance conversations, sponsorship discussions, and moments when visibility matters most.
3. Find communities where less translation is needed.
Being part of workplaces or networks where it is not necessary to code-switch makes a big difference, even if it’s only part-time or informal spaces. Being part of a community who understands you through similarity is restorative in a way that is easy to underestimate until you have it.
Building an authentic presence at work is rarely a solo project. It takes environments that make it possible, and people who model what it looks like.
That is part of what ProWoc membership is built around — a community of women navigating these questions in a Danish professional context. The ProWoc mentoring programme pairs women with mentors who have navigated similar terrain, and upcoming events regularly create space where these conversations can happen.
The experience of code-switching is familiar. What comes next does not have to be figured out alone.
