Gender, ethnicity and feminism: an intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education

Abstract

Studies have begun to explore how those women academics committed to social justice, namely feminist academics, are navigating the increasingly managerial Academy. To understand how these multiple social identities, including gender and ethnicity, interact and intersect, this paper adopts an intersectional approach to understanding the heterogeneity of women's experiences in academia. Five focus groups with feminist academics (n = 6-10 in each focus group) reveal concerns of hampered career progression as a consequence of being female and openly feminist. Some ethnic minority academics felt that they were forced to choose between a feminist identity or that of their ethnic background. For some women, their feminist identity provided opportunities for challenging dominant practices. The paper concludes that the heterogeneity of feminist academics' experiences within academia is under-researched and that the lens of intersectionality helps to illuminate this. This paper advances understanding of multiple identities at work, though demonstrating that intersectionality can lead to the accumulation of advantage as well as disadvantage in relation to social identities such as gender and ethnicity, and a political identity such as feminist.

The Role of Feminist Standpoint and Intersectionality Epistemologies in Providing Insights into the Causes of Gender Disparity in Higher Education

“…Davis (2008) argues that "intersectionality promises an almost universal applicability, useful for understanding and analyzing any social practice, and any cultural configuration" (p. 72). Sang (2016) corroborates that the experience of women in a learning environment is "bound by cultural and temporal contexts" (p. 2).…”

“…oftentimes place them in a lower social status (Crenshaw, 1989). 'Intersectionality' denotes the interaction between gender, social status, and other types of differences in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies, and the results of these interactions in terms of power relations (Berger & Guidroz, 2009;Davis, 2008;Dill & Kohlman, 2012;Sang, 2016). Davis (2008) argues that "intersectionality promises an almost universal applicability, useful for understanding and analyzing any social practice, and any cultural configuration" (p. 72).…”

“…The strength of the feminist intersectional approach to understanding and developing effective policies to challenge disparities in higher education depends on the ways this epistemological approach contrasts with dominant educational paradigms (Sang, 2016;Walby, Armstrong, & Strid, 2012). While feminist epistemology provides an appropriate lens for studying gender issues, there is a need to select appropriate methodologies to create knowledge.…”

‘If you put pressure on yourself to produce then that's your responsibility’: Mothers’ experiences of maternity leave and flexible work in the neoliberal university

“…In this sense, the participants are relatively homogenous, and research with those who are not white, heterosexual or middle class may find different experiences. As previous research has illustrated, experiences of academic careers can be understood from an intersectional perspective (Sang, ). As Sang, Al‐Dajani, and Özbilgin () revealed, an intersectional analysis also allows for migrant status to be considered in academic women's careers.…”

Contemporary Challenges for the Academic

“…This reflection did not directly take into account dimensions such as the connection and impact of the academic's activity on the surrounding community (Ross, 2018), or cultural difficulties, for example, of gender or ethnic, in the academic's activity (Banchefsky & Park, 2018;Misra, Smith-Doerr, Dasgupta, Weaver, & Normanly, 2017;Sang, 2018;Ustun, & Gümüseli, 2017). These are aspects to be developed if we want more just and equitable societies.…”