Increasing Pathways to Leadership for Black, Indigenous, and other Racially Minoritized Women

Authors

  • Maki Motapanyane Mount Saint Vincent University
  • Irene Shankar Mount Royal University

Keywords:

gender, race, class, leadership, inclusion, reform, post-secondary institution, academia

Abstract

Leadership positions within post-secondary institutions (PSIs) remain elusive to women generally, and to Black, Indigenous, and other racially minoritized women in particular. In this paper, we argue that pathways to leadership—particularly non-traditional, non-normative, and critical approaches that can come from the differently situated epistemic positioning of Black, Indigenous, and other racially minoritized women—are important as beginning steps towards progressively dismantling standardized Eurocentric, androcentric, and corporatized academic workplace cultures. This type of reform is essential preliminary work in the process toward greater equity and inclusivity in academic institutions. Note then that we are writing of a significant amount of substantive change needed to enact crucial initial reform, in tandem with, and beyond which we should continuously push for more radical transformation (Dryden 2022; Patel 2021). As such, we propose initiatives that universities can take to address some of the common gendered, racialized, and class-related exclusions and inequities evident in academic workplaces. This is in acknowledgement that academic institutions, having demonstrated a predilection for the co-optative and performative, are barely able to reform meaningfully, let alone engage the “transformation” and “decolonization” with which reform is often confused and erroneously conflated. Grounded within institutional research, we detail the commitments required from governing bodies, the changes necessary in academic decision-making spaces, the need for timely and transparent data collection infrastructure, and other institutional changes required to enhance the recruitment, hiring, and retention of Black, Indigenous, and other racially minoritized faculty and academic leaders. Together, these practices constitute preliminary reform necessary to create opportunity for more meaningful practices of inclusion.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biographies

Maki Motapanyane, Mount Saint Vincent University

Maki Motapanyane is an associate professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. Her research and teaching span the academic areas of feminist epistemology and methodology, colonialism/anti-colonial social movements/decolonization, motherhood studies, and cultural studies. Recent and forthcoming publications examine Canadian childcare policy, EDI policies in academe, motherhood in African cinema, and feminist humour. She is the editor of Motherhood and Lone/Single Parenting: A 21st Century Perspective (Demeter Press, 2016) and Mothering in Hip-Hop Culture: Representation and Experience (Demeter Press, 2012), and co-editor of "New Maternalisms": Tales of Motherwork (Dislodging the Unthinkable)  (Demeter Press, 2016). 

Irene Shankar, Mount Royal University

Irene Shankar is an associate professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Mount Royal University. Dr. Shankar’s main areas of interest are Feminist Theories, Critical Race Theory, Qualitative Research Methods, and the Sociology of Health and Illness. Shankar’s ability to use her critical scholarship to inspire activism and change has resulted in numerous commendations for her leadership in both teaching and research. Her current research projects concern individualized and gendered constructions of risk and responsibility during the H1N1 Pandemic in Alberta in 2009 and SSHRC IDG-funded research on (under)utilization of feminist expertise within PSI sexual assault policies and, programs. Dr. Shankar is the current (2022-2023) President of the Canadian Sociological Association.

References

Abawi, Zuhra E. 2018. “Factors and Processes of Racialization in the Canadian Academe.” Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education/Revue canadienne des jeunes chercheures et chercheurs en éducation 9, no.1 (May), 85–95.

Academic Women’s Association (AWA). 2019. “U15 Leadership Remains Largely White and Male Despite 33 years of Equity Initiatives.” Accessed May 17, 2022. https://uofaawa.wordpress.com/2019/06/20/u15-leadership-remains-largely-white-and-male-despite-33-years-of-equity-initiatives/

Ahmed, Sara. 2012. On Being Included. Durham: Duke University Press.

Ahmed, Sara. 2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press.Ahmed, Sara. 2021. Complaint! Durham: Duke University Press. Aiston, Sarah Jane, and Zi Yang. 2017. “‘Absent Data, Absent Women’”: Gender and Higher Education Leadership.” Policy Futures in Education 15, no. 3: 262–74.

Alcoff, L. M. 2001. “On Judging Epistemic Credibility: Is Social Identity Relevant?” In Engendering Rationalities, edited by Nancy Tuana and Sandra Morgen, 53–80. Albany: Suny Press.

American Council on Education (ACE). 2018. “Voices from the Field: Women of Colour Presidents in Higher Education.” Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/Voices-From-the-Field.pdf

American Psychological Association. 1996. “How to Recruit and Hire Ethnic Minority Faculty.” Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/brochures/how-to

Arday, Jason, and Heidi Safia Mirza, eds. 2018. Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bartel, Susuan. (2018). “Leadership Barriers for Women in Higher Education.” AACSB (December 19). Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2018/12/leadership-barriers-for-women-in-higher education

Beer, Janet. 2015. “Diversity in Leadership.” Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education 19, no. 2, 40–42. Doi: 10.1080/13603108.2015.1021402

Bhopal, Kalwant, Hazel Brown, and June Jackson. 2018. “Should I Stay or Should I Go? BME Academics and the Decision to Leave UK Higher Education.” In Dismantling Race in Higher Education, edited by Jason Arday and Heidi Safia Mirza, 125–39. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bose, Sarika. 2022. “Invisibility, Marginalization, Injustice, Dehumanization: Precariousness in the Academy.” Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University: Counting for Nothing, edited by Sunera Thobani, 266–304. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Canadian Association of Cultural Studies (CACS). 2022. “Call for Papers: Another University, Now.” Conference of the Canadian Association of Cultural Studies/Association Canadienne des Études Culturelles (October 27–30), Toronto, ON.

Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) (nd). “Precarious Labour in Our Academic Institutions.” Accessed May 17, 2022. https://ourfuture.caut.ca/brief_precarity

Canada Research Chairs. 2018. “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: A Best Practices Guide for Recruitment, Hiring and Retention” (September). Last modified November 17, 2021. https://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/program-programme/equity-equite/best_practices-pratiq ues_examplaires-eng.aspx

Caruana, Viv, and Josef Ploner. 2010. “Internationalisation and Equality and Diversity in Higher Education: Merging Identities.” Project Report. Equality Challenge Unit (ECU). Last modified February 23, 2022. http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/600/

Catalyst. 2020. “Quick Take: Women in Academia” (January 23). Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-academia/

Chance, Nuchelle L. 2021. “Resilient Leadership: A Phenomenological Exploration Into How Black Women in Higher Education Leadership Navigate Cultural Adversity.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 62, no. 1: 44–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678211003000

Collins, Patricia Hill. 1986. “Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought.” Social Problems 33, no. 6 (1986): s14–s32.

Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black Feminist Thought. Milton Park: Routledge.

Crandall, Jennifer. R., Lorelle.L. Espinosa, and Morgan Taylor. 2017. “Looking Ahead to Diversifying the College Presidency.” Higher Education Today (August 14). Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.higheredtoday.org/2017/08/14/looking-ahead-diversifying-college-presidency/

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. 1: 139–67. http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8

Cukier, Wendy, Patience Adamu, Charlie Wall-Andrews, and Mohamed Elmi. 2021. “Racialized leaders leading Canadian universities.” Educational Management Administration & Leadership 49, no. 4: 565–83.

Davis, Daniel. B. 2017. Contingent Academic Labor: Evaluating Conditions to Improve Student Outcomes. Sterling: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Dobbin, Frank, and Alexandra Kalev. 2018. “Why Doesn't Diversity Training Work? The Challenge for Industry and Academia.” Anthropology Now 10, no. 2: 48–55.

Douglas, Delia. D. 2012. “Black/Out: The White Face of Multiculturalism and the Violence of the Canadian Academic Imperial Project.” In Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, edited by Gabriella Guitierrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez and Angela P. Harris, 50-64. Boulder: The University Press of Colorado.

Douglas, Delia. D. 2022a. “Exposed! The Ivory Tower’s Code Noir.” In Nuances of Blackness: Teaching, Learning, and Researching while Black, edited by Awad Ibrahim, Tamari Kitossa, Malinda S.Smith, Handel K. Wright 45-62. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Douglas, Delia. D. 2022b. “Access Denied: Safe/guarding the University as a White Property.” In Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University: Counting for Nothing, edited by Sunera Thobani, 245-265. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Dryden, Omisoore H. 2022. “Blackness and the Limits of Institutional Goodwill.” In Nuances of Blackness: Teaching, Learning, and Researching while Black, edited by Awad Ibrahim, Tamari Kitossa, Malinda S. Smith, Handel K. Wright, 372–85. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Dua, Enakshi, and Nael Bhanji. 2017. “Mechanisms to Address Inequities in Canadian Universities.” In The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities, edited by Frances Henry, Enakshi Dua, Carl E. James, Audrey Kobayashi, Peter Li, Howard Ramos, and Malinda Smith, 206–38. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Fadda, Carol.W.N., and Dana M. Olwan. 2021. “Refusing Diversity in the Militarized Settler Academy.” In Coloniality and Racial (in)Justice in the University: Counting for Nothing?, edited by Sunera Thobani, 305–29. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Faucher, Kane. X. 2015. “Let’s Reconsider Our Hiring Practices for Contract Academic Staff.” University Affairs (March 2). Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/contractually-bound/lets-reconsider-our-hi ring-practices-for-contract-academic-staff/

Griffin, Kimberly A., and Richard J. Reddick. 2011. “Surveillance and Sacrifice: Gender Differences in the Mentoring Patterns of Black Professors at Predominantly White Research Universities.” American Educational Research Journal 48, no. 5: 1032–57. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211405025

Griffin, Rachel Alicia. 2016. “Black Female Faculty, Resilient Grit, and Determined Grace or ‘Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed’.” The Journal of Negro Education 85, no. 3: 365–79.

Hamilton-Page, Michelle. 2021. “Unbound Leadership: How Gender Non-Conforming, or Non-Binary Lesbians Navigate the Workplace from a Place of Visibility.” PhD diss., Royal Roads University (Canada).

Henry, Frances, Enakshi Dua, Carl James, Audrey Kobayashi, Peter Li, Howard Ramos, and Malinda Smith. 2017a. “Race, Racialization and Indigeneity in Canadian Universities.” Race Ethnicity and Education 20, no. 3: 300–14. Doi: 10.1080/13613324.2016.1260226

Henry, Frances, Enakshi Dua, Carl James, Audrey Kobayashi, Peter Li, Howard Ramos, and Malinda Smith, eds. 2017b. The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities. Vancouver: UBC Press.

hooks, bell. (1984/2014). Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Milton Park: Routledge.

Hull, Akasha (Gloria.T.), Patricia Bell-Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds. 1982/2015. All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies. New York: The Feminist Press.

Joecks, Jasmin, Kerstin Pull, and Karin Vetter. 2013. “Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Performance: What Exactly Constitutes a ‘Critical Mass’?” J Bus Ethics 118: 61–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1553-6

Johnson, Genevieve, and F. Robert Howsam. 2020. “Whiteness, Power and the Politics of Demographics in the Governance of the Canadian Academy.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 53, no. 3: 676–94. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423920000207

Kelly, Jennifer R. 2022. “Leadership in Neoliberal Times: A Road to Nowhere.” In Nuances of Blackness: Teaching, Learning, and Researching while Black, edited by Awad Ibrahim, Tamari Kitossa, Malinda S. Smith, and Handel K. Wright, 386–400. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Khan, Mishal S., Fatim Lakha, Melisa Mei Jin Tan, Shewta R. Singh, Rina Yu Chin Quek, and Emeline Han. See Tan, Mieng, Victoria Haldane, Montserrat Gea-Sanchez, and Helena Leigdo-Quigley. 2019. “More Talk Than Action: Gender and Ethnic Diversity in Leading Public Health Universities.” Lancet 393, no. 10171: 594–600. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32609-6

Khan, Ahmar. 2021. “2 Medical Experts Allege Harassment, Bullying, Exploitation at U of O.” CBC News (August 12). Last modified August 12, 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/harassment-bullying-allegations-university-of-ott awa-international-medical-experts-1.6136229

Laver, Kate E., Ivanka J. Prichard, Monica Cations, Ivana Osenk, Kay Govin, and John D. Coveney. 2018. “A Systematic Review of Interventions to Support the Careers of Women in Academic Medicine and Other Disciplines.” BMJ Open (March 22) 8, no. 3, 1-15. Doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020380

Long, Chelsea. 2022. “Who’s Missing in Leadership at Elite Colleges? Women of Color, A New Report Finds.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (January 20). Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.chronicle.com/article/whos-missing-in-leadership-at-elite-colleges-women-o f-color-a-new-report-finds

Mainah, Fredah, Vernita Perkins. 2015. “Challenges Facing Female Leaders of Color in US Higher Education.” International Journal of African Development 2, no. 2: 3.

Manfredi, Simonetta, Kate Clayton-Hathway, and Emily Cousens. 2019. “Increasing Gender Diversity in Higher Education Leadership: The Role of Executive Search Firms.” Social Sciences 8, no. 6: 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8060168

Martimianakis, Maria Athina. 2008. “Reconciling Competing Discourses: The University of Toronto’s Equity and Diversity Framework.” In Whose University Is It, Anyway? Power and Privilege on Gendered Terrain, edited by Anne Wagner, Sandra Acker, Kimine Mayuzumi, 44–59. Toronto: Sumach Press.

Maylor, Uvanney. 2018. “Leadership in Race and Social Justice.” In Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy, edited by Jason Arday and Heidi Safia Mirza, 349-364. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

McChesney, Jasper. 2018. Representation and Pay of Women of Color in the Higher Education Workforce (Research report). CUPA-HR. (May) https://www.cupahr.org/surveys/research-briefs/2018-representation-pay-women-of-color -higher-ed-workforce/

Mills, Charles. 2007. “White Ignorance.” Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance 247: 26–31.

Mohanty, Chandra. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Feminist Review 30, no. 1: 61-88.

Monture, Patricia. 2010. “Race, Gender, and the University: Strategies for Survival.” In States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century, edited by Sherene Razack, Malinda Smith and Sunera Thobani, 23–36. Toronto: Between the Lines Press.

Moraga, Cherrie, and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. 1981/2021. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Muzzin, Linda, and Jacqueline Limoges. 2008. "A Pretty Incredible Structural Injustice”: Contingent Faculty in Canadian University Nursing." In Whose University Is It Anyway, edited by Anne Wagner, Sandra Acker, Kimine Mayuzumi, 157–72. Toronto: Sumach Press.

Nash, Jennifer. 2019. Black Feminism Reimagined. Durham: Duke University Press.

Navarro, Tami. 2017. “But Some of Us Are Broke: Race, Gender, and the Neoliberalization of the Academy.” American Anthropologist 000, no. 0: 1-12. Doi: 10.1111/aman.12888

Niemann, Yolanda. F. 2012. “The Making of a Token: The Case Study of Stereotype Threat, Stigma, Racism and Tokenism in Academe.” In Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia edited by Gabriella Guitierrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez and Angela P. Harris, 336–55. Boulder: The University Press of Colorado.

Njoku, Anuli, and Marian Evans. 2022. “Black Women Faculty and Administrators Navigating COVID-19, Social Unrest, and Academia: Challenges and Strategies.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 4: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042220

Pasma, Chandra, and Erika Shaker. 2018. “Contract U: Contract Faculty Appointments at Canadian Universities.” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (October). Accessed May 17, 2022. https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2 018/11/Contract%20U.pdf

Patel, Leigh. 2021. No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Education. Boston: Beacon Press.

Puwar, Nirmal. 2004. Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Santos, Wilson. 2016. “Contingent Diversity, Contingent Faculty: Or, Musings of a Lowly Adjunct.” In Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure, edited by Patricia A. Matthew, 178-198. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469627717.003.0011

Silbert, Andrea, Magdalena Punty, and Elizabeth B. Ghoniem. 2022. “The Women’s Power Gap at Elite Universities: Scaling the Ivory Tower.” Eos Foundation (January). Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.womenspowergap.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/WPG-Power-Gap-at-Elit e-Universities-v17.pdf

Smith, Malinda. 2010. “Gender, Whiteness and the ‘Other Others’ in the Academy.” In States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century, edited by Sherene Razack, Malinda Smith and Sunera Thobani, 37-58. Toronto: Between the Lines.

Smith, Malinda. 2021. Racial Equity Leadership in COVID Times. University Affairs (February). Accessed May 14, 2022. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/from-the-admin-chair/racial-equity-leadership-in-covid-times/

TallBear, Kim. 2014. “Standing with and Speaking as Faith: A Feminist-Indigenous Approach to Inquiry.” Journal of Research Practice 10, no. 2: N17-N17.

Thobani, Sunera. 2022a. “Introduction: Present Pasts: The Anxieties of Power.” In Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University: Counting for Nothing?, edited by Sunera Thobani, 3–45. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Thobani, Sunera. 2022b. “Colonizing Critical Race Studies/Scholars: Counting for Nothing.” In Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University: Counting for Nothing?, edited by Sunera Thobani, 163–95. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Thomas, Kecia M., Juanita Johnson-Bailey, Rosemary E. Phelps, Ny M. Tran, and Lindsay Johnson. 2013. "Women of Color at Midcareer: Going from Pet to Threat." In The Psychological Health of Women of Color, edited by Lillian Comas-Diaz and Beverly Greene, 275–86. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Tuck, Eve, Karanja, K. Carroll, and Michael D. Smith. 2010. “About Us and Not About Us: Theorizing Student Resistance to Learning about Race and Racism from Underrepresented Faculty.” Journal of International Society for Teacher Education 14, no. 2: 70–74.

Universities Canada. 2017. Universities Canada principles on equity, diversity and inclusion. (October). Accessed April 17, 2022. https://www.univcan.ca/media-room/media-releases/universities-canada-principles-equity-diversity-inclusion/

Universities Canada. 2019. Equity, diversity and inclusion at Canadian universities: Report on the 2019 national survey. (October). Accessed May 10, 2022. https://www.univcan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Equity-diversity-and-inclusion-at- Canadian-universities-report-on-the-2019-national-survey-Nov-2019-1.pdf

Whiteford, Emma. 2020. “Who Holds Professional Positions in Higher Ed, and Who Gets Paid?” Inside Higher Ed. (May). Accessed May 12, 2022. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/06/report-details-gaps-women-and-minori ty-professionals-higher-ed

Wilson‐Kovacs, Dana, and Michelle K. Ryan, S. Alexander Haslam, Anna Rabinovich. 2008. “‘Just because you can get a wheelchair in the building doesn't necessarily mean that you can still participate’: Barriers to the Career Advancement of Disabled Professionals." Disability & Society 23, no. 7: 705–17.

Wylie, Alison. 2012. “Feminist Philosophy of Science: Standpoint Matters.” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophy Association 86, no. 2: 47-76. http://philpapers.org/archive/WYLFPO-2.pdf

y Muhs, Gabriella G., Yolanda F. Niemann, Carmen G. González, Angela. P. Harris, eds. 2012. Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

Downloads

Published

2022-12-16