Hidden in plain sight: spotlighting invisible Black female academics

Many institutions are taking steps to address the gender imbalance at senior level, however much of this effort has not yet successfully included Black women, who suffer double minority status. Their gender and ethnicity colour their experience in the workplace and, as a coping mechanism, Black women develop the “quit and stay mentality”, becoming disengaged while waiting for other roles or opportunities to become available.

When it comes to ethnic gender diversity at the top, British universities are no exception to this endemic problem, if not one of the worst offenders. Black female academics occupy a unique position due to the intersection of gender and race, and are beset by challenges. Black women in academia have only limited access to certain privileges taken for granted by their white colleagues, such as membership of “power” networks, career sponsorship, funding for career development training, and access to information and advice that can support successful career progression. They often suffer invisibility and marginality, are subjected to bullying and harassment from managers, and are held back by the challenges of sexism and racism, also known as misogynoir. A combination of these factors creates obstacles to career progression and impairs the overall experience in the academy.

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The large majority of UK academic senior managers are white – 61.7 per cent are white men and 32.6 per cent white women – while just 2 per cent are BAME women, according to AdvanceHE data for 2020-21.

Among professors, the gender and ethnic imbalance is stark, with 63.5 per cent of professors being white men, and 25.6 per cent white women, while just 8.1 per cent of professors are BAME men, and just 2.7 per cent BAME women. Of these BAME women, only 35 of them are Black, representing less than 1 per cent. This percentage has been static for five years despite the number of professorships rising by more than 3,000 in that time. The career path for Black female professors has been described as “messy, convoluted and protracted… characterised by a lack of transparency and fairness.”

Institutions need to take urgent action to address this imbalance and create positive ripple effects to increase the representation of Black women at senior level, strengthen the recruitment pipeline of Black female academics and university staff, and improve retention within this group. An example of positive action is the 100 Black Women Professors NOW (BWPN) programme led by the Women’s Higher Education Network and focused on increasing the number of Black female professors.

Recommended actions to support Black women in academia

Start by confronting your data: this should be done by carrying out a staff audit and/or staff survey to identify priority areas, for example in certain departments or management levels, or actions required to shift the status quo.

Promote development opportunities: institutions must take proactive steps to provide and signpost career development opportunities for Black women. These could include shadowing senior staff, deputising for senior colleagues or inclusion in special projects providing leadership exposure. These opportunities are often overseen by gatekeepers who sometimes make decisions that disadvantage and exclude Black women because of affinity bias or inflexible working hours that are incompatible with childcare and other responsibilities. Professional development reviews for black female academics must include at least one specific goal that supports their career advancement.

Diverse interview panels: interview panels overseeing the selection process for internal positions must be racially diverse and include an external person from a different department within the university who can bring objectivity and challenge potential bias.

Formal reporting of promotions: if not already in place, there should be a formal reporting process at institutional and departmental level of all individuals who are promoted, seconded and/or receive career development opportunities, categorised by gender, ethnicity and disability. This will enable departments to monitor and identify imbalances or biases in their processes.

Educate on anti-racist practices: institutions should invest in unconscious bias and anti-racism training for all their staff but with a particular focus on recruitment or promotion panel members to ensure diversity in the composition of the panel. This will help with preventing affinity bias, which is commonly veiled in the aim of seeking a candidate who is “a good cultural fit”.

Set inclusion targets: institutions must include inclusion targets in KPIs for senior leaders – heads of departments and deans – and ask them to provide evidence of proactive inclusion efforts and equity in career development opportunities.

Internal sponsorship: create an internal sponsorship programme to support talented Black women’s career progression. This can be achieved through a formal process in conjunction with the HR department with a specific time frame and set of agreed outcomes.

Bespoke training: career progression training programmes should be provided for Black female academics to support them during preparation and submission of promotion applications. Black women are far less likely than their white female counterparts to have internal sponsors and are less likely to be connected to power networks in the institution.

Fair and transparent promotion: institutions and departments should be explicit about what their promotion processes involve and what they are looking for in different roles. Targets for recruiting black female academics should be set at institutional level and heads of departments should be asked to explain why, if they fail to meet these targets or when black female academics do not succeed in their applications.

Levelling the playing field is crucial to dismantling entrenched inequalities. Institutions must revisit the policies and practices that cement systemic barriers to the career advancement of Black women. The current structures in universities benefit white, middle-class men, who uphold the status quo. They are the gatekeepers and often show little effort to engage in the anti-racism initiatives that would close the degree-awarding gap and the ethnicity and gender pay gap. While this continues, the inequities around student retention, progression and graduate outcomes will remain dire for Black students and for Black female academics. Senior teams are so dominated by white men that it has become normalised and many see nothing wrong with the current structures, so it continues.

Jummy Okoya is senior lecturer in organisation behaviour and human resources at the University of East London (UEL) and chair of UEL’s Women’s Network & Athena Swan Lead.

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