Gender, ethnicity and feminism

An intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3636461
AutoresKatherine J C Sang (0000-0003-1397-1116, Intercultural Research Centre, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume27
Fascículo2
Páginas192-206
Data de publicação2018-02-17
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09589236.2016.1199380
OpenAlexW2469253280
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas21
Referências citadas75

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

Disadvantage · Ethnic group · Feminism · Feminist theory · Intersectionality · Political science · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Mentoring and Academic Development