Resilience of Women of Color in Academe: Mitigating the Double Bind

Abstract

Women faculty of color face a double bind as they endure both racism and sexism, creating dual oppression. These multiple disadvantages result in women of color being exposed to higher rates of career-limiting setbacks than their counterparts (i.e., white women), including devaluation of their scholarly work, increased service responsibilities, exclusion from career development opportunities, and constantly having their competency questioned. Their low representation and discouragement to continue in the professoriate due to harmful work environments also results in a “leaky pipeline”. Thus, women faculty of color have to utilize specific resilience strategies to mitigate these biases. However, many of the coping techniques used to generate resilience often result in injurious consequences. For instance, to demonstrate high competence, women of color often take on risky assignments (i.e., glass cliff) that results in them becoming hypervisible (i.e., judged more harshly than white women in similar positions). Other coping behaviors, such as the Strong Black Woman race-gender schema, often results in anxiety and depression, while code-switching, to feel accepted by the white dominant workspace, leads to a diminished sense of identity. Though these multiple identities result in stacked disadvantages in the workplace, there remains a gap in management literature on the intersectionality between race and gender. This void, consequently, silences the voice of women faculty of color and the unique challenges they face. Furthermore, it hinders the opportunity to make changes on a systemic level. In this symposium, we explore women faculty of colors' resilience-building tactics, the added double-bind they create, and individual and organizational practices that can help alleviate this paradox in order to promote their career development and well-being.