IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v28y2021i1p248-267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Everyday sexism and racism in the ivory tower: The experiences of early career researchers on the intersection of gender and ethnicity in the academic workplace

Author

Listed:
  • Dounia Bourabain

Abstract

The academic workplace is often described as a place of merit and equal opportunities. However, research shows a leaky pipeline where the share of women and people of color decreases in the higher echelons of academia. Explanations are often structural, referring to the access barriers women are confronted with, such as hiring and recruitment. This research investigates what goes wrong in the early phases of a female academic's career. From an intersectional perspective, I study the experiences with everyday sexism and racism of PhD and postdoctoral researchers across disciplines. After conducting 50 in‐depth interviews, four processes are discovered: smokescreen of equality, everyday cloning, patronization, and paternalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Dounia Bourabain, 2021. "Everyday sexism and racism in the ivory tower: The experiences of early career researchers on the intersection of gender and ethnicity in the academic workplace," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 248-267, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:1:p:248-267
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12549
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12549
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12549?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicola Maxwell & Linda Connolly & Caitríona Ní Laoire, 2019. "Informality, emotion and gendered career paths: The hidden toll of maternity leave on female academics and researchers," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 140-157, March.
    2. Cecilie Thun, 2020. "Excellent and gender equal? Academic motherhood and ‘gender blindness' in Norwegian academia," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 166-180, March.
    3. Anke Strauβ & Ilaria Boncori, 2020. "Foreign women in academia: Double‐strangers between productivity, marginalization and resistance," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1004-1019, November.
    4. Mathias Wullum Nielsen, 2017. "Reasons for Leaving the Academy: a Case Study on the ‘Opt Out’ Phenomenon among Younger Female Researchers," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 134-155, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simisola Johnson, 2022. "Women deserve better: A discussion on COVID‐19 and the gendered organization in the new economy," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 639-649, March.
    2. Saucier, Donald A. & Jones, Tucker L. & Schiffer, Ashley A. & Renken, Noah D., 2022. "The Empathetic Course Design Perspective," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 4(4), September.
    3. Mónica Lopes & Virgínia Ferreira & Caynnã Santos, 2023. "Gendered Micropolitics in Academic Work Environments: Uncovering Microaggressions during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thais França & Filipa Godinho & Beatriz Padilla & Mara Vicente & Lígia Amâncio & Ana Fernandes, 2023. "“Having a family is the new normal”: Parenting in neoliberal academia during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 35-51, January.
    2. Sarah Duffy & Michelle O’Shea & Liyaning Maggie Tang, 2023. "Sexually harassed, assaulted, silenced, and now heard: Institutional betrayal and its affects," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1387-1406, July.
    3. Ea Høg Utoft, 2021. "Maneuvering within postfeminism: A study of gender equality practitioners in Danish academia," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 301-317, January.
    4. Mariam Mohsin & Jawad Syed, 2020. "The missing doctors — An analysis of educated women and female domesticity in Pakistan," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1077-1102, November.
    5. Aleksi Soini, 2022. "A gay reflection on microaggressions, symbolic normativities, and pink hair," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1594-1611, September.
    6. Martina Dickson & James Dickson, 2021. "“Story time is my duty”: Expatriate academic fathers' experiences of balancing their work and home lives," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 2235-2251, November.
    7. Katherine Doerr, 2024. "“Flying under the radar”: Postfeminism and teaching in academic science," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 710-726, May.
    8. Amal Abdellatif, 2021. "Marginalized to double marginalized: My mutational intersectionality between the East and the West," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S1), pages 58-65, January.
    9. Grace Gao & Linna Sai, 2020. "Towards a ‘virtual’ world: Social isolation and struggles during the COVID‐19 pandemic as single women living alone," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 754-762, September.
    10. Anke Strauβ & Ilaria Boncori, 2020. "Foreign women in academia: Double‐strangers between productivity, marginalization and resistance," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1004-1019, November.
    11. Maria Pietilä & Ida Drange & Charlotte Silander & Agnete Vabø, 2021. "Gender and Globalization of Academic Labor Markets: Research and Teaching Staff at Nordic Universities," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 69-80.
    12. Anna Maria Górska & Karolina Kulicka & Zuzanna Staniszewska & Dorota Dobija, 2021. "Deepening inequalities: What did COVID‐19 reveal about the gendered nature of academic work?," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1546-1561, July.
    13. Krystal Wilkinson & Julia Rouse, 2023. "Solo‐living and childless professional women: Navigating the ‘balanced mother ideal’ over the fertile years," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 68-85, January.
    14. Joanna M. Davies & Lisa Jane Brighton & Florence Reedy & Sabrina Bajwah, 2022. "Maternity provision, contract status, and likelihood of returning to work: Evidence from research intensive universities in the UK," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1495-1510, September.
    15. Omar Manky & Sergio Saravia, 2022. "From pure academics to transformative scholars? The crisis of the “ideal academic” in a Peruvian university," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 971-987, July.
    16. Ea Høg Utoft, 2020. "‘All the single ladies’ as the ideal academic during times of COVID‐19?," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 778-787, September.
    17. Miklós ANTAL & Benedikt LEHMANN & Thiago GUIMARAES & Alexandra HALMOS & Bence LUKÁCS, 2024. "Shorter hours wanted? A systematic review of working‐time preferences and outcomes," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 163(1), pages 25-47, March.
    18. Jennifer C. Davis & Eric Ping Hung Li & Mary Stewart Butterfield & Gino A. DiLabio & Nithi Santhagunam & Barbara Marcolin, 2022. "Are we failing female and racialized academics? A Canadian national survey examining the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on tenure and tenure‐track faculty," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 703-722, May.
    19. Debora Gottardello, 2023. "The maze: Reflections on navigating intersectional identities in the workplace," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 1839-1854, September.
    20. Ghazal Mir Zulfiqar, 2022. "Inequality Regimes, Patriarchal Connectivity, and the Elusive Right to Own Land for Women in Pakistan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 799-811, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:1:p:248-267. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.