The higher education (HE) sector has long grappled with issues of gender and racial inequality. Despite an increasingly diverse student population, barriers have been identified that may limit women academics from attaining senior positions within the sector, a phenomenon known as the ‘glass ceiling’ effect (Oberholzer, 2021). Such barriers have also been examined for racial minorities (Jackson & O’Callaghan, 2009). Furthermore, it has been suggested that female racial minorities in the workplace may experience a ‘double whammy’ of gender and racial barriers (Berdahl & Moore, 2006).
Recent literature highlights the underrepresentation of women, particularly within the professoriate and senior leadership positions (HESA, 2023; Shepherd, 2017; Jarboe, 2019, Meho, 2021). Published figures from the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA, 2023) show that while female UK students outnumber male students, within the professoriate only 29.6% were female in 2021/2022. Reasons for this imbalance include differences in gender roles, cultural norms, professional choices, and structural issues within the employment environment (Manfredi., et al, 2019). Despite initiatives like the Athena SWAN Charter aiming to promote gender equality in universities (Xiao et al., 2020), concerns remain about competing diversity agendas between gender and race/ethnicity (Bhopal, 2023; Kalpazidou et al., 2020). Consequently, there have been calls to re-imagine gender diversity initiatives to consider the complex dynamics between gender and race as a ‘double marginalisation’ (Stockfelt, 2018). Although the Athena SWAN Charter has widened its emphasis in recent years to accommodate issues of racial diversity, attempts to understand and disentangle such dynamics remain at an early stage.
In terms of racial diversity in HE, underrepresentation persists for Black and Asian staff members (ONS, 2022). Regarding racial diversity in HE, Black and Asian staff made up just 1% and 4% of the ‘managers, directors and senior officials’ in 2021/2022, respectively, while 88% identified as White. The Asian (or Asian British, Asian Welsh) proportion of the general population in England and Wales, according to the recently released census, was at 9.3% in 2021, up from 7.5% in 2011. Meanwhile, the Black (or Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean, African) proportion of the general population was 4%, up from 3.3% in 2011, suggesting the possibility of considerable underrepresentation in academia (ONS, 2022). The proportion of ethnic minorities in the professoriate was also considerably lower than the proportion among the wider staff and student body (Coughlan, 2021). Possible explanations include the significant attainment gap between White students and Black, Asian, and minority ethnic students (HESA, 2020), and the leaky pipeline phenomenon (Ovseiko et al., 2020).
One explanation for a possibly leaky pipeline is the significant attainment gap between White students and Black, Asian, and minority ethnic students, with White students more likely to receive a first or upper-second-class degree (Universities UK, 2019). Within staff ranks, ethnic minority academics were found to be more likely to move overseas (Bhopal et al., 2016), and a University College Union analysis found a significant pay gap between White and Black academics, with Black academics earning 14% less than their White counterparts (UCU, 2019). In 2019, there were reportedly just 25 Black female professors in the UK of the more than 20,000 professors (Adams, 2020). This is despite the increasingly diverse general and student population. Over a quarter of UK domiciled students are ethnic minorities, and increasing annually (HESA, 2023).
In recent years, Athena SWAN has been updated to encompass a broader diversity agenda, and in 2016, the Equality Challenge Unit (now Advance HE), launched the Race Equality Charter (REC), which applies many of the principles of the Athena SWAN Charter to tackling the issue of racial inequality. As of February 2023, 141 institutions were members of the Athena SWAN Charter, holding 124 institutional awards. Meanwhile, there were 99 Race Equality Charter members, with 38 awards between them. To date, despite the efforts of Advance HE, a discrepancy remains in the number of Charter holders and the integration of these initiatives within institutions, and evidence regarding diversity at the intersection of race and gender in HE has been lacking, including the challenges that may face ethnic minority women (Bhopal & Henderson, 2021; Henderson &Bhopal, 2022; Oloyede et al., 2021).
This study aims to address this gap by examining temporal changes in the representation of ethnic minority females in senior HE positions and assessing the impact of initiatives like Athena SWAN and the Race Equality Charter on promoting female ethnic diversity. By investigating these questions, this study contributes to the understanding of diversity dynamics in HE and provides insights into the effectiveness of existing diversity initiatives.