The Gender-Blind Politics of Intersectionality Within Higher Education

• In Event: Toward Mentoring, Solidarity, and Equality: Faculty Women of Color in Higher Education

Abstract

The educational trajectories of women of color have steadily increased when compared to their male counterparts. However, larger analyses would reveal that women of color achieve, but only to a certain extent. In other words, their net worth and earning potential are hardly reflective of their successful efforts to earn college degrees. The overwhelming narrative of college for women of color is a one-sided discourse that attempts to account for race and fails miserably in attending to issues related to gender. Drawing from Crenshaw (1991), our second panelist will discuss how “structural inequality - the ways in which the location of women of color at the intersections of race and gender (p. 1245)” makes social experiences in the academy “different than that of white women (p. 1245).” The focus of this presentation will be the gender-blind politics of intersectionality informed by Crenshaw’s (1991) framework. Our second panelist will highlight key examples in the academy in which gender blind politics disadvantage women of color students, faculty and administrators. She will also offer implications for more in-depth thinking about gender-blind intersectionality and the role mentoring can play in helping women of color navigate the political terrains of the academy.

Author

• Lori D. Patton, Indiana University