Breaking Through the Concrete Ceiling: Black Women in Academic Leadership at Elite Research Universities

• In Event: Celebrating 15 years of Herstories: (Re)membering Black Women's Leadership Then and Now

Abstract

The faculty and leadership at most of the Research 1 universities in the United States remained overwhelmingly White (Blanchett, in press). While Black men have achieved a bit of progress in breaking through the Glass Ceiling of higher education academic leadership, they are still underrepresented when compared to their White male and female peers (Blanchett, in press). Most importantly, higher education has not experienced any notable progress for Black women in academic leadership roles over the last several decades. In fact, Black women in academic leadership in elite research universities is still largely an anomaly, when compared to White women, White men, and even Black men (Silbert, Punty, & Brodbine Ghoniem, 2022). With the latest efforts of the Trump administration to destroy diversity policies and initiatives, black and other women of color’s opportunities in academic leadership are likely to further decline.

As Blanchett and Zion (2025) wrote, “On November 6, 2024, the day after the election, a Huffington Post headline read, “Trump Just Ran the Most Racist Campaign in Modern History – And Won” (Baptiste, 2024, p. 1). Baptiste went on to conclude, “Despite his naked racism and misogyny and attacks on his political opponents, the American people have chosen to send him back to the White House” (p. 1). Although many of us failed to predict that so many Americans would indeed vote to elect someone who ran on promises to destroy or roll back much of the civil and human rights progress that America has achieved with respect to addressing systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. Given both our lived experiences as black women and women of color and our deep historical understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and lessons learned from Brown, we should have anticipated that many Americans would hold on to values grounded in white supremacy, anti-Blackness, misogyny, patriarchy, and capitalism (Blanchett and Zion, 2025).

Specifically, Trump has literally done everything he can to dismantle Civil Rights Protections and to destroy Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, programs and initiatives at the federal level while also attempting to reach into state and private sector companies to encourage them to rollback or abandon their DEI policies. Given the current state of attack on diversity and civil right protections, it is more critically important now than ever that we employ Alston and McClellan’s (2011) field‑shaping Herstories: Leading with the Lessons of the Lives of Black Women Activists to combat these attacks and to support Black and other women of color in the academy. My paper will provide the following: a) state of Black and other women of color in academic leadership at elite R1 institutions; b) the long road to toward access and diversity in the American Higher Education System; c) institutional barriers and broken pathways to academic leadership for Black and other women of color; and d) employing Herstories to support Black and women of color in academic leadership.

Author

• Wanda J. Blanchett, Rutgers University