Teaching While Black: Black Women Millennials’ Experiences of Teaching in South African Universities

Abstract

The South African government continues to work tirelessly to reverse the effects of apartheid by addressing social inequalities and transforming the higher education sector by dismantling structural, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal discrimination. Black¹

¹ The use of the lowercase “w” for white or whiteness in this article is the author’s stylistic act of decentering whiteness to amplify African women’s experiences.

South African women have fought for the right to access education as well as to pursue higher education to the top levels of teaching in these institutions. Traditionally, the custodians of knowledge have been older white men. Millennial Black women’s presence in these spaces of higher institutions is disruptive and continues to be a site of conflict and negotiation for younger Black women academics. This article argues that race, intersecting with gender, age, and class, influences their teaching experiences in universities and how students perceive Millennial Black women in postapartheid South African universities. Intersectionality underpins this qualitative study, which explores nine Black Millennial women’s teaching experiences in universities in South Africa. The findings suggest that these women’s experiences are influenced by the kind of university in which they teach. The narratives showed how Millennial Black women lecturers at historically white institutions experience more hostility, mostly from students who share their same race and gender. This contrasts with the experiences of Millennial Black women who teach at historically Black institutions. The study has implications for university and government transformation agendas.

South Africa has experienced a volatile past pertaining to the discrimination of its Black people. In South Africa the term Black is a category that groups certain ethnicities, such as Indigenous African, Colored people (people of mixed race) and Indian. While I acknowledge that within South Africa the category Black and disadvantaged includes Colored and Indian, even within that category, historically some races were more privileged in terms of access to resources and education. Because of this, this study is focused on Black Africans.²

When considering gender, despite that the majority population is Black and mostly women (Department of Statistics South Africa, n.d.), Black women have experienced considerable discrimination because of their two marginalized identities. Historically, they have been considered worthless and having nothing positive to contribute to the political and corporate world (Ueno, 2010, as cited in; Ramohai, 2019). In addition, Black women have been marginalized culturally, within their familial and societal traditions of masculinity and femininity, and by marginalization imposed historically by legislative rules (Mans & Lauwrens, 2013). Moreover, while Black South African women have been heavily involved in the liberation struggles and fight for equality, they continue to struggle against racism, sexism, ageism, and classism.

The apartheid government educated Africans to have skills that could only be of service to white people such as through physical and manual labor. Africans were prohibited from entering universities and pursing higher education (Mkhize, 2022). The ideals of democracy have, in theory, ushered in a new era of hope and access to resources within higher education. However, while Black women have been able to access these resources, the reality is that they continue to experience racism and sexism within spaces of teaching and learning, albeit in a mostly covert form. The educational system is a microcosm of the larger society in which dominant ideologies persist (Baxley, 2012). Higher education structures in South Africa were designed for men to pursue professional qualifications, as evident in historically white universities such as the University of Cape Town and Witwatersrand University. In these universities, the preference, as reflected in staff demographics, has been traditionally masculine and white. While these institutions, and many others, have made attempts to transform their faculty staff members, progress has been slow, especially in previously white institutions (Joubert & Guenther, 2017).

Black women fought for the right to enter these traditionally white men-dominated spaces. Yet almost 30 years after democracy, women still experience similar struggles of racism and sexism as their foremothers did. Moreover, the centrality of age has recently emerged as a significant theme related to the problem outlined above, which further amplifies Black women’s experiences of racism within higher education (Ramohai, 2019). As such, I argue in this article that race, in combination with age and gender, are determinant factors in how students perceive Millennial Black women lecturers.

This research uses intersectionality as a lens to understand the experiences of young Black women lecturers in South African universities. Unlike most literature on intersectionality that considers age, which focuses largely on older women (Calasanti & King, 2015; Krekula, 2007), this study considers how youth (i.e., status as a Millennial) intersects with their other identities. Further, there is little to no literature focused on intersectional considerations for Millennials specifically; thus, this research aims to contribute to that extant literature.

REVIEW OF RELATED SCHOLARSHIP

Black Millennials

Black women within academia face many challenges based on their identities (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity) (Marbley et al., 2011). These women are categorized, compartmentalized, and consequentially prejudged on their multiple identities. Adding youth to other multiple identities further increases Black women’s oppression in the man-dominated, patriarchal, and sexist structure of academia (Apugo, 2016; Baxley, 2012; Collins, 1998; Council on Higher Education CHE, 2015; Divala, 2014; Gregory, 2001; Henry & Glenn, 2009; Mkhize, 2022; Puwar, 2004; Rabe & Rugunanan, 2012; Ramohai, 2019).

The term Millennial refers to a person born between the years 1980 and 1996 (Kaplan, 2020). Millennial refers to a new generation who became adults in the Millennial century (Howe & Strauss, 2000). They tend to be viewed as more progressive, liberal, and open-minded than their parents’ generation. They also often see themselves as pushing a political agenda that can move race relations forward or back, as they try to make their countries work for them. They tend not accept their parents’ views about racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism, nor the violence and harm that goes along with them (Kaplan, 2020).

Much of the research about Black women Millennials has been conducted within the United States (e.g., Apugo, 2016, 2021; Hope, 2019; Kaplan, 2020; Marbley et al., 2011; Nyachae, 2016; Lynch-Alexander, 2017). There is paucity of literature of Black Millennial women in the African context, and this is where the novelty of this research lies.

Black Women in Higher Education in South Africa

As with research about Black women Millennials, the literature about Black women in academia in the United States and United Kingdom is robust (e.g., Bell, 1990; Belluigi & Thondhlana, 2019, Collins, 2000; Etter-Lewis, 1998; Fries-Britt & Kelly, 2005; Gregory, 2001; Henry & Glenn, 2009; Madileng, 2014; McKay, 1997, Mokhele, 2013; Moses, 1997; Rabe & Rugunanan, 2012; Stockfelt, 2018; Turner, 2002). The extant literature tends to encompass all age groups and does not fully appreciate how Black women of different generations may experience age as a multiplicative factor of discrimination.

Comparatively, the research on Black women in institutions of higher education in South Africa is scarce (see Madileng, 2014, Mokhele, 2013; Rabe & Rugunanan, 2012; Ramohai, 2019; Shackleton et al., 2006, for exceptions). Especially in African culture, seniority is salient, signifying wisdom and respect regardless of university qualifications. Thus, age is an important consideration within the South African contexts. However, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the research that does exist, like in the US and UK contexts, about Black women in higher education does not focus on Millennials as a subgroup of Black women academics. There is also little known about their experiences in teaching in postapartheid South African universities, which is also at the heart of the current study.

By the Numbers

In South Africa, white people make up less than 9% of the population (Mlambo, 2021). In the context of higher education, Black students represent the majority (75.6%) of the student population in South Africa, with Black women matriculating at the highest rate. Numerically, Black women are graduating at a higher rate (63%), which is almost double that of white women (Mkhize, in press|).

Despite Black student representation, the #FeesMustFall student movement of 2015/2016 was a protest against the racist, sexist, and classist university structure and system that still excluded Black students systematically, structually, and ideologically. It was also a call for staff transformation, which includes the professorate, so that their participation is reflective of the Black majority demographic within South Africa. Activists also called for decolonizing the curricula, which remains Eurocentric. As the protests ended, Black students were led to believe that transformation was occurring; however, data showed a different reality (Mkhize, 2022).

Despite more than 29 years of democracy in South Africa, prior to 2017 African professors in South African universities made up 4% of all professors, and African women represented just 0.85% of professors (Mabokela & Mlambo, 2017). In 2020, there was a 19.9% increase in Black professors; Black women now represent 4.2% of the professoriate (Higher Education Data Analyzer, 2020). When considering all Black (i.e., African, Colored, Indian, Asian) academic staff, they represented only 39.6% of academic staff at public universities (Department of Higher Education and Training [DHET], 2022). Comparatively, white people represented the largest proportion of academic staff (42.7%; DHET, 2022). Moreover, Blacks are overrepresented in support roles; they occupy about 97% of administrative and service positions (Mabokela & Mlambo, 2021). In total, Black women academic staff, professors, and senior administrators are grossly underrepresented, which exposes them to unique challenges and experiences (Mabokela & Mlambo, 2017).

Seeking Transformation in South African Universities

Postdemocracy universities in South Africa have had three challenges: to reproduce and retain the next generation of academics; to transform the historical social composition of the academic workforce through equity and redress, specifically for Black women South Africans; and to retain and enhance the academic capabilities of the next generation through teaching, learning, research, and community engagement (Badat, 2018). These challenges cannot be divorced from the institutional culture in historically white universities. Black academics reported the cultural environments at these universities as discomforting and disempowering, and they exact a considerable personal, psychological, and academic toll (Badat, 2018).

Additionally, the persistent assumption is that Black appointments, no matter how outstanding their academic records, are “affirmative action” candidates and are deemed “unsuitable.” Suitability in recruitment and retention is conflated with “best” and is often associated with those who historically, academically, and culturally belong to the dominant academic (i.e., white men) social group (Cornell & Kessi, 2017, as cited in Mkhize, 2022).

Transformation cannot be understood as a blanket term because it is applied differently to different institutions. Every institution has its own institutional culture and challenges, which requires a contextualized approach to change (Ramohai, 2019). In the South African context, the institutions of higher education have very different transformation needs. For example, previously white Afrikaans³ institutions face different challenges related to racial inequalities than previously Black institutions.

All higher education institutions in South Africa are subject to rules and regulations and one of them is to prioritize Black women in transformation initiatives (Badat, 2010, as cited in Ramohai, 2019). Attempts of transformation need to redress inequities and injustices of the past by understanding the needs and experiences of marginalized groups, specifically Black women academics. The South African government communicated its mandate to institutions, informing them that Black women academics should be prioritized when transforming and diversifying their staff (DHET, 2016). Thus, higher education institutions need to respond to gender equity matters, especially pertaining to Black women academics.

Yet Black women still face numerous challenges pertaining to upward mobility, research success, and overcoming gender-based epistemological stereotypes (Ramohai, 2019). Institutional cultures remain predominately masculine, and the staff is still predominately white (Idahosa, 2020; Idahosa & Mkhize, 2021; Idahosa & Vincent, 2019; Kele & Pietersen, 2015; Mkhize, 2022; Tsiksata, 2007). Of course, redress should include all Black people (men too); however, gender complexities make Black women a priority in transforming higher education institutions (Ramohai, 2019), and as I argue, Black women Millennials should be uniquely considered.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The analytic approach employed in this study is grounded in intersectionality, purposefully examining how power shapes the experiences of Black women Millennial lecturers in South African universities. Kimberley Crenshaw (1991) coined the term intersectionality, but it is rooted in Black feminist thought (Collins, 1990/2000). Intersectionality calls attention to how the intersection of race, gender, and class results in injustice for Black women (Crenshaw, 1991), akin to Collins’s (1990/2000, 1998, 2009) “matrix of domination.” Oppression cannot be reduced to one fundamental type; they work together to produce injustice (Collins, 2009).

Intersectionality

Intersectionality in the South African context is not a new concept. African author, Miriam Tlali (1979), was already discussing the double oppression of African women during apartheid South Africa in 1975. African women during apartheid lamented how their distinctive identities of being a woman and African exposed them to greater systematic and strucutural oppression and discrimination (Tlali, 1979).

These structures oppress African women in ways that do not persecute African men or white women (Tamale, 2020). For example, African women experience racism differently from African men because theirs is a “melded” experience of gendered racism. Moreover, the melded experience does not mean that the African man’s experience of racism is more “intense” or “pure”—it is just different (Tamale, 2020). From this perspective, women are othered on two fronts (race and gender), while men are othered based solely on their race.

According to Nash (2008), intersectionality traditionally focused on the race/gender binary. Intersectionality sought to reveal the “racial variations within gender and the gendered variations within race through its attention to subjects whose identities contest race or gender categorization” (Nash, 2008, pp. 2–3). However, Nash argued for an understanding of the multidimensions that include the ways in which race, gender, class, ethnic identity, and context affect experience.

Thus, intersectionality moves beyond race and gender to consider the ways in which political milieus affect identity and individual experience, like those previously mentioned. In addition, colonialism, capitalism, and nationalism can be incorporated into intersectional analyses (Levine-Rasky, 2011, as cited in Idahosa & Mkhize, 2021). Further, intersectionality interrogates the ways different identities combine and multiply to create unique and complex dynamics of oppression and power for individuals and communities, as well as the broader social structures that sustain the marginalization of certain identity positions (Carastathis, 2014; Idahosa & Mkhize, 2021; Seabrook, 2019). These axes of difference go beyond being descriptive; they co-constitute each other (Slater & Liz, 2018).

What makes an analysis intersectional is an adoption of an “intersectional” way of thinking about the issues around sameness and difference and their relation to power (Cho et al., 2013). Conceptualizing intersectionality in this way (Nash, 2008) allowed me to understand the legacy of exclusion in the South African context on multiple subjects and, in doing so, avoid the problem of essentialism and exclusion of particular groups.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

This study is situated within a critical research paradigm whose purpose is “to identify, contest and help resolve power imbalances” in society, which contribute to “system inequalities and injustice” (Taylor & Medina, 2013, p. 6). This research emerged from informal conversations with other Black Millennial women who were academics in different South African universities. I used a qualitative research methodology, semistructured interviews, after obtaining ethical approval from the universities in which participants worked.

Institutional Contexts

I selected four universities from which to invite participants, because they ranked in the top five in South Africa in the years 2018–2020. I was interested in how participants perceived that those rankings shaped transformation within each university. Given the contextual particularities of all four universities, examining the experiences of young Black women academics provides insight into how prevailing institutional conditions enact transformation and implement it. Two of the institutions were historically Black universities (catering to Black students, and medium of instruction was English) and the other two were historically white institutions, one that was English-speaking and the other a historically Afrikaans-speaking university.

Each higher education institution within South Africa is different. They each have their own unique academic and social dynamics and challenges that are contextualized (Council on Higher Education (CHE), 2015). The four universities in which participants teach have vastly different racial breakdowns and distinct institutional cultures. The historically Black universities have an institutional culture that can be traced to certain group and ethnic leanings, as well as regional demographics. Historically Black university student populations were comprised of 80% Indigenous Africans, 18% Indian, 1% Colored, and 1% white. Sixty-five percent of the students were women and 35% were men. The historically white universities have an institutional culture of colonialism, neoliberalism, and deeply entrenched racial and sexist ideologies (Idahosa & Mkhize, 2021). The historically white university student populations were 70% white, 20% African, 5% Colored, and 5% other. The gender breakdown was 80% women, 15% men, and 5% other (Department of Statistics South Africa, n.d.).

Participant Recruitment

I used purposive sampling aimed at identifying Millennial Black women academics at the universities. I recruited only participants who self-identified as Black women lecturers or professors in these universities. Nine Black Millennial women agreed to participate. Two of them were pursuing their doctorates at the time of this research and now have completed them; the other seven participants already held doctorates in their areas of specialty. Their ages ranged from 27 to 38 (see Table 1 for additional information). The participants were guaranteed confidentiality; therefore, all the names used in this study are pseudonyms. The interviews were conducted with the intention of understanding the participants’ experiences in teaching in universities in South Africa.

TABLE 1 Table of Participants

NAME^a	AGE	DISCIPLINE	UNIVERSITY
Kuhle	30	Education	Historically Black
Sophia	34	Health Science	Historically White
Gugu	27	Psychology	Historically White
Grace	38	Political Science	Historically Black
Andiswa	32	Labor Studies	Historically White
Mbali	33	Film and Media	Historically Black
Zukiswa	28	Anthropology	Historically White
Zenith	29	Journalism	Historically White
Thandeka	31	Sociology	Historically White

^aAll names are pseudonyms.

Data Collection

I explained the methods of data collection and analysis to the participants, who all consented to be a part of the study. To collect data, I employed individual informal, semistructural interviews. Each interview lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. I began by asking the participant about their demographic information (i.e., name, age, year received doctorate, discipline, university in which they teach) and followed with questions about their experiences teaching in their university and what transformation means to them. I concluded by asking them about their future plans.

Data Analysis

The interviews were transcribed manually, and I analyzed the transcripts for content and discourse.⁴ Thematic and narrative analyses were used in this study. These forms of analyses were useful because they enabled rich, detailed, and complex accounts of findings to surface (Aronson, 1995; Braun & Clarke, 2006). Data were managed using NVivo software (Bazeley & Richards, 2000). Using NVivo helped to organize how participants’ social positions (being women, Black, and Millennials) intersected with the historical and current political milieu to shape their experiences teaching in South African universities. The data were coded for patterns in the intersectional experience of participants (Saldaña, 2009) to understand the main factors that influenced their inclusion and retention.

While I did not conduct a narrative inquiry, I used techniques from narrative analysis to refer to accounts of personal experiences or the experiences of others (Smith, 2000). Narratives are characterized by perspective and context. The functions of narratives, such as reflecting back on events and talking about them, can provide meaning and coherence to and perspective on experience and one’s social traditions; construct a person’s knowledge, including a person’s sense of self or identity; and bring about emotional adjustment and healing (Franzosi, 1998; Smith, 2000).

Positionality

I am an African woman. From a young age, my parents instilled the importance of education and acquiring higher education degrees. Because both my parents were born and raised during apartheid South Africa, their prospects of acquiring university degrees was almost impossible. I, however, was fortunate to attend private schooling from pre-K through high school. After careful consideration of career options, I earned my undergraduate degree at a university in Florida. I then earned my Honours’ and Master’s Degrees, during which I realized my identity as an African feminist. Following that, my doctoral degree offered me an opportunity to channel my energy, enthusiasm, and desire to impact social change and social justice.

I have a purpose to impact change, especially in higher education. I truly believe that as African women, it is our birthright to acquire advanced postgraduate degrees and to be significantly included in higher education structures, either in teaching or in executive positions in our own country. I made a conscious decision that my research would always be a collaborative process between me as a researcher and the participants. This helped ameliorate power differentials by illustrating how the research process is inadvertently shaped by power and positionality (Mohanty, 1988).

Researchers have revealed some challenges and advantages of reflexivity and reflections on the implications of shared group membership status with participants on their research. Insider status has been credited with facilitating the process of gaining access, building rapport, and harnessing the knowledge that might be withheld from an outsider (Burns et al., 2012; Dwyer & Buckle, 2009; Hellawell, 2006). However, insider status can also be problematic when the researcher overidentifies with the participants, thus blurring the lines between the true nature of the phenomenon and the researcher’s bias.

I believe that the participants felt comfortable sharing their stories with me. They would ask me questions and were comfortable that I would be able to find the correct words to help articulate their experiences. After our interviews, we would continue to converse, and I was also able validate that their experiences were/are real and that they were incredibly brave, strong, and intelligent women to be teaching in universities in South Africa. Participants shared that they found our interviews therapeutic and comforting; for many, it was their first time speaking to another African woman who could understand and appreciate their experiences. As a result of this research experience, I continue to be motivated in future research to create a safe metaphoric space for women to share their experiences of being African and women in higher education in South Africa.

Limitations

I conducted this study between 2018 and 2020 and only in 4 of the 26 universities in South Africa. Because of the particular timing of the study, the university contexts, and the participants, some readers my not find the research transferrable to their setting. In addition, I conducted the study during the COVID-19 pandemic, which likely had an influence on how participants experienced students’ perceptions and evaluations of them.

Participants reported a positive shift in their student evaluations of teaching during the pandemic. What changed during that time was that students no longer saw participants’ faces; they only heard their voices. This finding reinforces that when their identities as Black women Millennials are more visible, it may lead to negative perceptions of their expertise.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The themes that emerged revealed structural, institutional, and disciplinary issues that were further complicated by intersections of social positions such as race, gender, and age, along with historical legacies and the complexities of ethnicity. Cultural issues such as social norms, gendered stereotypes, and discrimination, as well as interpersonal feelings of alienation, isolation, exclusion, and lack of mentoring, influenced their teaching experiences. Participants noted feelings of not belonging based on their identities. They reported having to constantly prove themselves as intelligent and legitimate knowers, not only to their students but to their peers.

The following sections focus on the most salient themes that arose from the data. Consistent with the literature, participants cited an intersection of sociocultural and interpersonal factors such as the burden of representation and expectations based on their racial and gendered identities, and how their age also influenced their lived experience as academics. These complex, marginal positions shaped their teaching experiences and how they coped with oppression multiplied by their race, gender, and age.

Racial and Gendered Representation

Black bodies in professions that pertain to the universal (e.g., academia), the general, and the truth are perceived to be representatives of their race (Puwar, 2004). This is a phenomenon that can be observed across different fields. Said differently, women and racialized minorities carry what might be termed the “burden of representation,” as they are seen to represent the capacities of groups for which they are marked and visible (Puwar, 2004).

Kuhle reinforced Puwar’s (2004) findings, saying:

As a young Black woman when you enter the lecture theatre and stand in front of the class … before you even utter a word you are already judged based on your race, gender, age and class.

Kuhle was categorized and prejudged based on her intersectional identities of being Black, a woman, and young. Her experience is consistent with the historical, sociocutltural, and political realities of Black women in South Africa. They are viewed as people suitable only for professions of care and not professions of intellectual prowess and knowledge. Therefore, they are not viewed as having anything intellectually valuable to contribute to the knowledge economy (Ramohai, 2019). Thandeka’s experience reinforced this, stating:

Being a young Black women teaching this university is hard. The classroom is a violent space for us. … At some stage you need to let go of thinking about age, race, gender, etc. and just teach. When you think about it too long it can drag you down.

Describing the challenges of earning respect as a young Black women, Sophia narrated:

All students from all races do not respect me as they do the other older or white colleagues. I have had colleagues tell students the exact same thing I told them and they would listen to the white colleague and not complain about it, but when it is me saying it, they refuse to comply and they complain to my boss about it.

Participants alluded that everything they do and say in the university sphere or academic classroom is heavily scrutinized and policed—it is a violent space. These environments become spaces where they are emotionally terrorized, psychologically gaslit, and spiritually devastated. Participants also reported that they have witnessed other races and genders get away with saying and doing terrible things for which they were not scruitinized at all.

Managing Racially Gendered Expectations

Another theme that arose from the study revealed that students had different expectations when taught by a Black lecturer rather than a white lecturer. They expected the Black lecturer to have lower academic expectations and require less of them than their white counterparts. Sophia recalled:

The students think just because you’re Black, you’re going to have low expectations and will always be lenient and basically just let them get away with s*#t. I thought that was absurd. Or them coming to your office to say “I can’t do this assignment; how can you help me?” Like really? I can’t help you, if you can’t do it, don’t do it and don’t involve me. If you want to involve me you can go get a flexibility⁵ form, complete it, and attach all relevant documents, NOTHING MORE.

According to participants, most students do not value and undermine Black women lecturers. Andiswa shared the racism she experienced:

Black students would complain and even go to the head of department to complain about me and the instructions and expectations in my course. Yet these same Black students never complained about my white collagues (even to the head of department), who had the same instructions and expections in their course that I had in my course.

Another participant, Grace, reiterated a similar concern:

At first students are excited to see you as the bearer of knowledge, they view you as a role model, someone they can aspire to become one day, transformation personified. But, when they realize you are just as serious and have high expectations as the other white lecturers, they vilify you. It is as if your race and gender somehow give them an expectation that you will be lenient and pass even below substandard work.

Even when these Black women had the same expectations as all other lecturers in terms of their curriculum, standards, and deadlines to be met, they were challenged, and at times faced outright revolt from small groups of students who did not want to be taught by a Black women lecturer, especially one they deemed their agemate.

Participants’ experiences remind us that the university is a white space that is organized through beliefs, structures, and practices that maintain racism and white supremacy (Moore, 2008). Participants described harsh climates and hostility from students (Etter-Lewis, 1998; Fries-Britt & Kelly, 2005; Gregory, 2001; Henry & Glenn, 2009; McKay, 1997; Moses, 1997; Madileng, 2014, Mokhele, 2013; Rabe & Rugunanan, 2012; Stockfelt, 2018; Turner, 2002) because of their race and gender. Further, participants felt that they were perceived as not having anything to contribute intellectually, even within university spaces where the ideology proclaimed is neutrality and Colorblindness (Mkhize, 2022; Ramohai, 2019).

These incidents reflect both the internalized racism of Black students and the overt racism in other students who are not Black. In South African universities, the systemic maintenance of white people’s dominant social position through ideologies of whiteness and anti-Blackness, such as Colorblindness, neutrality, and meritocracy (Dumas & Ross, 2016; Leonardo, 2004), permeates Black students so deeply that they internalize that racism. They tend to react negatively to each other, and especially to the Black women lecturers. Further, as Ruby (2022) argued, systemic racism is ingrained in the very fabric of US society. Participants’ experiences suggest that South African society is similar; systemic racism and sexism is prevalent.

Considering the student protests of the #FeesMustFall movement, participants described experiencing the same practices and discrimination students were claiming to fight against. This is evident in a statement from one lecturer who noted that she objected to students asking inappropriate questions concerning her qualifications based on her race and gender. When she raised issues around her racial and gender identity with her Black students, they dismissed her.

Similarly, a participant shared course evaluation feedback from a white woman student at a historically white institution:

… wait you do not fit the image of a professor, you are not white, you are not male. Even if you do somehow … okay you are educated but you are not the typical black woman, who is maybe somewhat educated but you are not poor, you are awkward, okay a nerd … okay how are you qualified to teach me again?

This, and the exemplar quotes above, demonstrate that students, even those who might be assumed as racial and gender allies, reproduce racist and sexist ideologies in universities that proclaim to be liberal and nonracist.

Oh, My Age

Fanon (1986) observed infantilization as a way that racism is manifested. Historically, Black people were assumed to have reduced capacities and were viewed as minors in the social hierarchy; therefore, they were assigned lesser faculties. In the occupational world, infantilization involves women and racialized groups imagined as much more junior, in rank, than they are (Puwar, 2004). Age is a complicated identity to analyze because unlike some other forms of discrimination and oppression, age is something that must change; a person gets older and, therefore, no longer faces discrimination because they are young, but perhaps they face discrimination because they are older. Age is fluid and the experiences tied to it are constantly changing, especially in the African context.

For example, Zukiswa shared that her experiences of discrimination, rooted in part in gendered racism, were further amplified when students perceived that she was younger than them:

I have had incidents of students question my age and creditials and say in evaluation forms (and these are Black students) that I think I am better than them because I make them refer to me by my official title and not my first name. When I mention this to other staff members, they say they have never had such experiences with students, but I am the only Black and woman in my department.

Likewise, reflecting on the role that age plays in her experiences as a Black women, Gugu mentioned:

I’m too young to be taken seriously by Millennials or generation Z⁶ because I am their generation … but I’m also too young to be taken seriously by the subject I teach by women of my mother’s age and older because I am not married or a mother.

Gugu attributed her age specifically to the lack of respect she receives from her students. Despite the increase in younger women attaining doctorates and entering the academy at a much younger age than previous generations, Gugu’s narrative reflects many complex and nuanced struggles she, and other Millenials in the study, face in their teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Further complicating the agism Gugu experienced, she noted that the majority of her students are her age or younger; however, as she explained, her appearance is youthful and, therefore, students do not take her seriously.

In African culture, an adult is immediately respected due to their seniority. However when the roles are reversed, especially among postgraduate students, and the youngest person is the teacher and an authority due to their lecturer position, this becomes a difficult issue for participants and students to rectify. Many participants affirmed these sentiments. For example, one participant consciously dressed “older” than her age because she believed her specific appearance would circumvent her youthful appearance.

Another issue that participants faced was with regard to their marital status. Within African cultural practices, a married person, regardless of age, is accorded respect. For participants who were not married, they perceived that if they had been, students may have respected them more. While this study does not explore their marital status as another layer of their marginalization, what emerged from the data is that for lecturers in historically Black institutions, their marital status became a factor in terms of their respectability by older women Black students.

However, Mbali shared that she may have received better treatment than colleagues at a historically white university because she was a Black woman teaching at a historically Black university. She noted,

I have been fortunate that I teach at a historically Black university and the students respect me and look to me as a mentor and a role model. I am young enough to be their friend or sister and I think being in a majority Black institution the only issue that occasionally arises is patriarchy and sexism but from male staff members not the students and not anything to do with race or racism.

As Mbali explained, at universities where the race is predominately the same among students and lecturers, the issues of identity may be experienced differently than at historically white universities. She mentioned how, although she is young, her age is an advantage because the students may feel more comfortable in approaching her and seeing her as a role model. Perhaps being the same race could be a comforting factor as well. Unlike participants at historically white institutions, Mbali foregrounded facing more difficulty because of sexism, not racism or ageism (or racism and sexism and ageism).

Navigating Power and Oppression

The young Black Millennial women lecturers in this study took on significant emotional labor when faced with racism, sexism, and agism. Even by achieving educational success at a young age, they still found the management of hostile environments to be emotionally debilitating. Whether it was the effort to prove a stereotype wrong by being high achievers or performing conformity with dominant narratives, participants experienced emotional distress and exhaustion. Black women shared experiences of being oppressed because of racialized patriarchy within the white masculinized teaching environment. The environment privileged whiteness first, masculinity second, and age third. As Black women Millenials, most participants indicated that any commonalities they had with students (whether because of their race, gender, or age) did not protect them from racism; sexism; agism; and the belief that, as women, they were intellectual inferiority.

Participants also highlighted the lack of allies who could support them and the emotional labor they experienced. Thandeka mentioned the problematic Colored and Indian women who are racist toward African women; yet they wanted to be called Black when they wanted a job or felt discriminated against.

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Overall, participants described facing an internal conflict as young Black women who are highly educated and experts in their fields. They experienced racism, sexism, and ageism as lecturers, in part because they were not expected to be educated and have many qualifications. Further, their youthful appearance complicated how they were experienced or perceived. The emotional labor and lack of support from others amplified the difficulties they faced. Therefore, the more hostile the environment resulted in more emotional labor (Battey & Leyva, 2016).

In addition, participants articulated that the forms of oppression they experienced came from a variety of places, including from those who might be assumed to be racial, gender, or generational allies. Although the Black women in this study knew they would face challenges because of their race and gender, they never expected to face hostility and outright animosity from students who shared the same race as them; they found that difficult and demoralizing, and struggled to comprehend it. This violence is evident in the ways they described how students spoke to them, spoke about them, and evaluated them. McGee and Bentley (2017) argued that Black within-group tensions exist in the West and their analyses of such tensions were based solely on race, leaving open questions about the interplay of racism with patriarchy. However, the examples of Black women’s tensions with other Black students highlighted in this study were likely instances of internalized racial-gendered oppression (McGee & Bentley, 2017).

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The Black women Millennial instructors in this study faced oppression due to their race, gender, and age. Their embodiment as actors in higher education disrupts these spaces and the legacy of racism, sexism, and ageism. They agreed with the sentiment of one participant who argued that “you had to work three times harder than everyone just to get half of what they get. You had to prove you are worthy to your race, your gender and to the profession.” Such experiences reflect institutions that, despite activism from the #FeesMustFall movement, the instituions of higher education where participants worked remain significantly unchanged and untransformed.

Based on my findings, South African institutions of higher education should actively address racism, sexism, ageism, and the intersectional oppression faced by all three, by being critical of their neoliberal ideology that serves to ignore the systems and strucutures of power that Black Millennial women academics continue to face. As I found, young Black women continue to face challenges in the classrooms (Ruby, 2020), despite research that suggests that younger generations (of students) are more progressive (Howe & Strauss, 2000). It is naïve to assume that students are somehow miraculously antiracist, -sexist, and -ageist in their beliefs and that they will develop in-depth critical thinking skills to confront deeply seated notions of patriarchy, racism, ageism, and nationalism, among other forms of oppression.

My research has highlighted why we most continue to be concerned that racism, sexism, and ageism persist in postapartheid academia, especially among the younger generations. Democracy has not brought about equitable change because Black women continue to face oppression and discrimination, even in the ivory towers of academia. Participants’ experiences as teachers confirm Mboti’s (2021) argument that apartheid continues to evolve. It continues to adapt and hide more efficiently under certain ideologies such as neoliberalislm, Colorblindness, and anti-Blackness—and it labels any action as reform, so it can be disguised as transformation.

If institutions of higher education do not find solutions to the persistent problems of racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination, Black women will continue to achieve their doctoral degrees and will either not be hired as, or will opt out of becoming, academics. Academia will remain a white- and masculine-dominated sphere, privileging seniority, and it will not be transformed.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The use of the lowercase “w” for white or whiteness in this article is the author’s stylistic act of decentering whiteness to amplify African women’s experiences.

² The term Black is used to refer to African. It is not encompassing of Colored, Indian, or other races that are classified as Black in contemporary South Africa. However, throughout this article the terms Black and African are used interchangeably and are inclusive of Indigenous Africans only, not Colored or Indian people.

³ Afrikaans is a language of southern Africa, derived from Dutch which was brought to the cape by settlers in the 17th century. There is a distinction between historically white and historically white Afrikaans universities. The historical white institutions were English speaking and are heavily influenced by the British colonizers of South Africa. The historically white Afrikaans universities were of the Afrikaner nation, which was derived from the Dutch settlers in South Africa.

⁴ This process involves the researcher taking voluminous amounts of information and reducing it to certain patterns, categories, or themes and then interpreting this information by using some schema. Creswell (2009) calls this “decontexualization” and “recontextualization.” This process results in a “higher level” analysis “while much work in the analysis process consists of ‘taking apart’ (for instance, into smaller pieces) the final goal is the emergence of a larger, consolidated picture” (Creswell, 2009).

⁵ Flexibility form is a form students fill out to apply for an extension on an assignment. Some students have different struggles and may need extra time to be able to submit assignments. Students apply for this extension and the course convenor decides on whether to grant it or not.

⁶ This is the generation born after the Millennials. “Z” generation (those born between 1997 and 2012), are part of a new generation who became adults in this Millennial century (Howe & Strauss, 2000).