Focuses on African American, Hispanic American, Native American, and Asian-Pacific American women whose increased presence in senior level administrative and academic positions in higher education is transforming the political climate to be more inclusive of women of color.

Though there has been a rapid increase of women’s representation in law and business, their representation in STEM fields has not been matched. Researchers have revealed that there are several environmental and social barriers including stereotypes, gender bias, and the climate of science and engineering departments in colleges and universities that continue to block women’s progress in STEM. In this book, the authors address the issues that encounter women of color in STEM in higher education.

Addressing in depth the reality that women of color, particularly Black women, face compounded exploitation and economic inequality within the neoliberal university. More Black women are graduating with advanced degrees than ever before. Despite the fact that their educational and professional opportunities should be expanding, highly educated Black women face strained and worsening economic, material, and labor conditions in graduate school and along their academic career trajectory. Black women are less likely to be funded as graduate students, are disproportionately hired as contingent faculty, are trained and hired within undervalued disciplines, and incur the highest levels of educational debt. In Lean Semesters, Sekile M. Nzinga argues that the corporatized university—long celebrated as a purveyor of progress and opportunity—actually systematically indebts and disposes of Black women's bodies, their intellectual contributions, and their potential en masse. Insisting that "shifts" in higher education must recognize such unjust dynamics as intrinsic, not tangential, to the operation of the neoliberal university, Nzinga draws on candid interviews with thirty-one Black women at various stages of their academic careers. Their richly varied experiences reveal why underrepresented women of color are so vulnerable to the compounded forms of exploitation and inequity within the late capitalist terrain of this once-revered social institution. Amplifying the voices of promising and prophetic Black academic women by mapping the impact of the current of higher education on their lives, the book's collective testimonies demand that we place value on these scholars' intellectual labor, untapped potential, and humanity. It also illuminates the ways past liberal feminist "victories" within academia have yet to become accessible to all women. Informed by the work of scholars and labor activists who have interrogated the various forms of inequity produced and reproduced by institutions of higher education under neoliberalism, Lean Semesters serves as a timely and accessible call to action.

The 11 chapters in this book provide a glimpse into the journeys that women from diverse backgrounds and ethnic differences take in their higher education undergraduate or graduate careers. The diverse women include ethnicities of Arabic, Asian, African-American, American Indian, and Latina.

Gender and diversity are crucial areas that require more attention in multiple academic settings. As more women progress into leadership positions in academia, it becomes necessary to develop solutions geared specifically toward success for females in such environments. Navigating Micro-Aggressions Toward Women in Higher Education provides innovative insights into the institutionalized racism against women of color in higher education institutions. The content within this publication offers information on the historical vestiges of racist and sexist ideologies and why women of color are underrepresented in various levels of higher education leadership. It is a vital reference source for educational administrators, professors, higher education professionals, academicians, and researchers seeking information on gender studies and women’s roles in higher education.

What is it like for women of color to teach in predominantly white college classrooms? This anthology is about the pedagogical implications of diversifying the faculty of higher education. It compiles narratives by women professors of color who interrogate their classroom experiences in predominantly white U.S. campuses to examine the impact of their social positions upon their classroom practices and their teaching-learning selves. The authors reflect upon their unique classroom challenges and talk about the teaching-learning strategies they use to find rewards in their interactions with students. This anthology explores the larger question of how social distinctions shape classroom social life and will be a resource for those concerned with enabling the diversification of the faculty of institutions of higher learning.