"If Not Now, When?": Racially Diverse Women Doctoral Students on Transforming Social Work Education

Overview: This panel incorporates the autoethnographies of three racially diverse women social work doctoral students, using an intersectionality framework. Within the context of a structurally racist and patriarchal academy, and by leveraging the momentum of 2020’s racial reckoning, recommendations for transforming our learning environments to be more inclusive will be provided.Proposal text: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the gender and social inequities that pre-existed in academia (Malisch et al., 2020). This era, specifically, emphasized the social disadvantages women of color experience in higher education: unequal pay, underrepresentation, racism, sexism, isolation, limited resources and support, tokenism, exoticization, and doubts about a woman’s competence (McChesney, 2018; Ramos & Yi, 2020). This disparity mimics the oppressive structures experienced by women of color not only in the U.S. but around the world. While the proposed 2022 EPAS 2.0 calls for social workers to demonstrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices, social work programs and the academy have historically reinforced policies that continue to marginalize minoritized students, especially women of color. If social work education is serious about eliminating oppressive structural barriers to promote equitable distribution of rights, then it is time to create structures with a learner-focused intersectional lens. Critical collective autoethnographies will be discussed by women doctoral students, each individually representing Latinx, Filipinx, Black, and Tribal heritage, in an effort to transform social work education.

Intersectionality framework, introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989, originally communicated the context of the marginalization of Black women in law (Harris & Patton, 2019). Operating with an intersectional lens allows us to critically analyze racial, ethnic, class, and other disparities, interrogate structures of inequality, and highlight and honor the strengths and triumphs of women of color in academia. An intersectional lens is necessary as women of color hold a multitude of identities in and outside of academia. We are caregivers, mentors, have familial responsibilities, and are more likely to participate in service-oriented activities (Rideau, 2021). Our achievement in social work academia is not only an individual career accomplishment, but also a collective accomplishment for our community and family (Yi & Ramos, 2022). By centering the experiences of women of color in social work academia with an intersectional lens, it will foster an inclusive learning environment where all human rights are protected.

Transforming structures that promote the retention of woman of color students and faculty will help address the proposed EPAS 2.0 call for social work to use anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices. This panel will draw on the diverse experiences of women of color in doctoral programs and discuss strategies to ensure that the priorities of social work education programs align with the overall goal of advancing women's, and human, rights. Making education better for women of color has implications for the field as a whole, including recruitment and retention of doctoral students and faculty of color, production of key knowledge, and challenging assumptions about the academy (Yi & Ramos, 2022). Women of color engage in storytelling, create informal support networks and counterspaces, and continue to resist and persist. Recommendations for social work education include considering the multiple roles of women of color doctoral students, creating formal support systems for women of color, reconceptualizing the classic academic prototype, creating policies that support parental leave without consequences, and educating faculty on the vast experiences of women of color in graduate programs will be discussed.