Worthy of More: Systemic Failures Women of Color Face in Higher Education

Dr. Nicole PulliamIn my first year as a faculty member, I was the ‘shiny new object.’ As a woman of color, a first-generation college graduate, and someone raised in a limited-income home, I was celebrated for bringing fresh perspectives and ideas. Colleagues praised my energy, students gravitated to my classes, and I was recruited for every diversity committee imaginable. At first, it felt affirming—proof that I belonged in academia. But over time, the shine dulled. The celebration came with crushing expectations, compounded by a lack of structural support.

Why are women of color in higher education celebrated for their excellence yet set up to fail by the very systems that claim to value them? This isn’t a personal failure; it’s a systemic issue—and higher education is a microcosm of broader workplace inequities.

The Burden of Excellence
In academia, excellence isn’t just expected of women of color—it’s demanded. While many of our white male colleagues are allowed to coast by with mediocrity, we are burdened with proving ourselves repeatedly. Excellence, for us, is not an option; it’s a baseline requirement to survive.
This double standard manifests in insidious ways:
• Overrepresentation in Service Work: We are disproportionately asked to lead diversity initiatives, serve on equity committees, and mentor students from historically excluded or systemically marginalized backgrounds.
• Invisible Labor: Our emotional and intellectual contributions to the institution often go unrecognized and uncompensated.
• Unrealistic Expectations: While juggling teaching, publishing, and service, we also face biases in how our work is evaluated, making it harder to advance in rank and recognition.

Beyond these demands, academia sets another trap: our worth is measured by metrics that offer little tangible reward. We are judged by the number of publications we produce, the prestige of the journals in which we publish, and how many downloads or citations our work receives. Yet, we are not compensated for our intellectual property. Once we achieve tenure or are promoted, the salary increases are dismal, leaving little incentive or reward for the immense labor required to reach these milestones.

This begs the question: is the recognition of women of color in academia more about optics than actual support?

Impostor Syndrome or Systemic Failure?
Rashma Saujani, in her 2023 commencement speech, likened societal pressures on women to the 1890s concept of ‘bicycle face’—a fabricated ailment used to deter women from gaining independence. Similarly, impostor syndrome acts as a modern tool of control, making women, especially women of color, question their worth in exclusionary systems. Jodi-Ann Burey and Ruchika Tulshyan have reframed impostor syndrome as a systemic problem, not an individual flaw, a sentiment echoed by Jenn M. Jackson in “It’s Not Impostor Syndrome When You’re Black and a Woman.”

In 2020, I spoke with Dr. Pauline Clance, the psychologist who coined the term “impostor phenomenon.” I reached out because I was leading a study on first-generation Black and Latinx students and the mental health impacts of the impostor phenomenon. I needed permission to use her impostor phenomenon scale to conduct the study.