Embracing Paradox Realities: Racially Minoritised Women and Gender‐Based Violence in Higher Education

Anke Lipinsky, Bruna Cristina Jaquetto Pereira and Vilana Pilinkaitė Sotirovič
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Anke Lipinsky: Department of Data and Research on Society, GESIS‐Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany
Bruna Cristina Jaquetto Pereira: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Vilana Pilinkaitė Sotirovič: Institute of Sociology, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Lithuania

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Although universities often adopt diversity and inclusion policies, the everyday experience of employees indicates multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination. This article discusses how institutional norms and practices reinforce power structures and stop those experiencing intersectional discrimination from voicing their experiences of gender‐based violence in higher education. We employ the frameworks of “everyday racism” and “network silence” to analyse 12 interviews with racially minoritised women who experienced gender‐based violence in academia and one bystander. Our findings challenge the assumption of universities that gender‐based violence and racial discrimination are marginal concerns. The interviews point to institutional factors that generate, coerce, and support silence. They reveal a paradox combination of dynamics of hypervisibility and invisibility, structural barriers, institutional practices, discriminatory attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudices as factors contributing to silencing, othering, and marginalisation within academia. Women from ethnic minorities and marginalised groups demonstrate both self‐silencing and the deprivation of their agency and voice due to cultural normative expectations. We conclude by exploring alternatives to promote transformational change that considers intersectional and multiple forms of discrimination. We suggest what change agents in higher education institutions can do to hear unheard voices and reduce the long‐standing multiple disadvantages faced by intersectionally marginalised groups.

Keywords: diversity; everyday racism; gender‐based violence; higher education; intersectionality; silence; transformational change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9825

DOI: 10.17645/si.9825

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