2004
Volume 28, Issue 2/3
  • ISSN: 1388-3186
  • E-ISSN: 2352-2437

Samenvatting

Abstract

In neoliberalised academia where outputs are highly coveted, single, childfree women of colour (WoC) with PhDs navigate the triality of race, gender, and singlehood in exceling at work while also seeking romance. Taking an intersectional approach, this paper is an autoethnographic examination of my struggles as a WoC who excels academically at a often hostile workplace and seeks romantic partnership in a predominately white world. I show that universities remain a site of racism, sexism, and singlism where WoC are required to work harder to prove their qualifications than their white counterparts and single women are expected to pick up more work than their married colleagues with children. Through WoC’s careful navigation of the power dynamics in heterosexual relationships, I demonstrate, using my own experience as a point of entry, that many WoC academics provide the emotional work to avoid hurting men’s fragile masculinity and thereby subconsciously contribute to the hypermasculinised dating culture. This paper offers important perspectives for understanding how single, childfree WoC with PhDs struggle with and defy the gender expectations placed on them while seeking romance.

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2025-09-01
2025-12-13
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