Invitation to exclusion: The continuing experience of Black women in higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom

Black women exist in a contested space in higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom where they can be used in a tokenistic way as visible confirmation of how well an organisation is realising its organisational aims of equality as required under the Public Sector Duty, while at the same time often being denied opportunities which are routinely allocated to their White counterparts (Bernard, 2007; Wilson, 2007). While the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (2021) reported the crude racist expressions were now, mostly, features of the past, the findings of this research indicated that Black women could not necessarily expect support from within their organisation nor could they rely on internal systems to either provide them with the protection they needed or opportunities to progress in their careers. Instead, more often, Black women needed to build their own support networks and plot their own paths for progression.