The racial and gender biases that women of color endure in educational leadership are more prevalent than most realize. Women of color who serve in educational leadership positions face inequities and deal with microaggressions more frequently in the workplace. Autoethnography scenarios serve as illustrations to demonstrate the racial and gender biases that exist, as well as the microaggressions the author has faced as a woman of color. Often women of color learn to navigate, tolerate, and deal with these inequities and microaggressions in order to survive. However, it is time to take a proactive approach by providing training at all levels within the educational environment. Professional development focused on equity and microaggression can promote more equitable practices and raise awareness to better understand and help identify inequities, biases and microaggressions that exist within the workplace, especially for women of color.
Applying evocative autoethnography research practices, real life scenarios are shared as illustrations of biases, inequities, and microaggressions that women of color face. As a researcher, I attempt to provide the reader with a reflective analysis of the choices I made and the reasoning behind those choices. However, I realize the limitations of autoethnography in qualitative research, especially as the researcher, relying on memory to provide self-narratives in order to help others understand and connect to my reflective analyses.
