This qualitative study explored the meanings that Black women who do not have fathers attach to growing up without a father. A combination of purposive and snowballing sampling was undertaken to obtain the five female participants, while data were collected through interviews. Resilience theory was used as the framework for conceptualising the study and analysing the data. Strong resilient mothers seemed to play a primary role in how the participants made meanings of growing up without a father. The participants also constructed themselves to be resilient to victimisation that they attributed to father absence. Collectively, the women portrayed themselves to be independent, content, and empowered. These findings challenge the assumption that being reared by one parent will automatically lead to detrimental outcomes.

The apartheid epoch introduced a web of laws that influenced public and private structures and ideological apparatuses, including educational institutions, to give an inferior status to Black people. South Africa was also upheld by a deeply patriarchal system which marginalised the status of women in society. This meant that most people in senior positions in South African organisations were predominantly white and male. The consequence of racism and patriarchy meant that there have been a low number of Black women professors in institutions of higher education. This study therefore aimed to examine the discourses of Black women professors in post-apartheid South Africa. This study used the Critical Race Theory (CRT) and critical consciousness, to understand the challenges that Black women professors encounter and how they strategically navigated these challenges in institutions of higher education, respectively. The Black women professors were recruited from two South African universities. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. The significance of the study is that it identified discourses, which could be useful to understand the kinds of challenges that may operate in higher education and ways to shift these existing challenges. The findings showed two main challenges encountered by Black women professors namely: (1) feelings of being unwelcomed within the academic space and (2) being undermined in their leadership positions.Black women professors seemed to navigate these challenges by (1) being vocal, and (2) being intentional, about excelling in their work and (3) adopting a transformational leadership style. The study feeds into how South African higher education institutions can accommodate Black women professors, as they navigate through their career.

Background: Literature on the academic identities of South African black women in higher education institutions predominantly focuses more on students and academics in general and less on professors. Studying the academic identities of black women is important in understanding how their reality in higher education is constructed and professors are particularly important to study as their leadership position can shape the types of opportunities and challenges they and others encounter.Aim: This article aimed to explore the academic identities of five black women professors in two South African universities and what influences them. This study uses empowerment theory to understand the way these five black women academic professors see themselves academically and what informs the way they see themselves academically.Setting: The black women professors were recruited from two South African universities in 2018.Methods: Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the five black women professors. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Collectively, the five participants seemed to show two academic identities: the encouraging scholarship and student learning academic identity and conducting research for (social) transformation academic identity. These identities seemed to arise from both the inspiring and discouraging encounters they had with some of their teachers and lecturers. The article has implications for policy and practice.Conclusion: The significance of the study is that it highlights themes, which can be useful to understand how black women professors talk about their identity and understand how their reality is constructed.

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