Evoking My Shadow Beast

Life does not stop for anyone pursuing a graduate degree. For women of color, however, cultural and familial pressures sometimes make finishing our graduate degrees more difficult. This chapter explores the experience of a woman of color doctoral student completing her dissertation while also caring for her two young children, watching over two parents who struggled with serious illnesses, and managing a household. Framed by critical race feminism, this counterstory highlights microaggressions that exist in institutions of higher education but also within families. Exploring notions such as Superwoman, the “double-bind,” and the often-competing expectations related to traditional gender roles and aspirations, this chapter urges women of color to consider different ways of caretaking that promote liberation, eliminating the patriarchal and misogynistic expectations that tend to hinder the progress of women of color in graduate school.