ABSTRACT
This literature review is conceptually rooted in intersectional feminism and Harding's (2004) standpoint theory. I assert and affirm my positionality as a black woman from the Global South as I unpack the literature on women in higher education. I use the concepts of inclusion and exclusion to illustrate that while women are unequivocally in higher education, they remain largely out of positions of power. The concept of seclusion is used to describe women's and institutions' obscured and hidden behaviors that reinforce gendered patterns of women's subsistence in higher education. The review also highlights two key persistent challenges, namely, that of the impossibility of work life balance, especially, but not only, for academic mothers;and of being a black woman in academia. I offer insight into the devastating impacts of covid-19 on women academics and academic mothers. The review also identifies strategies used to make qualitative shifts in women's occupation of higher education spaces.