Netflix's new show 'The Chair' reveals the subtle ways women of color are set up to fail as leaders

• Netflix's "The Chair" shows the subtle ways that women of color are set up to fail as leaders.
• The show has sparked a conversation about workplace discrimination.
• Insider spoke with experts about how the show mirrors the challenges real women face.

For Ji-Yoon Kim, the main character of Netflix's newest workplace dramedy "The Chair," played by Sandra Oh, ascending to a coveted leadership role turns out to be a cunning form of discrimination.

Created by Amanda Peet and Annie Wyman, "The Chair" takes place at Pembroke University, a fictional ivy league school, and follows Kim, the first woman of color to chair the struggling English department. The show, which premiered on August 20, has sparked a conversation about the added responsibilities that women of color often shoulder as leaders.

In some ways, Kim's experience mirrors the implicit and explicit struggles faced by many women and people of color in academia: an industry pay gap, tenure challenges, and the "glass cliff" effect. The American Association of University Women found that women were paid less than men at every level of faculty rank, and according to the National Center for Education Statistics, three-fourths of all full-time faculty are white.

Insider spoke with diversity leaders and academics about how "The Chair" spoke to these larger issues - and how these issues can make a career in academia significantly more difficult for women of color. This article contains spoilers.

Set up for failure

Beth Nguyen, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, recently wrote an essay for Time about how the nuanced, empathetic portrayal of an Asian American professor resonated with her experience as a woman of color in leadership.

One of the dynamics illustrated in the show is the "glass cliff" effect, which describes how women are promoted in times of crisis when they are more likely to fail. The term often focuses on white women in power, but Nguyen said the show goes deeper to illustrate the intersection of Kim's gender and race.

"These are decades of problems that Ji-Yoon inherited, and when she doesn't solve everything right away, they turn on her," Nguyen said.

In a conversation with her friend and protégé Yaz (Nana Mensah), Kim says, "I feel like someone handed me a ticking time bomb because they wanted to make sure a woman was holding it when it explodes."

Yaz is navigating her own setbacks as a Black professor. Despite having the best enrollment numbers and the most innovative ideas for bringing the department into the 21st century, her tenure at Pembroke becomes less of a priority.

Unwinding systems of oppression

Though Kim is the sitting chair of the English department, her promotion doesn't erase the racism and sexism, said Tanya Williams, a social-justice educator and consultant.

"As the chair, does she have power, or does she not?" Williams said. "If she really has power in that role, does she have the ability to say, 'No, this is not okay?'"

Williams said that white supremacy can manifest in the workplace through an "achievement" like Kim becoming chair because this individual view of progress puts too much pressure on one person and ignores the larger system. Leaders need to learn how to identify and address different forms of discrimination to foster a culture that can support underrepresented groups, Williams said.

"The Chair" may depict ageism, racism, and sexism as it exists, but the characters don't show the process of naming and unwinding these systems.

Setting leaders up for success

In an academic setting, Nguyen said universities have started to hire professors of the same identity in clusters to create a built-in support system. She also emphasized the importance of listening to people with different identities, a leadership skill Kim models on the show.

By the end of "The Chair," the toxic culture toward women and people of color is still intact. The old guard votes to remove Kim from her position, and Yaz's future at Pembroke is uncertain - she may even go to Yale.

But rather than accepting this reality, Nguyen and Williams said leaders in the real world should view the show as a call to make tangible changes that support women of color.

"The writers have written a story of something as it is. What are we actually doing to have it be different from what it is?" Williams said. "That's what I'm more interested in. Where's the show that's going to show me that there's actually a possibility of a different way of being?"