The Fight about Meritocracy and Diversity in Higher Education: Implementation and Resistance to Feminist Hiring Practices across Three Countries

In recent years, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in higher education have come increasingly under attack. Yet their international spread was a response to the recognition that the ideal of meritocracy in universities has long aligned with the performance standards of cisgender, white, male, and able-bodied academics. To challenge these exclusions, universities established diversity offices, developed equity policies, and hired DEI professionals to redefine how merit and excellence are understood and practiced. This paper examines struggles over meritocracy and diversity in hiring: what forms of resistance DEI actors face, how merit is defended or redefined, and which strategies are used to overcome these conflicts. It explores how feminist governance unfolds in hiring processes and how equity work is both enabled and constrained by neoliberal performance regimes. Between May 2024 and March 2025, sixty-four expert interviews were conducted with diversity workers in the United States (23), England (20), and Germany (21) across universities of varying size and disciplinary orientation. The study employed purposive sampling and structuring qualitative content analysis. Preliminary findings reveal distinct national and transnational dynamics. First, three understandings of the meritocracy–diversity nexus emerge: excellence through diversity, diversity versus excellence, and diversity and excellence. Second, while gender diversity is institutionalized in hiring in Germany and the UK, other categories remain marginal. In the United States, DEI practices vary by state amid trends of deinstitutionalization. Third, diversity professionals advance DEI by invoking legal mandates, research evidence, and personal experiences, rebranding DEI language, and experimenting with criteria beyond grant income or citation potential. Together, these findings offer a nuanced view of struggles over meritocracy and diversity and show how feminist governance is renegotiated within and against neoliberal academia.