Women in Academic Leadership

by Dean, Diane R.; Bracken, Susan J.; Allen, Jeanie K.; Van Ummersen, Claire

• ISBN13: 9781579221881
• ISBN10: 1579221882
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-30
• Publisher: Stylus Pub Llc

Summary

Colleges and universities benefit from diversity in their leadership roles and profess to value diversity--of thought, of experience, of person. Yet why do women remain under-represented in top academic leadership positions and in key positions along the academic career ladder? Why don't they advance at a rate proportional to that of their male peers? How do internal and external environmental contexts still influence who enters academic leadership and who survives and thrives in those roles? Women in Academic Leadership complements its companion volumes in the Women in Academe series, provoking readers to think critically about the gendered nature of academic leadership across the spectrum of institutional types. It argues that leadership, the academy, and the nexus of academic leadership, remain gendered structures steeped in male-oriented norms and mores. Blending research and reflection, it explores the barriers and dilemmas that these structures present and the professional strategies and the personal choices women make in order to successfully surmount them. The authors pose questions about how women leaders negotiate between their public and private selves. They consider how women develop a vital sense of self-efficacy along with the essential skills and knowledge they need in order to lead effectively; how they cultivate opportunity; and how they gain legitimacy and maintain authenticity in a male-gendered arena. For those who seek to create an institutional environment conducive to equity and opportunity, this book offers insight into the pervasive barriers facing women of all colors and evidence of the need for a more complex, multi-dimensional view of leadership. For women in academe who seek to reach their professional potential and maintain authenticity, it offers encouragement and a myriad of strategies for their growth and development.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Foreword	p. ix
Introduction: The Balancing Act Revisited: Professional Strategy and Personal Choice of the Path to Academic Leadership	p. 1
Leading Gracefully: Gendered Leadership at Community Colleges	p. 8
Narrating Gendered Leadership	p. 31
The Role of Self-Efficacy in Developing Women Leaders: A Case of Women in Academic Medicine and Dentistry	p. 50
Barriers to Women's Leadership in Faith-Based Colleges and Universities: Strategies for Change	p. 74
Informal Learning Among Women Community College Presidents	p. 95
Resources, Role Models, and Opportunity Makers: Mentoring Women in Academic Leadership	p. 128
Preparing Women of Color for Leadership: Perspectives on the American Council on Education Fellows Program	p. 149
Advice from the Field: Guiding Women of Color to Academic Leadership	p. 181
Women and the Quest for Presidential Legitimacy	p. 208
Assimilation, Authenticity, And Advancement: Crafting Integrated Identities as Academic Leaders	p. 238
About the Editors and Contributors	p. 253
Index	p. 255
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