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As promised, I’m back with my second installment covering ACE’s Women’s Leadership Speaker Series! In case you missed my first article: each year, ACE and the ACE Women’s Network Executive Council present the Women’s Leadership Speaker Series, virtual panel discussions where remarkable women in higher education come together to share their insights. Each of the four sessions is focused on a specific topic, and all sessions are recorded and available to view online. In my previous article, I covered the “Women in Leadership and Their Well-Being” and the “Advocacy: A Proven Strategy to Challenge the Erosion of Women’s Rights” sessions, and I’m back to share some lessons I learned from the “Advancing Women Leaders Through Advocacy and Policy” and “Women of the Global Majority and Their Pathways to the Presidency” installments from the series.
Advancing Women Leaders Through Advocacy and Policy
Shifting the Culture: Dr. Michelle Cooper affirmed that, while she’s encouraged by the number of women moving into leadership positions within higher education, there is a powerful need for broader cultural shifts to really uplift women as leaders and women as students. She noted that although there are more women than ever before in higher education, a disproportionate number are earning degrees that lead to lower-paying jobs, and women hold the majority of student debt. The careers that women enter into in the highest numbers — teachers and social workers, for example — are still undervalued in our society.
- Stand-out quote: “It’s great to see women assume leadership roles. It’s great to see women of color assuming leadership roles. But I do worry that we are entering into these spaces, and the values, and the expectations, and the norms that were created by and for men. And I don’t know if they’ve changed this yet.” – Dr. Cooper
More Work to Do: Dr. Cooper, in response to a question about whether she’s ever considered becoming a college president, said that she’s taken herself out of that race. She shared that she had been up for a college presidency twice, and each time was rejected; when she asked for feedback, she was told that her non-traditional background (having made a career in policy rather than academia) and the fact that she spoke openly about her children and being a single mother had been sticking points for the committee.
- Stand-out quote: “Some of the women that shared [a similar experience of being passed over because they were single mothers] earlier today, we’re talking about, they had that conversation in the ’90s and the early 2000s. This was a conversation I had in 2019. That just shows that behind closed doors, we have not made as much progress, and we may not yet be as progressive as we think we are, or should be.” – Dr. Cooper
Advocacy from Outside Government: Dr. Cooper talked about her transition from working within government to working for a foundation and enumerated some of the benefits that can come from working outside of traditional systems. As a foundation, she says, they’re able to take some more risks and aren’t bound by some of the legalities that limit her colleagues working in policy or working within higher education institutions.
- Stand-out quote: “What I’ve been told by many is that they need help, and that people are afraid to speak out because that presents very real danger to them and their livelihoods. So we’re hearing that and we’re trying to think about, how can we support the good work that we know that people are doing? Regardless of if you tell them they can’t say diversity or equity, they are still committed to the work, and I applaud them for that.” – Dr. Cooper
Women of the Global Majority* and Their Pathways to the Presidency
Barriers to Entry: Dr. CharMaine Hines began by providing historical context to this issue; for over 35 years, there has been sufficient evidence that people of color are not represented at the presidency level at colleges and universities in a way that reflects the general population, or the population on campuses. She identified several barriers to entry, including unclear paths to entry, a hiring process that serves as gatekeepers, microaggressions, tokenism, super syndrome, and structural glass ceilings. Dr. Ashley Gray, lead consultant and researcher for ALG Consulting LLC, built off of that theme by speaking about a study she designed, in which women who identified non-white talked about their experience ascending to the presidency. Many of them shared that search committees often include women of the global majority in their searches, knowing that there is no intention to hire them.
- Stand-out quote: “[Another theme in the study that emerges is] body image, a major barrier to women who were described by board members, often, as fat, or, in one case, one of the participants was described as a ‘fat cow.’ Thinking critically about the ways in which board members have this box that they’ve already created for what a president can look like, and women of the global majority are most often impacted by these boxes. And that’s really rooted in this white supremacist nature around what beauty and professionalism is.” – Dr. Gray
Short-Lived Presidencies: Even after achieving the rank of college president, many women are leaving the position prematurely. When talking about what we can do to prevent that, Dr. Gray explained the importance of implementing real wellness strategies to ensure the holistic needs of POC women leaders are being met. As she explained, that can include anything from offering coaching or mentoring as part of the onboarding experience, making sure that the needs of their families are met, and changing the overall culture of a campus.
- Stand-out quote: “Hiring more women of the global majority and people of the global majority into violent white spaces is not the answer. How do you change the institution from the nuts and bolts of it, the foundation of it? So that it’s ready for a leader who’s going to reflect differently, is going to think differently?” – Dr. Gray
Sustaining through Community: When asked what advice they would pass along to women of the global majority aspiring to the college presidency, both Hines and Gray spoke about the power of hope; hope can act not just as a bandaid, but can also provide powerful motivation to further advocacy and drive change. Dr. Hines also spoke about the ways in which other people in communities can work together to sustain one another.
- Stand-out quote: “The importance of mentors and supporters for women and folks of color who have aspired to the presidency is essential; that’s been a career and a game changer… Especially women and people of color, we think we’ve got to have all the boxes checked before we step forward or say ‘I’m qualified’. So we need people who will see things in you and pour into you and help you to get there.” – Dr. Hines
* The group of people in the world who do not consider themselves or are not considered to be white (including, but not limited to) those of African, Asian, Indigenous, Latin American, and Arab descent)
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