Women’s History Month: A Time for Celebration, Conversation, and Commitment

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Observing Women’s History Month is not just about remembering and celebrating women’s achievements and their collective journey thus far — it’s about committing to continued progress.

“When we fail to remember our foremothers and the sacrifices they made to open the doors of opportunity we now walk through, we risk letting those doors close behind us,” cautioned Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges. “The fragility of our current freedoms has been recently made more visible. Women’s History Month is a chance for all of us — women and men — to celebrate and lift up the ways that societies flourish only when opportunities to contribute are open to all.”

We hope you have taken the time to remember where we’ve been, reflect on where we want to go, and consider how we can continue to make strides in our pursuit of gender equity.

Though higher education institutions often promote the ideals of gender equity, the reality has yet to fully blossom. Pay disparities still linger, men continue to advance to higher faculty ranks at a greater rate than women, and women are still outnumbered by men in the college presidency.

Dr. Shai L. Butler, long-time higher education professional and now founder/CEO of StratHERgies LLC, highlights that while Women’s History Month is undoubtedly a time for recognition and celebration, it also calls for conversations about “gender parity at the highest level, including the C-Suite and the Presidency,” she said. “This year in particular, I have found women centering conversations on how we can support one another through adversity and strengthen intragroup and intergroup relationships.”

At HigherEdJobs, we, too, are invested in the success of women in academia. We strive to share best practices to help women grow and advance in their careers — and encourage institutional leaders to build inclusive and equitable workforces. In honor of Women’s History Month, here’s a look at some of our articles over the years in this area.