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Higher Education Leadership: Analyzing the Gender Gap. ERIC Digest.

Only 16% of college and university women are presidents, only 13% of chief business officers are women, and only 25% of chief academic officers are women. Yet, women comprise more than 52% of the current student body. While colleges and universities are dominated by male leadership, however, concerns regarding administrative procedures that exclude women and create chilly campus climates continue to plague academic institutions. Many believe that by closing the leadership gap, institutions would become more centered on process and persons (described as feminized concerns) rather than focused on tasks and outcomes (attributed to masculine styles of leadership).

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES OF INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT?

Societal and organizational conceptions of leadership vary according to authors' assumptions. However, it is a common notion that leaders are individuals who provide vision and meaning for an institution and embody the ideals toward which the organization strives. Five common frames of reference for organizational structures inform us that leadership within these structures are traditionally conceived. Most conceptions of organizations assume that leadership emanates from the apex of a hierarchy. A sixth frame, A Web of Inclusion, is offered as an alternative, feminized frame of reference.

WOMEN AND MEN LEADERS: DIFFERENT OR ALIKE?

Carol Gilligan's research on cognitive development has provided impetus for many of today's scholars to explore and revise leadership as we knew it. Gilligan argues that a single model of reasoning patterns and stages of moral development fails to capture the different realities of women's lives. By offering two different modes of reasoning patterns, a more complex but better understandable explanation for the human experience would also be more inclusive. Sally Helgesen, for example, examines how women chief executive officers make decisions, gather and dispense information, delegate tasks, structure their organizations, and motivate their employees. She concludes that women leaders place more emphasis on relationships, sharing, and process, while male CEOs, as per Mintzberg's studies, focus on completing tasks, achieving goals, hoarding of information, and winning. Gilligan's work identified a separate development pathway that results in personal and relational responsibility being of highest value for females and legalistic justice for individuals being highest for males. Therefore, as described by several authors, while men are more concerned with systems and rules, women are more concerned with relations and atmosphere.

DOES THE GENDER GAP MATTER?

THE GLASS CEILING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

IMPLICATIONS TO THE INSTITUTION

Several actions that can be taken to bring about this change. Clearly, it is easier to promote change when in a position of authority. Transformational leadership develops organizational consensus and empowers those who are like-minded in their goals. Further, since patriarchy has been organized through men's relationships with other men, a similar unity among women is an effective means by which to combat institutionalized forms and norms that exclude women. And, regardless of position, women in higher education need to become more aware when the sense of being a marginal member or an unequal member of the academy impedes performance. A first step in this process is the elimination of campus micro-inequities, those behaviors and actions which create a chilly campus climate for women and minority groups.

It is important to remain vigilant to the effects of organizational norms, structures, and systems for many of the issues encompassed within the gender gap are a result of systems and not individuals. However, because they are only systems, they can be examined and changed. Furthermore, of most importance in the process of change is the recognition that equality cannot be externally assigned until it has been internally perceived by institutional members. By attending to traditional institutional practices such as exclusionary tenure criteria, sexual harassment, and wage gaps, incremental but effective changes can reshape institutional culture, and the associated images of leaders and leadership in higher education.

REFERENCES

Gilligan, C., J.V. Ward, and J.M. Taylor, eds. 1988. Mapping the Moral Domain: A Contribution of Women's Thinking to Psychological Theory and Education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Pearson, C.S., D.L. Shavlik, and J.G. Touchton. eds. 1989 Educating the Majority: Women Challenge Tradition in Higher Education. New York: American Council on Education, Macmillan.

Ross, M., M.F. Green, C. Henderson. 1993. The American College President: A 1993 Edition. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education.

This ERIC digest is based on a full-length report in the ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report series Volume 25, Number 4, Higher Education Leadership: Analyzing the Gender Gap by Luba Chliwniak.