Dispelling a Myth

Abstract

Very few women hold top-level administrative positions in higher education institutions in the United States. In 1979, fewer than two hundred out of more than twenty-five hundred accredited institutions had women as chief executive officers. Nearly one-third of the women presidents are members of religious orders. Only one private university is headed by a woman. Only three public institutions with enrollments over ten thousand are headed by women [65]. More than one-half of the state universities and land-grant colleges do not have women in top-level administrative positions [1]. There are several interrelated reasons typically given for why women do not occupy top-level administrative positions in most organizations. The most general reason offered is that women are simply being discriminated against [45]. Another reason is that negative attitudes toward women as administrators make it more difficult for them to assume ad-