“I am the Chair”: Women and Department Leadership in the Academy

Sharon Kruse

doi:10.3389/feduc.2022.814581

Abstract

The paucity of women in leadership roles in the academy has been the focus of the literature in higher education for several decades. The discussion has lamented how few women attain presidencies, chancellorships, or vice chancellor roles, that women of color experience even greater barriers to leadership attainment, and that women are likely to experience both a “glass ceiling” and a “glass cliff”. As a result, women often find themselves trapped in low-level managerial roles, unsupported when they do attain leadership positions, and underrepresented on powerful committees and in meaningful decision-making bodies. Drawing on data from a large study of the department chair, this qualitative study explores the experiences of twenty women who hold the position. Findings suggest that women department chairs continue to face ongoing gendered challenges to their leadership and that barriers to their success are still very much present in the academy. Coping with these challenges requires a balancing act within oneself, with others, and within the institution. Each challenge is then reflected in tensions that must be negotiated rather than resolved. Recommendations for structural and cultural changes are offered.

Highlights

Research exploring the challenges department chairs1 face has long suggested that the role is difficult and lacks tangible rewards (Buller, 2015; Gmelch et al, 2017)
Qualitative methods were best suited for a study that set out to explore, in their own words, the experiences of women serving in the role of department chair
While both men and women experienced challenges related to their work as department chair, the women expressed specific challenges they attributed to the role their gender played in their leadership efforts

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Recent research (Kruse, 2020; Kruse et al, 2020) suggests that all chairs, no matter their gender, face tensions— including those related to task, organization and role, and people and relationships. Glass cliff hires are often recruited to carry the burden of organizational change or during circumstances of increased risk and are faced with managing and leading the organization through high-risk situations and increasingly troublesome decisions (Peterson, 2015). As Acker (2010) suggests, access to opportunities for voice are not sufficient; research indicates that even when provided the stage, women’s voices are often taken less seriously than those of men (Hoyt and Murphy, 2016) In this way, barriers to women’s advancement and success are baked into the structure of higher education. It is hoped that by doing so the work contributes to the field in a synthetic way

DESIGN

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

ETHICS STATEMENT