The Representation of the Women Presidents of the American Society of Criminology

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to highlight the women presidents of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) within the past decade, and as such, builds upon an earlier peer-reviewed article in 2006 that profiled the first five female presidents of the ASC. Since 2014, six of the last seven ASC presidents have been women: Joanne Belknap, Candace Kruttschnitt, Ruth D. Peterson, Karen Heimer, Meda Chesney-Lind and Sally S. Simpson. Specifically, this article examines how being a woman president has helped represent and shape the discipline of criminology and the ASC. Through a qualitative analysis, it provides further insight into factors contributing to their leadership success and challenges faced within academia and criminology from a female perspective, particularly noting the role of mentoring/networking, being female in a criminology discipline, work-life balance issues, and perspectives of being a female president in a historically male-dominated discipline. This article addresses how the representation of these women presidents has continued to raise the glass ceiling in a historically male-dominated academic discipline and the message it sends to those within the criminology discipline that is, women criminologists have and can continue to achieve success and overcome gender barriers.