Leading gracefully: Gendered leadership at community colleges

Authors

Pamela L. Eddy, William & Mary - School of EducationFollow

Files

Document Type

Book Chapter

Department/Program

Education

Publication Date

11-5-2009

Book Title

Women in Academic Leadership: Professional Strategies, Personal Choices

Publisher

Stylus Publishing

Editor

Diane R. Dean, Susan J. Bracken and Jeanie K. Allen

City

Sterling, VA

First Page

8

Last Page

30

Abstract

Colleges and universities benefit from diversity in their leadership roles and profess to value diversity--of thought, of experience, of person. Yet why do women remain under-represented in top academic leadership positions and in key positions along the academic career ladder?

Why don’t they advance at a rate proportional to that of their male peers? How do internal and external environmental contexts still influence who enters academic leadership and who survives and thrives in those roles?

Women in Academic Leadership complements its companion volumes in the Women in Academe series, provoking readers to think critically about the gendered nature of academic leadership across the spectrum of institutional types. It argues that leadership, the academy, and the nexus of academic leadership, remain gendered structures steeped in male-oriented norms and mores. Blending research and reflection, it explores the barriers and dilemmas that these structures present and the professional strategies and the personal choices women make in order to successfully surmount them.

The authors pose questions about how women leaders negotiate between their public and private selves. They consider how women develop a vital sense of self-efficacy along with the essential skills and knowledge they need in order to lead effectively; how they cultivate opportunity; and how they gain legitimacy and maintain authenticity in a male-gendered arena.

For those who seek to create an institutional environment conducive to equity and opportunity, this book offers insight into the pervasive barriers facing women of all colors and evidence of the need for a more complex, multi-dimensional view of leadership. For women in academe who seek to reach their professional potential and maintain authenticity, it offers encouragement and a myriad of strategies for their growth and development.

ISBN

9781579221898

Recommended Citation

Eddy, Pamela L., "Leading gracefully: Gendered leadership at community colleges" (2009). School of Education Book Chapters. 25.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/educationbookchapters/25