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A STUDY OF SELECTED WOMEN ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR
PERCEPTIONS OF THE CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED
IN ACHIEVING HIGH LEVEL POSITIONS IN

HIGHER EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION
presented by

Sister Ihnocentia Marie Ononiwu

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A STUDY OF SELECTED WOMEN ADMINISTRATORS
AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF THE CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED
IN ACHIEVING HIGH LEVEL POSITIONS
IN HIGHER EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION
by

Sister Innocentia Marie Ononiwu

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to Michigan State University
In partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
For the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Agricultural and Extension Education

2001

ABSTRACT

A STUDY OF SELECTED WOMEN ADMINISTRATORS
AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF THE CHALLENGES
ENCOUNTERED 1N ACHIEva HIGH LEVEL POSITIONS
IN HIGHER EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION
By

Sister Innocentia Marie Ononiwu

Records of gender equity in higher education administration have shown that
women have been the second choice in the selection as higher education administrators.
For the reason that many women think that they cannot be hired as much as their male
counterparts are hired in higher education administrative positions, some of them took it
for granted that they are the endangered species in the administration of higher education.
The purpose of this study was to identify the enhancing and challenging factors
inﬂuencing the achievement of women who reached top levels of administration in
selected Michigan Universities; and to determine whether these factors are different from
those perceived by other researchers who are concerned with the issue of inequity in
higher education administrative positions.

The study investigated the progress that women have made in attaining positions
in higher education administration in the early 1980s. The researcher intended to utilize
information obtained to provide guidance and perspective to women who aspire to top

level administrative positions in higher education.

Sister Innocentia Marie Ononiwu

This study used a qualitative interview method was used to gain an in-depth
understanding of purposively selected participants from their perspective. A list of
fourteen research questions were administered to purposively selected female
administrators in three categories of administration, from three higher institutions of
learning in Michigan. The qualitative data analytical method consisted of words and
statements, which expressed qualities rather than quantities, was used to describe and
summarize the data. This constant qualitative data analysis relied on the ﬁndings from
the fourteen research questions to determine the most critical consistencies and
inconsistencies with the literature review.

The ﬁndings on the perceptions of the female administrators from research
questions two through fourteen were consistent with the literature review. It is not
possible to draw conclusions that the ﬁndings from research question one is neither
consistent nor inconsistent because there is no review of literature on demographic
information. It was observed from the ﬁndings that the female administrators
interviewed were aware that females have made gains in appointments to higher
education administrative positions. They still believe, however, that balance,
proportionately, is needed with male counterparts. The study participants were in
agreement that there are serious societal sex-stereotypical hindrances that need to be
completely removed. Such action would permit females to more visibly recognized and

on equal basis with their male counterparts.

Copyn'ght by
Sister Innocentia Marie Ononiwu
2001

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Dissertation is dedicated to my late father Mr. Cyril Ononiwu Ekezie, whose
intercession from God, made it possible to get the essential ﬁnancial support for this
degree. My gratitude to my loving mother, Mrs. Matilda Ononiwu Ekezie, who missed
my loving presence during the course of this study. I am grateful to Rev. Mother Chilota
Elochukwu, our ex-ofﬁcio Mother General for her loving encouragement, patience, and
understanding.

A special gratitude to Mrs. Geraldine Lewis for her encouragement, support and
patience. It was not very easy to live in a foreign land while one was inquiring about
knowledge. It has been an enriching experience for the opportunity I have had to come to
the United States, and I made many wonderful friends. I am deeply appreciative for the
time many people gave and shared generously with me.

I wish to acknowledge and thank my advisor Dr. Carroll Wamhoff and other
members of my committee, Dr. Fred Whims, and Dr. Michael Doyle for their individual
and collective counsel, guidance encouragement, patience and understanding throughout
the course of my program. Their professionalism and authentic academic challenges and
sincere interest are highly valued. May God continue to bless all of you for me.

I am very grateful to Mrs. Paula Kilburn for her patience to proofreading, arrangements

and printing for the Graduate School deadline. May God bless you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Titles ...................................................................................................................... Page No.
Title Page ............................................................................................................................. i
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii
Copyright ............................................................................................................................. v
Acknowledgment ............................................................................................................... vi
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii
Chapter I ............................................................................................................................... 1

The Problem ............................................................................................................. 6
Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................ 6
Fourteen Questions to be addressed in the Study .................................................... 7
Importance of the Study ........................................................................................... 8
Assumptions of the Study ........................................................................................ 9
Limitations of the Study ........................................................................................ 10
Deﬁnition of Terms ................................................................................................ 10
Advanced Level of Responsibility ......................................................................... 10
Administrator ......................................................................................................... 10
A Comprehensive university .................................................................................. 10
Higher Education ................................................................................................... 11
“Glass—ceiling” ....................................................................................................... l 1
Land-Grand Institution ........................................................................................... 11
Leadership .............................................................................................................. 1 1
Manager ................................................................................................................. 12
Mentor .................................................................................................................... 12
Regional University ............................................................................................... 13
Role Conﬂicts ........................................................................................................ 13
Sex-role stereotype ................................................................................................. 13
Top Level Position ................................................................................................. 13

Organization of the Study .................................................................................................. 13

Chapter II ........................................................................................................................... 14
Review of Related Literature ................................................................................. 14
Essential Academic qualiﬁcations ......................................................................... 17
Perceived Sex-role stereotypes .............................................................................. 18
Role of formerly held administrative positions ..................................................... 21
Role of teaching and other professional experiences ............................................. 22
Inﬂuence of other education-related experiences .................................................. 23
Positions applied/perceived factors ....................................................................... 23
Role of professional networking in appointment ................................................... 25
The role Mentors play in being appointed ............................................................. 29
Negative challenges and encountered positive ...................................................... 31
Observed behaviors or action exhibited ................................................................. 34
Role conﬂicts experienced between maintaining ................................................. 36
Greatest accomplishments, and satisfactions ......................................................... 37

vi

Advice or council to women aspiring to administrative ........................................ 39

Chapter III .......................................................................................................................... 42
Methodology .......................................................................................................... 42
Interview Techniques ............................................................................................. 43
Population Identiﬁcation ........................................................................................ 44
Data Collection ...................................................................................................... 46
Interview Questions ............................................................................................... 47
Instrumentation ...................................................................................................... 48
Data Analysis ......................................................................................................... 49
Summary ................................................................................................................ 49

Chapter IV .......................................................................................................................... 50
Qualitative Analysis of Data .................................................................................. 50
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 52
Descriptive Analysis and Results ........................................................................... 53
Demographic information ...................................................................................... 53
Findings of the Frequency of Responses from the three categories ...................... 54
Summary of Findings ............................................................................................. 58
Degrees Earned ...................................................................................................... 58

Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 60
Institutions Attended .............................................................................................. 60
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 62
Racial Origins ........................................................................................................ 62
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 64
Objective #2 ........................................................................................................... 64
Research Question 2 .................................................................................. 64
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 65
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 69
Research Question 3 .................................................................................. 70
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 70
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 74
Objective #4 ........................................................................................................... 74
Research Question 4 .................................................................................. 74
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 76
Summary of ﬁndings .................................................................................. 78
Objective #5 ........................................................................................................... 79
Research Question 5 .................................................................................. 79
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 79
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 82
Objective #6 ........................................................................................................... 83
Research Question 6 .................................................................................. 83
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 83
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 85
Objective #7 ............................................................................................................ 85
Research Question 7 .................................................................................. 85
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 86

V11

Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 88

Objective #8 ........................................................................................................... 89
Research Question 8 .................................................................................. 89
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 89
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 92

Objective #9 ........................................................................................................... 93
Research Question 9 .................................................................................. 93
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................... 93
Summary of Findings ................................................................................. 99

Objective #10 ....................................................................................................... 100
Research Question 10 .............................................................................. 100
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................. 100
Summary of Findings ............................................................................... 104

Objective #1 1 ....................................................................................................... 104
Research Question 11 .............................................................................. 104
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................. 105
Summary of Findings ............................................................................... 108

Objective #12 ....................................................................................................... 108
Research Question 12 .............................................................................. 109
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................. 109
Summary of Findings ............................................................................... 114

Objective #13 ....................................................................................................... 114
Research Question 13 .............................................................................. 114
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................. 116
Summary of Findings ............................................................................... 122

Objective #14 ....................................................................................................... 123
Research Question 14 .............................................................................. 123
Findings on the Frequency of Responses ................................................. 123
Summary of Findings ............................................................................... 128

Chapter V ............................................................................................................. 130

Summary .............................................................................................................. 130
Findings and Conclusions ........................................................................ 133

Research Question 1 ............................................................................................ 133
Age ........................................................................................................... 133
Marital Status ........................................................................................... 134
Degrees Earned ........................................................................................ 134
Institutions Attended ................................................................................ 135
Racial Origins .......................................................................................... 136

Research Question 2 ............................................................................................ 137

Research Question 3 ............................................................................................ 139

Research Question 4 ............................................................................................ 140

Research Question 5 ............................................................................................ 141

Research Question 6 ............................................................................................ 143

Research Question 7 ............................................................................................ 144

viii

Research Question 8 ............................................................................................ 145

Research Question 9 ............................................................................................ 146
Research Question 10 .......................................................................................... 147
Research Question 11 .......................................................................................... 148
Research Question 12 .......................................................................................... 149
Research Question 13 .......................................................................................... 151
Research Question 14 .......................................................................................... 153
Observations ........................................................................................................ 154
Future Research ................................................................................................... 155
Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 157
Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 278

ix

CHAPTER I
The Nature and Purpose of the Investigation
Introduction

As historical records of gender equity in higher education administration have shown,
women tend to have been second choice in the selection of higher education leaders. In 2»
spite of afﬁrrnative action efforts to increase the number of certiﬁed female
administrators, women have continued to be confronted with barriers that make it ..
difﬁcult for them to successfully advance to top levels of administration in higher
education. To ascertain the causes a number of studies in the social sciences and in
higher education administration have been undertaken to articulate more clearly "what
barriers exist and how salient each barrier is" for preventing women from entering higher .. .
education administration (Shakeshaﬁ, 1987, p. 81).

Recent studies have Shown that women in the last decade have made dramatic gains
in assuming higher level administrative positions in American society. Two major
political races in the 1986 elections were between women-the gubernatorial campaign in
Nebraska and the US. Senate race in Maryland. By 1985 women had assumed 14.7
percent of the seats in the state legislatures ( Mandel, 1986). Two hundred women
became Chief Executive Ofﬁcers (CEOS) of corporations whose assets exceeded $5
million. Women also began to achieve prominence in public life. Some obvious
examples are: Geraldine Ferraro, candidate for Vice President of the United State; Sandra
Day O’Connor, Supreme Court Justice; Sally Ride, the ﬁrst woman in Space; Patricia
Roberts Harris, the ﬁrst black woman to hold a US. Cabinet post; and Katharine Graham,

the head of a Fortune 500 company. Women in higher education are no exception to this

pattern. Over 300 women now serve as chief executive ofﬁcers of colleges and
universities in the United States (Shavlik & Touchton, 1988).

Data from the American Council on Education showed a dramatic increase in women
administrators in the late 1980s. They cited that women currently make up 11 percent of
presidents of approximately 3,000 accredited higher education institutions (Heming,
1985; Moore, 1984; Tinsley, 1985; 1989; American Council on Education, 1990). Gains
over the last 15 years in senior level administrative positions have not been distributed
across all types of institutions or departments within institutions. Women comprised 22
percent of administrators at state and land-grant institutions, and 15 percent as chief
academic ofﬁcers and deans by 1987 (Warner, & DeFleur, 1993) in Mitchelle (eds.).

These gains do not tell all the exciting, painful and heroic stories of women in higher
education administration over the last decade. They also do not tell the stories of the
countless women leaders who have not been given an opportunity to serve when they
were clearly ready and more than able (Shavlik & Touchton, 1988).

No other nation has as many qualiﬁed women administrators as the United States of
America. Education doctorates like Ph.D.s and Ed.D.s are held predominately by women
and minority group members in the two-year college sector (Moore, Twombly, &
Martorana, 1985). In higher education, women are somewhat more likely than men to
have Ph.D.s as opposed to Ed.D.s. Sixty-two percent of women and 53 percent of men
had Ph.D.s (Touchton, Shavlik, & Davis, 1993). But, the problem remains that not as
many of these qualiﬁed women administrators are hired in top positions of higher
education as their male counterparts. This poses a very puzzling problem to women who

may have career aspirations and/or zeal to rise to positions of administration in the ﬁeld

of higher education. There are varied ﬁmdamental questions to explore for those who
have aspiration to be higher education administrators.

(1) Are there some demographic information, which could help in addressing the
challenges that confront females seeking high-level administrative positions? How can
these demographic information help in addressing the issue of inequity in high education
administration? (2) Do women possess the necessary qualiﬁcations and skills essential to
practicing administration in higher-level positions of educational leadership? Why are
qualiﬁed women administrators not hired as frequently as their male counterparts? (3)
Are there some sex-role stereotypes which society attaches to females? (4) Do women
have enough experiences in administrative positions prior to seeking advancement to top-
levels? (5) Do qualiﬁed female administrators have teaching and other professional
experiences, which could help them to being appointed to higher education administrative
positions? (6) Are there other education-related work experiences that can inﬂuence the
appointment of females in higher-levels? (7) Do qualiﬁed females seek as many
appointments to higher education administrative positions as their male counterparts?
Why are they not hired as ﬁ'equently as their counterpart? (8) How important is
professional networking in selection to higher education administrative positions? Are
female administrators part of professional networking, if so, why are they not hired as
their male counterparts? (9) Do qualiﬁed females have mentors who could inﬂuence
their advancement to top-levels? (10) Are there some negative challenges, which sets
barriers for women during hiring processes? (11) Are there exhibited behaviors or
actions and/or comments, which are stumbling blocks to women seeking positions in

higher education administration? (12) Does the society and/or hiring organization feel

that women would experience role conﬂicts that set barriers to being hired to higher
education administrative positions? (13) Can women administrators make contributions
in administration of higher education as much as men do? If so, why are they not hired
as their male counterparts? (14) Would women aspiring to higher education
administration not beﬁt from the inspirations and experiences of other female
administrators?

It is believed that such sex-role stereotypes and some other factors could have
positive inﬂuences and/or are stumbling blocks to the entry and advancement of women
to top level higher education administrative posts.

Sturnick and Green made this observation on the issue of gender equity for
women as leaders in administration of higher education ( Sturnick, 1986, p.22, & Green,
1 988: 106)

"It is a phantasm of cultural stereotypes, and multiple confusions about

what is "appropriate" and what is "inappropriate" for females in terms of the use

of power, decision-making authority and permissible manifestations of our

spiritual/mental strengths. Our culture is a long way from having worked out
these ambiguities; consequently, our lives are washed in these waves of
confusion, identity crisis and overt hostility from men and women--forces which
are intensiﬁed for the woman in a public, visible role."
Other authors have commented on the barriers that prevent women from advancement
into higher education administration. Gardner (1990) commented that the barriers of
prejudice and discrimination still confront young women who have leadership

potentialities, and that research bears out the existence of such barriers.

Wren (1995) observes that management and executive position, along with
professional and technical jobs, we re among the fastest growing occupations between
1984 and 1995. However, these occupations include jobs not traditionally held by
women and minorities, who comprise the new workforce (Morrison & Von Glinow
(eds,)). Women would have made incredible contributions in the administration of higher
education, if they had been given equal opportunity as their male counterparts were
given.

Gender-based perceptions, being "a set of beliefs and opinions about masculinity
and femininity, which includes stereotypes of men and women, and attitudes towards
appropriate roles and behaviors of women and men", can seriously affect advancement of
females into executive posts (Deaux & Kite, 1987:97). The percentage of women as
executives in higher education administration is still low compared to their male
counterparts due to barriers and obstacles they encounter as well as stereotypes and the
"glass-ceiling effects" that plagues them today (Slater & Glazer, 1987; Wren, 1995;

Morrison, 1996).

The Problem

The problem of this study was to examine the challenging and enhancing factors
encountered by women aspiring to reach top-level administrative positions in higher
education.
Purpose of the Study

The distinctive purpose of this study was to:
1. Investigate and identify the enhancing and challenging factors inﬂuencing the
achievement of women who reached top levels of administration in selected Michigan
Universities.
2. Investigate the progress that women have made in attaining positions in higher
education administration since the early 1980's.
3. Determine whether these challenging and enhancing factors are different from those
perceived by other researchers who are concerned with the issue of under representation
of women in top level administrative positions in higher education.
4. Determine the inﬂuence of the following factors that women may have encountered in
achieving top-level positions:
(a) Demographic information; (b) Qualiﬁcation; (c) Sex-role stereotypes; ((1) Prior
administrative positions; (e) Teaching/professional experiences; (1) Other educationally-
related work experience; (g) Applied positions/rej ections and, Why? (h) Use of
professional networking; (i) Help of mentor/Mentor's gender and, Mentor's profession;

(j) Challenges encountered with organization; (k) Observed Comments, behaviors or

actions exhibited, as a disadvantage to being a woman; (1) Role conﬂicts between
personal obligations/administrative duties; (In) Greatest accompliShments/satisfactions;
(n) Advice or Council to aspiring women.

5. Utilize information obtained to provide guidance and perspective to women who
aspire to top-level administrative positions in higher education.

Fourteen Questions to be addressed in the Study

The following the fourteen research questions were designed for the study:

1. What role did selective demographic information contribute to the perceptions of
the subjects in addressing the challenges of obtaining high-level administrative positions:
e. g. (age; marital status; degrees earned; institutions attended; and racial origin).

2. What qualiﬁcations are essential to achieve top-level administrative positions in
higher education?

3. Do women administrators in higher education perceive societal sex-role
stereotypes to be inﬂuences in the advancement of women seeking positions in higher
education administrative positions?

4. What role did formerly held administrative positions in higher education play in
obtaining their present position? How many years of total experience in prior higher
education administrative positions?

5. What role did teaching and other professional experiences play in being appointed
to higher education administrative positions?

6. Were there other education-related work experiences that inﬂuenced appointment

to higher education administrative positions?

7. What factor(s), if known, or perceived, that might have contributed to rej ection(s)

when seeking appointment to a higher education administrative position?

8. What role does professional networking play in selection to higher education
administrative positions?
9. What roles do mentors play in being appointed to higher education administrative

positions? Was the mentor's gender 3 factor? What was mentor’s profession?
10. During the hiring process, were negative challenges encountered? What positive
situatiOns were experienced?
11. What comments, behaviors or actions were exhibited in the hiring process, that a
female was inappropriate for a higher education administrative position?
12. What role conﬂicts did female administrators experience in maintaining personal
obligations and higher education administrative duties?
13. What was the greatest accomplishment achieved as a higher education
administrator? Do female administrators have a sense of satisfaction? Would a female
administrator aspire to an even higher level of administration? Why?
14. What advice or council would females in administrative positions in higher
education give to aspiring women?
Importance of the Study

It is evidence that women are not represented in the administration of higher
education as much as their male counterparts. For this reason, there has been ongoing
research on the issue of inequity seeking to ﬁnd out why women are discouraged from —
aspiring to climb the career ladder of higher educational administration. The issue of ~

under representation of women in the administration of higher education has been of

great concern to qualiﬁed women and researchers in the ﬁeld. Moore (1984) in (Tinsley;
Secor; & Kaplan (eds.)) echoed a concern that "there has been a small but steady increase
in the number of women appointed to top posts." Further comments were made tha "
higher education has a pyramidal structure and that women are clustered at the bottom"
(Moore, 1982; Capek, 1982).

This study is therefore speciﬁcally important for the following reasons: (1) The
researcher has not found any similar study conducted in the state of Michigan which
utilized a sample of practicing women administrators to study their perceptions on the ~—
issue of women in the administration of higher education. Although literature provides
information on the improvement of the status of women administrators, this alone does
not provide answers regarding the factors that challenge or help women to successfully I
reach the top levels of administration of higher education. At the highest level of higher
educational administration which is the presidency level, Vaughan (1989) indicated that
society's stereotypical picture of women is a prominent obstacle in their advancement to
presidency.

By conducting this pioneer study selected in the State of Michigan Institutions,
the researcher can identify what women will encounter as challenging and/or enhancing '-
factors to successfully reach the top levels of administration in higher education. The
intention of this study is to provide guidance and perspective to women who aspire to top
administrative positions in higher education.
Assumptions of the Study
The following are the basic assumptions of this study:

1. Respondents for this study will be candid in their responses.

2. The selected sample of women included in the study is representative of female
administrators in top-level positions in higher education.

3. Women pursuing top-level administrative positions in any profession may beneﬁt
from the ﬁndings.

Limitations of the Study

The investigation of this study has the following limitations:

1. This study is limited to the perceptions of women in higher education administration.
2. The collection of data is limited to personal interviews.
3. This study is limited to three higher education institutions in Michigan.
4. The investigation is limited to a Land-Grant Institution (Michigan State University).
5. The investigation is limited to a Comprehensive University (University of Michigan).
6. The investigation is limited to a Regional University (Eastern Michigan University).
Definitions of Terms:

The following are selected deﬁnitions of terms, which the researcher is using to
provide relationships and clarity:

Advanced Level of Responsibility: The highest obligation beyond others in
complexity.

Administrator: Friedman (1994) deﬁned administrator as one who provides the
management actions of planning, directing, budgeting and implementing necessary to
achieve organizational objectives.

A Comprehensive university: Is deﬁned as the particular institution that serve
the people of that particular state and the world through pre-eminence in creating,

communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art and academic values and

10

developing leaders and citizens who will change the present condition of the particular
state and/or the world as well as enriching the ﬁrture.

Higher Education: The level of education beyond K—12.

"Glass-ceiling": Wren (1995) deﬁned this as a concept popularized in the 19803
to describe a barrier so subtle that it is transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women
and minorities from moving up in management hierarchy.

US. Department of Labor (1991) deﬁned the "Glass Ceiling" as 'those artiﬁcial
barriers based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevent qualiﬁed individuals ﬁom
advancing upward in their organization'.

Land-Grant Institution: DiBiaggio (1991) deﬁned "land-grant" institution as
"the people's university. It is an institution that would be good enough for the proudest
and affordable for the poorest." The author continued to describe "land-grant " institution
as the nation's agent for expanding opportunity for social and economic development.
The institution is expected not only to generate new knowledge but also apply that
knowledge to real-life problems.

Enarson (1989) deﬁned land-grant institution as a designated institution originally
given Federal aid and especially by land grants, on condition that they offer instruction in
agriculture and mechanical arts. It is powerfully linked with a Federal Department of
Agriculture. It serves as a chosen instrument for administering the Hatch Act and similar
federal legislation. It is expected to have a continuing major commitment to American
agriculture and natural resources of land and sea.

Leadership: Argris & Cyert (1980) deﬁned "leadership" as the art of stimulating

the human resources on total organizational goals rather than on individual subgroup

11

goals. The authors contended that the art of leadership is to convince the participants to
modify their goals so that they conform to those of total organization and to put their
efforts into helping the total organization achieve their goals.

Drath & Pallus (1994) said that leadership is best deﬁned as a "process of making
sense of what people are doing so that people will understand and be committed."

Kouzes & Posner (1995) deﬁned leadership as the art of mobilizing others to want
to struggle for shared aspirations. It implies something less than voluntary involvement
on the part of constituents.

Kaagan (1997) said that leadership is inherently political and economic as well, in
that it always involves the distribution of authority and responsibility and allocation of
goods and services among people.

Krause (1997) said that leadership is deﬁned as the will to control events, the
understanding to chart a course, and the power to get a job done, comparatively using the
skills and abilities of other people.

Manager: Friedman (1994) deﬁned "a manager" as a person who administers an
organization's activities to achieve particular objective (356).

Gardner (1990) contends that the word "manager" usually indicates the individual
so labeled holds a directive post in an organization, presiding over the process by which
the organization ﬁrnctions, allocating resources prudently, and making the best possible
use of people (p.3).

Mentor: Bell (1996) deﬁned mentor as someone who helps someone else learn
something the learner would otherwise have learned less well, more slowly or not at all.

The author continued to comment that a mentor is someone who "helps someone else to

12

understand the informal system and offers a guidance on how to be successﬁrl in this
crazy organization."

Regional University: A regional university is an institution that tends to serve the
people in that geographic area. It is originally founded as teachers' college and later on,
converted to a regional university.

Role Conﬂicts: A function or ofﬁce assumed by someone, which strikes against,
or are always in sharp collision; or incompatible to the person's other personal good and
interests.

Sex-role stereotype: Friedman (1994) deﬁned " sex-role stereotyping" as
classifying people because of one unique characteristic. Stereotyping is a form of
prejudice that can form damaging images of people because of a particular characteristic
without having any knowledge of the person (p.581).

Top Level Position: The highest rank, which is occupied by, qualiﬁed personnel
in management.

Organization of the Study

Chapter I covers the introduction, statement of the problem, purpose of the
study, research questions, importance of the study, assumptions of the study, limitations
of the study, and deﬁnitions of terms.

Chapter II discusses the related literature review on the research topic.

Chapter III presents the procedures and the research methods employed in
gathering and analyzing the data.

Chapter IV presents the ﬁndings, analysis and interpretation of the data.

13

Chapter V presents conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for further
research.

CHAPTER II
Review of Related Literature

There was an extensive review of related literature for this study; especially those
that Show the perceptions of women who have participated in an active job search in the
ﬁeld of educational administration. It is assumed that certiﬁed women are likely to face
some stumbling blocks to their entry and advancement to top positions of educational
administration. Research has shown that there are indeed some women administrators
who are already practicing, but much still remains to balance the representation of
qualiﬁed women with those of their male counterparts in top positions of educational
administration.

The issue of under representation of women in top positions of educational
administration has been given tremendous attention in the past twenty-ﬁve years.
Numerous published sources on the perceptions of women in educational administration
regarding the job selection processes have shown that women are no longer to be blamed
for their fate (Pavan, 1985). Many sources from 19803 through 1990s have documented
evidence that various factors are responsible for gender inequity in educational
administration, especially those that affect women during the hiring processes.

According to researchers, some of these contributing factors can have positive or
negative impact on the representation of women in educational administrative positions
(Bowles, 1989; Dohrmann, 1982; Edson, 1988; Gardner, 1990; Morrison, 1990; 1992;

Shakeshaft, 1987; Shapiro, 1984; Stumick, 1996; Wren, 1995). Other researchers hold

14

that some factors can have positive impacts on the representation of women in
educational administration during the job selection processes (Paddock, 1980; Bell, 1996;
Schlack, 1987). All the studies reported above would produce historical evidence that
women are under represented in the administration of higher education, and that some of
these factors are stumbling blocks for their advancement.

For instance, Shapiro (1984) reported that discriminatory hiring practices could be
a stumbling block for certiﬁed women administrators to be selected in top administrative
positions. In the author's study of several cases on Long Island, she found that high level
administrative positions were mostly limited to men. The positions of consultants are
occupied by males, and the exclusion of their female counterparts. The author
commented that discrimination against women administrators is perceived, and that such
discrimination makes gender equity in educational administration impossible. Mitchell
(1993) reported that by 1989, US. Department of Labor showed those women's share of
management positions reached 45 percent. The executive, administrative, and
managerial ﬁeld will count for 40 percent, or eight million of the job growth between
1986 and 2000.

Accounting for women in presidencies, by 1987, women held 10 percent of the
college and university presidencies in approximately 3,000 institutions of higher
education in the country. It has taken more than a decade of concentrated, strategic effort
to achieve this number (Sturnick, 1991).

Other researchers have similar perceptions that women's role in the administration

of higher education has not improved as much as their male counterparts. For example,

15

Tisinger (1991) reported that the rationale for not hiring enough qualiﬁed women in the
administration of higher education has been that "it is not a woman's job."

Women are more visible in the management of education offered to younger
pupils and as these youths get older, the proportion of women diminishes. In higher
education, especially in the universities, women managers are such a small proportion of
management that they are almost invisible. The same holds true in the arenas of local
and central government management and policy-making in education (Ozga, 1993). x/

A study by Bower (1993) in Mitchell (eds.) showed that the number of women in
higher education administration is indeed increasing but the majority of these women
work at lower level jobs. This is true in the public sector as well as in agencies and
businesses in the private sector.

Hansard (1990) also cited that the growth in the number of women in leadership positions
at least outside higher education has rung true to the issue of gender inequity.

A similar study by Warner and DeFleur reported that the distribution of current
administrative positions indicated that men are signiﬁcantly more likely to be at senior
level positions than are women (Warner & DeFleur, 1993) in Mitchell (eds.). .z

This section produces documentary evidence that various factors are responsible
for enhancing or prohibiting gender equity in higher education administration. (1)
Appropriate academic qualiﬁcation. (2) Sex-role stereotypical attitude. (3) Prior
professional/administrative positions held. (4) Years of teaching /administrative
education experience. (5) Years of education-related work experience. (6) Applied
positions/rejections. (7) Use of professional network. (8) Roles mentors play (9)

Perceived positive and negative encounter with organization. (10) Observed

16

behaviors/actions as a disadvantage to being a woman. (11) Role conﬂicts between
personal obligations and administrative duties.
(12) Greatest accomplishments/satisfactions as an administrator. (13) Advice or council
to encourage other women.
Essential Academic qualifications

The perceptions of many authors who did research on gender inequity in higher
educational administration centered on the academic background of both males and
females. It has been reported that the cause of the low percentage of women in higher
education administration is not poor academic or professional preparation. Most
potential women, who aspire to top positions of higher education administration, do
possess as much credentials as their male counterparts, but they meet certain barriers.

In a ten-year longitudinal study of the female administrative aspirants, Edson
(1988) reported that several older women, who anticipated that they would make a
diﬁ‘erence in both students and institutions, reported frustration and gender
discrimination. According to the author, a good number of women who participated in
the study (about 23%) held doctorates while some were completing their dissertations.
Those of them who did not hold doctorates were bothered with regrets over the delays,
though it is not a guarantee to being hired to top positions. Although, the general
consensus is that having a doctorate or advanced degree would make a difference in a
women's administrative career, it is not a guarantee to inclusiveness (Edson, 1988). It is
reported that the number of women who hold doctorates and/or working on advanced
degrees in educational administration is on the continuous increase. For instance, a 1988

research report found a 20% increase in female doctoral candidates and a 38% increase in

17

females in business management courses. The researcher ﬁrrther reported that the portion
of doctoral degrees conferred on women has moved ﬁom 28% in 1979 to 39% in 1994,
and is expected to reach 45% by the year 2000 (Y eakey, Johnson, & Adkinson, 1986).

In a study of adrrrinistrative career paths of college administrators, (Moore,
Twombly, & Mortorana, 1985) cited that over 50 percent of their respondents held a
doctorate, of which the Ph.D. was the most common type. The authors continued to
stress that women seeking top positions should realize that 80 percent of all presidents
and provosts hold the doctorate and that 90 percent of the women in such positions have
it. It was also noted that a substantial percentage of both four-year and two-year study
respondents had degrees in higher education.

Hill & Raland's study of outstanding women administrators showed more
commonalties in the degree paths of their interviewees, emerged with the doctorate
degrees and/or terminal degree. The authors reported that most of their participants held
doctorates in educational administration and supervision, with some indicating near equal
course work in curriculum. Other categories of their educational preparation fell into
Masters degrees with concentrations on administration, guidance and counseling as well
as cuniculum. The authors further reported that there was an overvvhehning
representation of masters and specialist degrees in educational administration (Hill &
Ragland, 1995).

Perceived Sex-role stereotypes

Hill & Ragland (1995) asserted that conﬂicts between the role of a leader and

expectations for female roles have occurred throughout history and in most cultures.

These authors reported that in American culture, people often view women leaders being

18

weighed down by distorted images and stereotypes. Historical and contemporary myths
ﬁrll of icy virgins; ﬁery temptresses; and silent martyrs still encumber female leadership
visions and possibilities in many ways. An additional stereotype of female leadership
exists, especially for women in higher education. Dohrmann (1982) reported her ﬁndings
in a research investigation on gender inequity in the administration of both private and
public institutions of higher learning. The author commented that the exclusion of
women ﬁ'om such administrative positions is not due to there being any highly qualiﬁed
women. Rather, the effects of sex-role stereotyping, discriminatory practices, and
organizational structures cause barriers to women during the selection processes for .
administrative positions. In a survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion
Research Center, ﬁndings showed that stereotypes are still prevalent and challenging
barriers to opportunity for women.

Catalyst's (1990) ﬁndings showed stereotypical preconceptions, or prejudice, to
be the biggest advancement barrier women face today. Men have controlled the highest
administrative jobs in education, and long-standing bureaucratic values while women's
entry into administrative positions have been thwarted (Hill & Ragland, 1995).
Morrison (1992) reported that stereotypes about women and people of color in general
are common among managers. The author continued to assert that the managers
interviewed in her study gave detailed description of their perceptions, for example,
women are often assumed to be indecisive and unable to be analytical.

A study by Shavlik and Touchton (198 8) alluded to similar sex-role stereotypes
which led men to believe that women could not be strong enough to "control" the faculty

and that it would almost be impossible for women to get along in a man's world of higher

19

education administration. The authors reported that one of the female college presidents
that they interviewed spoke of her experience as shocking when she heard that women
could not be able to manage a budget. Another female president in the survey noted that
" women are not taken seriously, especially in traditional male areas such as construction
and ﬁnance."

It has been commonly held that the roles of leader, and administrator have been
reserved for men. While women were always capable of fulﬁlling such roles, it has been
in recent years that women have surfaced as heads, and, away from a more supportive
role (Leblanc, 1993) in Mitchell (eds).

In spite of promising demographically statistics; equal opportunities for women to
secure positions and advance went in educational leadership, they are still hampered by
some of these historical myths (Hill & Ragland, 1995). Other researchers further
commented that In spite of afﬁrmative actions, women continue to face discrimination in
their efforts to achieve higher level administrative positions ( Cann & Siegfried, 1990;
Goh, 1991; Murgai, 1991).

In another support of the issue of perceived sex-role stereotypical attitudes that
prevent women ﬁ'om entering top management positions (Monison; White; & Van
Velsor; 1992, pp. 13-14), commented that, "once women break the ﬁrst entry barrier,
they unexpectedly encounter another barrier which is a wall of tradition and stereotype
that separates them from the top executive level. The authors also contended that this
stereotypical wall keep women out of the inner senior management sanctum, the core of

business leaders who wield the greatest power".

20

Role of formerly held administrative positions

Potential women administrators as reported in previous studies held prior
professional experience in the following areas: counselor assistants; doctoral fellows;
elementary and high school principals as well as superintendents. Some of them held the
positions of special education counselor or director of special education. In non-
educational setting, some of the interviewees held job-research associate positions;
college instructorship; director of curriculum and assistant superintendent or
superintendents (Hill & Raglan, 1995). The ﬁndings by Hill & Raglan (1995), were
different from the ﬁndings by Pavan & D'Angelo (1990), Dopp and Sloan (1986),
Shakeshaft (1989), which indicated that the secondary principals and superintendents
were the most frequent prior positions held by female interviewees in their studies.

Touchton, Shavlik & Davis (1993) did a descriptive study of women college and
university presidents, and (six percent) of their respondents held prior presidential
positions; while (36 percent) held prior position as vice president. About two-thirds held
the positions in academic affairs; (1 percent) held a position as associate/assistant vice
president; (13 percent) held the position of dean or director of academic affairs. In the
ofﬁce of associate/ assistant academic dean, (2 percent) held the positions and (2 percent)
were department chair while the greatest number (10 percent) came from faculty. These
studies showed that female administrators struggle to compete with their male
counterparts just to advance and do well in the career ﬁeld of higher education

administration.

21

Role of teaching and other professional experiences

Teaching and/or other professional experiences are of utmost importance to job
selection processes in top positions of higher education administration. While some
institutions demand as much as three years of teaching experience, others may demand
more than three years. Hill and Raglan (1995) commented that one's ﬁrst teaching
assignment, as anyone's ﬁrst job heavily inﬂuences one's perceptions about work culture.
Teaching is a professional entry-level position for nearly every educational leader. The
authors further commented that contrary to some assrunptions about leadership, many '
educational leaders stay in the classroom, while some others either move to principalship,
university faculty positions, superintendence, district ofﬁce positions, or along a variety
of agency, governmental and entrepreneurial avenues. Dopp and Sloan (1986) reported
that women administrators usually spend at least ﬁfteen years (15 years) in the classroom
before moving into administrative positions, while their male counterparts spend an
average of ﬁve years before they are hired for administrative positions.

Touchton, Shavlik, & Davis (1993) reported that of the women administrators
they studied, who held positions as college and university presidents, 84 percent
demonstrated a professional commitment to education. More than 51-55 percent of the
respondents in four-year independent and two-year institutions began teaching in
elementary or secondary school, 17 percent went directly to graduate school; 13 percent
held teaching positions in higher education, while 5 percent held other positions in

education.

22

Influence of other education-related experiences

According to Hill and Raglan (1995), the only commonality of prior work
experience is strong work ethic. These authors deﬁned education- related work
experience as those that reﬂects a wide variety of education-related jobs their
interviewees held prior to teaching. These experiences ranged from tutoring; life-
guarding; servicing as camp counselors; playground supervisors and swimming
instructors.

Other jobs that do not involve interactions with children as reported by the study
participants are modeling; salespersons; nurses’ aides; typists; food service workers; and
farm workers. Often, it has been reported that when women receive letters of rejection
from hiring processes in positions of educational administration, lack of experience is
cited as the main reason why they were not hired. However, many times, males with less
or equal experience are hired to ﬁll those roles; an indication that male is given more
preference in administrative positions in higher education than their female counterparts
(Hill & Raglan, 1995).

Positions applied/perceived factors that might have contributed to rejections to
appointments

Hullhorst (1984) conducted a comparative study of job seeking patterns of both
male and female administrators, and found that women who perceived encouragement
from hiring ofﬁcials were more likely to be hired for their ﬁrst administrative jobs in

educational administration.

23

Bowles (1989) commented that the statistics She got from a Wisconsin task force,
whose ﬁgures were statewide for that period, showed evidence that many certiﬁed
women administrators from that state were not hired to the extent their male counterparts
were hired. The author commented that the information from the state task force showed
that ofﬁcials in charge of hiring do not recognize women administrators as having equal
potential and administrative skills as the male administrators. Bowles contended that
although these women administrators were qualiﬁed, were even ready to make ﬁnancial
sacriﬁces and have better career commitments than their male counterparts, they were not
given the chance during the interview processes. The author strongly supports the idea
that women perceive lack of organizational encouragement hinders their representation in
the administration of institutions of higher leaming.

Pavan (1989), commented that in top positions of educational administrations,
women are more likely to be making greater job search efforts than men do but, men are
twice as likely to be pre-selected for such positions while women only reach these
positions only after extensive efforts.

Vaughan’s (1989) study of women in their presidential job search efforts, cited
that it took both male and female participants surveyed four years to obtain the
presidency posts. While women alone believed that on the average, it would take them
about 4.3 years to obtain the same position. The author ﬁrrther commented that the
number of years the participants reported for obtaining the presidential posts, could only
be realistic on the condition that: (1) They had been in their current positions as deans,
and were viewed as second to the position of president. (2) They could only obtain a new

position as president on the condition that they have been in their current positions for

24

over 5.4 years on the average, prior to seeking the presidency post. The presidency posts
requires relatively longer job search efforts for women administrators because they have
to demonstrate their abilities in their prior positions.

Role of professional networking in appointment

Networking is an inclusive concept covering a wide range of interactions among
people. The term networking, most recently mutated into the growing language of
technology, emphasizes connections. Establishing networks is an essential connection
for anyone wanting to grow personally or professionally (Hill & Ragland, 1995). Studies
of women school board members identiﬁed them as "part of a low-key, yet important and
powerful, informal network" (Marshall & Heller, 1983, p.32).

While it has been proved that a variety of strategies have been used to perpetuate
male dominance in top positions of educational administration. One strategy that has
proved highly effective according to some authors has been to limit women's success to
important networks. Women have been denied membership in a number of powerful
professional organizations. For example, the National Teachers Organization did not
admit women until almost ten years after its founding; Phi Delta Kappa did not accept
women as members until 1970s, and the Rotary Club denied membership to women as
late as 1988 (Pigford, Aretha & Townsend, 1993).

However, with all the denials and barriers, the US. Department of Education
emphasized the use of professional networking in 1992. In their resource manual, it was
emphasized that it is the responsibilities of the districts, institutions and agencies to
provide time and support for professional networks in order to enhance the advancement

of women and minorities to positions of educational administration. In response to this

25

request, an Arizona program was launched Speciﬁcally to prepare women to assume
leadership roles in the ﬁeld of educational administration (U .S. Department of Education,
1992)

Professional networks seem to be a good avenue for potential women
administrators who seek positions in higher education administration. It is not quite a
guarantee that they will be hired, but at least it can inform them about the job openings
(Metzger, 1985). In addition, Johnson (1991) viewed networking as a tool for the
"construction of the ﬁrture". Networking makes it possible for potential female
administrators to communicate with other professionals during job search in positions of
higher education administration. It is through professional networking that qualiﬁed
women administrators get in touch with important people who know about job openings
in positions of higher education administration. Such professionals and/or personnel who
have information about job openings can help with answers as well as providing
directions toward the hiring processes.

Barnett and Caffarrella (1992) stressed the importance of networking as a source
of developing people in educational leadership career. The authors contended that if
issues of gender diversity, ethnicity and social class are to be understood and resolved,
they must be dealt with on many levels by training people through networking and the
curriculum. Hill and Ragland (1995) stressed "a greater awareness of the importance of
networking and the effect of this tool has increased the probability that women will make
the necessary effort to communicate with other professionals. The authors contended that
networking involves ﬂexible structures of information sharing with a variety of people,

and that like friendships, networking requires commitment and organization.

26

While Flynn (1993) in Mitchell (eds), commented that many men are not willing
to open doors for competent female administrators. For this reason, women miss out on
high-level positions because they are not part of traditional "old boys networ " which
recommends most of the people who seek jobs in top administrative posts. The author
continued to stress that mentioning for leadership roles is still reserved for men to a large
extent and that is an informal process in which senior executives identify subordinates
with potentials to assume future leadership roles. Since these candidates are groomed by
executives, and receive personal attention as well as increasing their involvement at
senior management level; women miss out the job information that normally follows
since they are not part of the "old boys network." Fireman (1990) stressed that such
grooming, which is done through the "old boy network” is often conducted in a social
framework outside the work place, on the golf course, over drinks and dinner, or at the
gymnasium. It is equally important for females to be part of such social framework or
informal places if they want to learn or gain access to high-level positions in educational
administration.

Professional networking is not only recommended for advancement of women
toward the hiring processes in top positions of higher education administration but; it is
critical to female leadership development as well as the probability of employment
promotions ( Astin & Leland, 1991; Hersi, 1993; Turner & Thompson, 1993; Hill &
Raglan, 1995). Daloz, (1983) viewed networking and mentioning as two main practices
that women cannot do without, if, they want to succeed in higher education
administration job search. The author continued to comment that the concept has

important functions that make a difference for female aspirants, pointing the way,

27

providing support, and challenging the menthe. In support of the afore-mentioned
comment, Metz and McNealy (1990) reported that their study of more than 100 female
administrators, 62% reported that they were assisted in ﬁnding jobs by their major
advisors. In addition, this study paired with Hill and Raglan's (1995) study of women
exemplary professional administrators, in which the study participants reported that the
faculty members helped them very much towards advancement into top positions of
higher education administration.

Other authors continued to stress the importance of professional
networkng as well as repeated advice to potential women administrators. Bell
(1996) stressed the importance of networking in professional advancement by
commenting that women who aspire to top positions of higher education
administration need passionate connections of passionate executives who lead
from the heart. These passionate executives not only awaken boldness in females,
but they also build a relationship platform that raises everyone to a higher level.

For this reason other authors for example: (Garland, 1991; Upton & Slick,
1996; Lynch, 1990; Myers, 1992; Pavan, 1987). Further highlight on the
importance of professional networking, (Erickson and Pitner 1980), recommended
that women seeking positions in higher education administration should increase
their visibility in open positions in the ﬁeld, by constant touch with former
professors and /or professional colleagues. Repeated advice was also given to
women to dialogue with male co-workers, make opportunities to speak, build a
network of contact, ﬁnd a mentor, and increase their visibility if they want to

achieve success in higher administrative posts. Leblanc (1993) in Mitchell (eds.)

28

further recommended that women become more involved in networking within
the'campus setting and outside of the college. It is important that, women should
have key contacts in every level of the organization including the operational,
middle management, and executive management levels. They should have
contacts with boards and signiﬁcant people in the community outside the campus
as well; and by doing this, a woman becomes more resourceful, and the greater
the resourceﬁrlness, then the greater her sphere of possible positive inﬂuence in
higher education.

The lack of networking is cited as a major barrier to women's advancement in
higher education administration, as well as executive positions across all professions
(Benton, 1980; Coursen, 1989; Green, 1982; Johnson, 1991; Mellow, 1988; Rist, 1991).
The role Mentors play in being appointed

It is only through these mentors that such individuals are able to clarify their
personal visions of what educational leadership means, also develop a sense of
commitment to a career in the ﬁeld of educational administration (Daresh & Playko,
1990b).

Pence (1995) in Dunlap & Schmuck (eds.), accounted that mentorship is an ancient
concept originally traced to Homer's epic, "The Odyssey", when Ulysses, chose his wise
and trusted old friend, Mentor to guard and guide his son, Telemachus. The anthor
continued to comment that informal mentors, as the one described in Greek mythology,
were considered an integral part of an individual's grth and development. While the
concept is ancient, it received little attention, except in connection to men in the "old

boys" network, until the 19703. It was after this time that efforts were made to actively

29

recruit and promote women and minorities into administrative positions. With this
concept, organizations began using mentors to help and guide the way of under
represented groups to executive ranks.

Hill & Ragland (1995) also stressed that mentoring has existed throughout
history, where master instructed apprentice, Socrates guiding Plato, experienced teachers
modeling for student teachers, doctors supervising interns, as well as myriad other
relationships, exemplify the mentor/protege relationship. The authors also stressed that
the gender of the mentor or protege of successﬁrl women administrators has also become
a factor without any standard patterns found in the literature to date therefore; women are
mentored by both genders.

A wealth of other researchers has also stressed the advantages of mentoring
relationships from which the mentor and the protege are reciprocally beneﬁted from each
other. Astin and Leland (1991), Hersi (1993), Turner and Thompson (1993) have
stressed mentoring as critical to the development and the probability of employment
promotions of females in educational administration.

It is also cited that the scarcity of positive role model and inadequate sponsorships
among women are often the major barriers to their advancement in higher education
administration as well as executive positions (Swiderski, 1988; York et. al., 1988).

Walton (1998) commented that her course to the position of Chief Academic
Ofﬁcer (CAO) was due to the role that mentors played in her career. The author asserted
that throughout the course of her advancement as a faculty member, a department chair, a
dean and ﬁnally chief academic ofﬁcer her mentors gave signiﬁcant support to her

publication of thirty articles in professional journals. The mentors gave her support to

30

her ﬁfty presentations at academic conferences; participation in educational leadership at
a university level; numerous book reviews and software periodicals; service on state,
regional as well as national levels.

Walton (1998) continued to stress the importance of mentors towards
advancement. She commented that apart from the role modeling provided by her mother
and sister; other signiﬁcant career mentors have been male and that the most noteworthy
mentor she had was her father. Brown and Merchant (1993) in their research on the need
for women to be mentors and role models for other women in educational leadership
commented, that "many women who are in educational leadership are not aware of the
role mentors play in their leadership career advancements. The authors are stressed that
women must take advantage of those whom are ahead of them in educational leadership,
and choose them as role models and mentors. By following the advice of their role
models and mentors, they will have strong a support system that would help them to
break the barriers to their advancements in higher education administrative positions.
Negative challenges and encountered positive situations during the hiring process

It is apparent that each educational institution and/or organization has certain
guidelines or policies for selection processes of educational leaders. Such guidelines
and/or policies can encourage, empower or even discourage female candidates during
hiring processes. Echoing the same comment, Bimbaurn (1988) stated that the
organizational structure of higher education institutions is complex; in many cases
collegial structures co—exist with bureaucratic hierarchies, and each of these is then
overlaid by political or cybernetic process. These factors can militate against women

during the hiring processes.

31

Shakeshaﬁ's (1987) further study of negative impact of factors reported that
women administrators perceived that the lack of encouragement during administrative job
interviews can form a barrier to the advancement of women in top positions of
educational administration. The author noted that if a woman administrator seeks an
administrative position on her own without some kind of organizational encouragement,
she would hunt for the position for a short period but then give up.

In a recent study on women in higher education administration, Astin and Leland
(1991) took up the theme of empowerment as a means of encouraging women to feel
empowered to aspire to leadership roles. Middlehurst (1997) in Eggins (eds.),
commented that women and higher education, organizational strategies for empowerment
include communicating with others on their level, offering positive feed back, etc., and
that these are important if they want to advance, as these are congruent with some of the
dominant values of academic culture.

Lack of organizational encouragement is a crucial factor that endangers the
advancement of women in top positions of higher education. Flynn (1993) commented
that there are hurdles within organization that set women back. White males dominate
boards of trustees and regents who make decisions on hiring at the chancellor and or
presidential level. The respondents in this study commented that a lot of "old fashioned
sexism" exists in higher education, even with the gains women have made in higher
education administration, there haven't been very many and never in posts of great
decision-making. These positions are reserved for white males; hence boards are
comfortable having women ﬁll such leadership positions. This author continued to report

that at some point, qualiﬁed women are removed from the list of potential applicants,

32

thus ensuring a pool consisting only of men, while reducing the potential of a viable
female candidate being selected. Martin and Grant (1990) indicated that the women in
their West Virginia survey reported expediencies with discouraging attitudes such as
being asked about how they could juggle administrative jobs while simultaneously
raising their children.

In another study, Warner and DeFleur (1993) in Mitchell (eds.) gave similar
citation of organizational discouragement to female administrators. These authors
commented that in higher education the process of matching candidates with jobs are
carried out largely through faculty-based search committees who are mostly men, who
feel most comfortable with individuals similar to themselves. These male faculty-based
search committees believe that women will not be able to ﬁt in with local community
groups and important business and political leaders. Further more, these authors cited
that it has been found that even when search committees did put forward women
candidates, they were not supported by the administration. Thus Hill and Raglan (1995)
supported this by their assertion that University faculty members initially discourage
perspective female leaders but, once they get in they foster and mentor them.

Women administrators are not greeted with encouragement and /or empowerment
when they struggle to compete with men in higher education administration. Morrison
(1996) cited that with all legal incentives that operate in a different context to the point
that is more diversity in the work place, still prejudice continues to permeate
organizations in subtle, nearly invincible forms. This happens because stereotypic

assumptions have been built into the organizational norms and everyday practices.

33

Observed behaviors or actions exhibited by individuals involved in hiring process

In the career ﬁeld of educational administration, it has been reported that women
do encounter organizational barriers, which bar women ﬁom being hired in top
educational posts. Hoferek (1986) commented that while some gates and hurdles are
within women themselves, many external factors interact to affect women leaders. She
continued to assert that educational institutions are structurally complex and form
" systems, and within such systems many elements affect hiring and advancement
decisions, and the "climate" for women educational leaders.

Morrison (1992) cited that speciﬁc barriers to advancement of women differ from
one organization to another, but their effect is the same. Barriers to non-traditional
managers prevent any organization from preparing a full cadre of potential leaders to take
over in the future. The author also stressed that prejudice is the number one barrier to
advancement of women managers. A study conducted by Catalyst (1990) on career
barriers for women in management showed stereotypic preconception and /or prejudice,
to be the biggest advancement barrier women face in general.

Vaughan (1989) surveyed ﬁfty-eight female presidents, from seventeen states
regarding aspects of being women as barriers to their advancement in higher education
administration. It was reported that the respondents alluded to all kinds of negative
aspects. Their collective reports according to this researcher were that women are not
taken seriously, especially in traditional "male" areas such as construction and ﬁnance.
One of the respondents felt that " because of my size and sex," there was the feeling that

"I was not tough enough." Some others had a damaging feeling that men did not believe

34

that a woman could be competent. Pavan (1989) commented that women administrators
reported that they were asked illegal questions during job selection processes.

Varied barriers keep women from advancing in organizations. Historically, men
have dominated the executive ranks of most organizations for many years; and as result
of their socialization, their reluctance to share their power and privilege with others; and
their natural proclivity to associate with people like themselves. Men in their
organizational hierarchy keep women ﬁom advancing into their circle (Morrison, 1990).
It has been reported that organizational system fostered selection of new administrators
who resembled their sponsor in attitudes, philosophy. In many cases, appearance,
hobbies, church afﬁliation, and club membership have fostered selection of new
administrators. In addition, successors were expected to mirror tightly deﬁned concepts
of administrative competency. Such a selection process resulted in the new mimicking
the old, down to nuances of behavior. Since women administrators are excluded from
such expectations and characteristics, the result is total rejection (Marshall & Mitchell,

1 989).

In Edson's 1987 study, 75% of the women felt that their gender hindered their
advancement in the positions of educational administration (Edson, 1987).
Organizational barriers to success or advancement of women during their selection
processes were also reported and paired with other studies done in other areas of the
country. For example, Martin and Grant (1990) reported that 55% of the women in their
West Virginia survey, who had completed their principal programs, indicated that the
organizational gender bias in hiring and promoting practices prevented them from getting

the administrative positions they sought.

35

The ﬁndings in a study of female administrators in higher education in Florida
ring true to women in other higher education settings. The participants in this study,
identiﬁed barriers to their advancement as numerous subtle biases. For example, they
recalled being ignored during important discussions; interrupted when attempted to make
a point, and dismissed through inferences that indicated or assumed that a male really
was the one to complete a project or make a successful decision (Stokes, 1984).

Role conﬂicts experienced between maintaining personal obligations and higher
education administrative duties

The question of how women administrators can handle external role conﬂicts
between family and administrative duties has some negative impact on the possibilities of
advancing into top administrative posts in higher education. Some organizations and
hiring personnel do believe that women place top priorities in family obligations. Hill
and Raglan (1995) perceive motherhood as an essential role that some women can
balance while continuing a career; also that other women select to forego a career in
educational leadership and enter an alternative path later.

In Kelly and Guy's (1991) study of public administrators, the reality did exist that
women "with heavy family obligations seldom reach managerial ranks" (p.411). Other
researchers have documented that women do possess the necessary stamina to fulﬁll
multiple roles. For example, Hammond and Fong (1988) found that in their study,
women who demonstrated the highest levels of physical well-being and lowest levels of
depression, occupy multiple roles; such as wife, mother, and paid worker.

Role conﬂicts between personal obligations administrative duties should not bar

women administrators from being hired into positions of higher education administration,

36

because couples can share equally and balance home and child care responsibilities. This
in turn, can help female administrators to fulﬁll their administrative obligations
(Schwartze, 1994).

Perry (1993) commented that there are sacriﬁces in balancing work with personal
life. The author admitted the fact that there are defeats in discovering a way to do
administrative duties without the twelve-hour day, or the six-day week and the forty-eight
-week year schedules. It is difﬁcult to work out ways of being more effective in fewer
hours or days at times. She suggested that looking up to the experience of other women
who have been there before could help potential women administrators. Such exemplary
women can demonstrate that senior positions can be done effectively and well without to
high a sacriﬁce in one's personal a social life.

Greatest accomplishments, and satisfactions. Aspirations and why?

It is assumed that people choose life careers either to ﬁrlﬁll their self-esteem or, to
get some kind of satisfaction in their lives. Women administrators are not an exception;
hence, they too have the urge for self-fulﬁllment and/or self -actualization. Newman
(1993) reported that women in administration of higher education do indeed enjoy the
satisfaction that comes ﬁom occupying multiple roles. The author reported that the
female administrators who participated in his study commented that money was not their
primary impetus or concern for practicing administration; rather they wanted to climb up
the ladder and make a difference in administration. The female participants asserted that
they sought the responsibility of administrative roles, just to enjoy diversity and other

activities associated with being in charge.

37

Hill and Raglan (1995) reported that job satisfaction and success as expressed by
practicing women administrators in their study is consistent with the ﬁndings of Dopp
and Sloan (1986). In these studies, most of the women administrators interviewed
expressed that they would like to become administrators again if they had to a chance
even after their retirement. Both studies indicated that the majority of female
administrators believe that their demonstration of competence was a major factor in their
advancement in administration. Their capabilities combined with interpersonal and
ﬁnancial skills gave them a sense of total satisfaction (Dopp & Sloan, 1986; Hill &
Raglan, 1995).

On the highest level of higher education administration, Touchton, Shavlik and
Davis (1993) did a descriptive study of women college and university presidents. The
authors cited that almost all the presidents reported being satisﬁed with their jobs even
with the many hours they spent, as well as the challenges they encountered. The largest
proportion of presidents who were highly satisﬁed was in four-year public institutions,
followed by those in two-year public institutions.

Walton (1998) supported the idea that her greatest accomplishments gave her
satisfactions as an administrator. The author commented that during the last ten years, all
the successful grant proposals she wrote to different Departments of Education and
Foundations which have brought over $1million to a higher institution were a source of
invigoration as well as revitalization and/or satisfaction.

A survey with respect to job satisfaction and further aspiration to an even higher
position found that (57 percent) of women presidents subjects indicated that they were

highly satisﬁed with their jobs; 39 percent indicated that they satisﬁed, and 3 percent

38

were only somewhat satisﬁed. The authors reported that when the subjects were asked
about their further aspiration to high education administrative positions for the next three
to ﬁve years, the majority indicated they would most likely remain in their current
positions; with only (39 percent) indicating the most viable option of being another
presidency (Touchton, Shavilik & Davis, 1993).
Advice or council to women aspiring to administrative positions in higher education
Various authors who searched gender inequity in higher education administration,
as well as other practicing female administrators, offered their advice to aspiring women
in the same ﬁeld. LeBlanc (1993) recommended that women should properly assess their
skills and abilities as they continue to search for knowledge and truth. The author
recommended that woman administrators in higher education should have a strong sense
of self-worth, dignity, and meaningful purpose in their lives, if they so wish to advance in
the career ﬁeld of higher education administration. Likewise manner, Shavlik and
Touchton (1984) recommended that women administrators should not only understand
how the organizations' system operates, but they learn how to do more than work with
men, so as to help their male colleagues adapt to having females as equals in the system.
Hoferek (1986) recommended that women administrators become aware of
obstacles within institutions and be able to assess the situation accurately; and avoid the
frequent tendency of blaming themselves for not achieving their goals. The author
stressed that an accurate perception or awareness of barriers that confront women and
help them to develop strategies that will help them to overcome the obstacles. Many
women interviewed in many studies took advantage of negative experiences they had

during hiring processes to offer advice and /or encouragement to other women. For

39

example, Tannen (1990) reported that the women interviewed, offered universal advice
about formal education centered on pursuing doctorates and/or advanced degrees. Some
other examples of advice as reported by the author for informal education are as follows:
Get many experiences with people, add variety and recognize your own gifts and talents
as well as knowing how they lead to a variety of choices. Women should continue to try
even when they do not get the job they sought and above all; "work hard", "ﬁght hard"
and pursue whatever you want and stay organized at all times. Finally, the author
reported that the women commented that it is a challenge to work toward difﬁcult but
rewarding goals and that education needs courageous women and men who have
conﬁdence in themselves.

Edson (198 8) reported that the interviewees in her study offered encouragement
to other women who might be pursuing administrative positions in the 19003. The
majority of the women recommended either "go for it", or "do it". They highly
recommended that upcoming aspirants should "push for advancement when younger",
getting mentors, attending the "best" schools to get doctorate degrees and shaping
internships to expand skills and experiences.

Other authors, for example, Shavlik & Touchton (1988) recommended that
women have special strengths, therefore they should ﬁnd it helpful to recognize in
themselves their "traditional" abilities and talents, which recently have been rediscovered
and celebrated as the "new directions or discoveries" of management gurus.

Further more, (Cleaveland, 1985; Drucker, 1981; Gardner, 1986; Naisbitt, 1982;
Peters and Waterman, 1982) gave similar recommendations that women should use their

natural strengths and skills of fostering, nourishing, caring, relationships intuition and

40

sympathy which are much at home in female value systems to win and impart them in
their male colleagues. This in turn will help many women to advance in the ﬁeld of
higher education leadership.

The overwhehning collective voice and/or encouragement of women administrators,
who participated in the active gender research in higher education administration, was to
" go for it." They understood that other women needed their encouragement and
motivation to champion them for top- level positions. Therefore, it became apparent that
women can do as much and as well as men (Gupton & Slick, 1996).

In summary, the literature reviewed regarding the issue of under representation of
women generally presents the factors that tend to hinder gender equity in higher

education administration.

41

CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

Methodology

There are challenging and enhancing factors women encounter in reaching higher
education administrative positions. The researcher examined these factors in the study of
the perceptions of women administrators in three institutions of higher education in
Michigan.
The distinctive purpose of this study was to:
(1) Investigate and identify the enhancing and challenging factors inﬂuencing
achievement of women who reached top levels of administration in selected Michigan
Universities. (2) Investigate the progress that women have made in attaining positions in
higher education administration since the early 1980's. (3) Determine whether these
challenging and enhancing factors are different ﬁom those perceived by other researchers
who are concerned with the issue of under representation of women in top-level
administrative positions in higher education. (4) Determine the inﬂuence of the
following factors women encountered in achieving top level positions: (a) Demographic
information; (b) Lack of qualiﬁcations; (c) Sex-role stereotypes; (d) Prior administrative
positions; (e) Lack of teaching/professional experiences; (t) Other educationally-related
work experience; (g) applied positions/rejections; (h) Use of professional networking; (i)
Help of mentor/gender/profession of mentor; (j) Challenges encountered with
organization; (k) Observed behaviors/actions as a disadvantage to being a woman; (1)

Role conﬂicts between personal obligation/administrative duties; (m) Greatest

42

accomplishment/satisfactions; (n) Advice/council to aspiring women. (5) Provide
guidance and perspective to women who aspire to top-level administrative positions.

This research was descriptive in nature. By undertaking this study, the researcher
hoped to contribute new knowledge and understanding of the challenges that confronted
women in top-level positions in higher education administration. In order to obtain the
required information from these selected women administrators, the researcher used the
qualitative interview technique in data collection.

This section discusses the qualitative research methodology that was used in data
collection. This chapter also discusses the following: (1) Interview techniques; (2)
Population sample identiﬁcation; (3) Sample selection; (4) Instrumentation and (5)
Data collection and analysis procedures.

Interview Techniques

The qualitative personal interview technique was used, in which the researcher
used a list of framed questions to obtain information from the study participants.
Scheaffer, Mendenhall and Ott (1990) recommend that the qualitative interview
technique has great advantages because it ensures a high response rate, as long as the
subjects give their full cooperation to participate in the survey. It also gave the
interviewer the opportunity to note the reactions of the interviewees as well as clarifying
all possible misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Hopefully, this study identiﬁed
some meaningful solutions to assist women aspiring to top-level positions in higher

education.

43

Population Identification

The population of women administrators interviewed was comprised of four
female Vice Presidents; four Provosts; seven Deans; ﬁve Chairpersons and heads of
departments; and ten Directors, all from Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State
University, and the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor.

At Eastern Michigan University, the researcher identiﬁed a total of ﬁfty-ﬁve
female administrators, in a variety of management levels. However, only ten women
were interviewed: three holding the ofﬁces of Vice President; two Deans; two
Department and heads; and three Directors.

At the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, a total of twenty-one female
administrators were identiﬁed; but only ten of the twenty-one was available for
interviews. Of the ten females interviewed, two are currently holding the ofﬁce of Vice
President; two are holding the ofﬁces of Provosts; the rest are Deans and Directors. No
Department Chairs and Heads were interviewed.

At Michigan State University, the researcher identiﬁed approximately sixty
female administrators. Ten of the sixty were interviewed. Of the ten females interviewed,
two are currently holding the ofﬁces of Provost and assistant provost; three are holding
the ofﬁces of Dean and Associate Deans. The rest of them are holding the ofﬁces of
Department Chairs/Heads, and Directors.

Sample Selection

The sample of female administrators interviewed for this study, were purposively

selected from three higher institutions of learning in Michigan to be representative of

female administrators in higher education administration. Hy, Feig, & Regoli (1983)

44

commented that purposively sampling selects the unit of analysis based on the
investigator’s judgement that the selected units reﬂect the population’s characteristics.
The authors continued to stress that when a sample of the study participants is selected by
means of a purposive sample, it is assumed to be representative of the population from
which it is drawn. Hagan (1993) also commented that purposive samples represent the
selection of an appropriate sample based on the researcher’s skill, judgement and needs.

Patten (2000) commented that the use of “purposively selected participants”
allows the investigator to have access to particular groups who are likely to help in
gaining an understanding and/or insights on the issue. Hy, Feig, & Regoli (183)
commented that in purposive sampling, the representative of the sample cannot be
determined rather, it can be assumed.

Patten (2000) commented that in qualitative research participants of the study
should be purposively selected to meet the criteria that will yield a sample that is likely to
provide the types of information the investigator need to achieve the research purpose.

Purposive sampling in this regard is quite different ﬁ'om random sampling, which
Carson & Martin (1999) commented that “random” means haphazard, aimless, or without
a deﬁnite purpose, and this means that each member of a population has an equal
probability of being selected. Random sampling is a game of pure chance in which two
coins are tossed in the air, and the players bet on whether there will be two heads or two
tails. Other authors gave an example of the jury as the best-known example of random
sampling. For example, (Zerrnan 1981; Hans & Vidmar 1986; Enright & Morton 1990;
Abrarnson 1994; and Finkel 1995) cited that sampling is best done randomly to avoid

sample bias.

45

Data Collection

To obtain the necessary data for this study, the researcher used the individual
interview technique to obtain information from the study participants. By using this
technique, the researcher encouraged the participants of this study to disclose high quality
information with assured conﬁdence. Three approaches to collecting this type of data as
suggested by Patton (1990) using in-depth, open-ended interviews included the
following: (1) the informal conversational approach; (2) the general interview guide
approach and (3) the standard open-ended interview approach. The general
interview guide approach was used for this study. The following 14 questions were
prepared by the interviewer to make sure that quality but different information and
experiences were obtained ﬁ'om the participants: (1) demographic information; (2)
appropriate qualiﬁcations; (3) perceived sex-role stereotypes; (4) prior administrative
position held/ number of years; (5) other teaching/professional experience; (6) other
education-related work experience; (7) applied positions/rej ections/contributions to
rejections; (8) use of professional networking; (9) help of mentor, gender and profession
of mentor; (10) negative challenges/positive encounters with organizations; (11)
observed behaviors or actions as a disadvantage to being a woman; (12) experience of
role conﬂicts between personal obligations and administrative duties; (13) greatest
accomplishments/satisfaction as an administrator/ other high level aspiration; (l4)
advice/council to women aspiring to top level administrative positions.

Sheaffer, Mendenhall & Ott (1990) commented that with a qualitative interview, the

framed questions for the interview allows the researcher to obtain responses/information

with deeper meanings, extensive discussions and explanations. Another advantage of this

46

kind of interview technique is that, once the interviewer has given ﬁrll assurance to the
participants that everything would be conﬁdential, the subjects will be liberated to
disclosing information.

Interview Questions:

1. What inﬂuences did the following factors e. g. (age; marital status; degrees earned
and institutions attended; and racial origin have in your achievement of top level
administrative positions?

2. What qualiﬁcations do you think are appropriate for women who aspire to top
level administrative positions in higher education?

3. Do you perceive societal sex-role stereotypes to a hindrance to advancement of
women who seek positions in administration of higher education?

4. What administrative positions in higher education did you hold prior to the

present one? How many years experience in each position?

5. What other teaching or professional experience did you have?
6. Is there other education-related work experience in addition to what you just
stated?

7. How many positions did you apply for and were rejected? What factors
contributed to your rejections?

8. How did professional networking aid you in advancing to higher levels of
administration?

9. If you had a mentor(s), in what way do you think your mentor(s) helped in your
professional advancement? What gender is your mentor? What was your mentor's

profession?

47

10. What negative challenges did you encounter, and what positive situations did you
experience during the hiring process?
11. What behaviors or actions exhibited by individuals of employing institutions,
involved in the hiring process, were observed that might cause you to believe that a
female was a disadvantage when seeking higher level administrative positions?
12. What role conﬂicts have you experienced between maintaining your personal
obligations and your administrative duties?
13. What are the greatest accomplishments or satisfaction that you have had as an
administrator? Do you aspire to an even higher level of administration?
14. What advice or council would you give to women aspiring to positions as
administrators in higher education?
Instrumentation

There was a great need for communication in order for the researcher to identify
the study participants and do the scheduling for the dates of the interviews. As soon as
the list of all prospective female administrators to be interviewed for this study, were
identiﬁed, the letters, which introduced the researcher were sent out. The same tools
were used to communicate the purpose, the nature, and the objectives of the study. The
adviser reviewed the tools before they were sent out to each participant. The cooperation
of the participants was also sought.

Interviews were arranged by telephone calls, also, personal contacts were made to
secure approval ﬁ'om the UCHRIS ofﬁce (an Institutional Review Board). The
researcher then proceeded with the interviews. It was necessary that participation for the

interviews were voluntary. The interviews were audio taped or written as was the

48

arrangement and/or agreement of the interviewer with the study participants. All
information obtained from the interviewees were secured with absolute conﬁdentiality.
Data Analysis

The analysis of data for this study included the demographic information,
descriptions, and explanations of experiences of the women that were interviewed for this
study; as well as the insights emerging from the 14 major categories of the research
questions. The different approaches the researcher used for the analysis of data, includes
the descriptive qualitative analysis of the responses of the participants in accordance with
the research questions.
During analysis of data, it is likely that the information collected cannot be expressed as
scores but instead is expressed through words (Charles 1988). The responses consisted of
words and statements, which are called qualitative because they express qualities rather
than quantities. For this study, the qualitative data analytical method was used to
describe and summarize the data.
Summary

This chapter presented the overview of the research methodology and the use of
individual interview technique approach. Explanations of some research terms include
the quality of the research, sample selection process, data collection and descriptive
analysis of data. The next two chapters described the results of the study, a summary,
conclusions and recommendations to the future aspiring women administrators; as well as

the recommendation for further research.

49

CHAPTER 1V

Qualitative Analysis of Data

The purpose of this study was to obtain insights, which will help women aspiring
to top level administrative positions in higher education, and to understand the challenges
that they may encounter. The study investigated the perceptions of selected women
administrators who had reached top levels of management in higher education. The study
was designed to provide answers to the following fourteen research questions:
1. What role does selective demographic information, contribute to the perceptions
of the subjects in addressing the challenges of obtaining high level administrative
positions: for example (age; marital status; degrees earned; institutions attended; and
racial origin).
2. What qualiﬁcations are essential to achieve top level administrative positions in
higher education?
3. Do women administrators in higher education perceive societal sex-role
stereotypes to be hindrances to the advancement of women who seek positions in higher
education administration?
4. What role does formerly held administrative positions in higher education play in
obtaining their present position? How many years of total experienced in prior higher
education administrative positions?
5. What role does teaching and other professional experiences play in being
appointed to higher education administrative positions?
6. Were there other education-related work experiences that inﬂuenced appointment

to higher education administrative positions?

50

7. What factors if known or perceived that might have contributed to rej ection(s)

when seeking appointment to a higher education administrative position?

8. What role does professional networking play in selection to higher education
administrative positions?
9. What role does mentors play in being appointed to higher education

administrative positions? What was mentors' gender? What was mentors' profession?
10. During the hiring process what negative challenges were encountered? What
positive situations were experienced?

11. What comments, behaviors or actions were exhibited in the hiring process, that
might interpreted that a female was inappropriate for the position?

12. What role conﬂicts do female administrators experience between maintaining
personal obligations and administrative duties?

13. Do female administrators have a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as
administrators of higher education? Do female administrators aspire to an even higher
level of administration? Why?

14. What advice or council would female administrators give to women aspiring to
administrative positions in higher education?

The qualitative research method was used to describe and explain these research
questions. For this reason, there were no frequencies, percentages, means and standard
deviations used to report participants' responses. Chi-square tests were not used to
examine the differences between the responses of the selected female administrators in
three higher education institutions in the State of Michigan, and the information reported

in the review of literature.

51

The t-tests for independent sample were not used to examine the differences
among experienced women administrators interviewed in three Michigan higher
institutions of learning, with respect to perceived challenging and enhancing factors in
achieving high level positions in higher education administration.

The description of sample covered the sample characteristics of the thirty women
administrators in terms of their population and top levels of administration. The total
population selected and interviewed for this study was thirty.

INTRODUCTION

There were three emergent categories of study participants utilized for this study.
The emergent categories were as follows: (A) Vice Presidents and Provosts, (B) Deans,
(C) Department Chairs/Heads/Directors. The investigator used these three categories as
the organizational framework to present the ﬁndings of this study.

From Eastern Michigan University, a total of ten experienced practicing women
administrators were interviewed. In category A, three female administrators were
interviewed. In category B, only two females participated; and in category C, three
female administrators were interviewed.

At Michigan State University, fourteen practicing women administrators were
selected. In Category A, two female administrators were interviewed. In Category B,
four female administrators were utilized. In Category C, eight female administrators
were interviewed.

At the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, only six out of ten identiﬁed practicing
female administrators participated in the study. In Category A, three female

administrators were interviewed.

52

In Category B, one female administrator was interviewed. In Category C, two female
administrators were interviewed.
Descriptive Analysis and Results

The analysis of data for this study covers the descriptions and explanations of the
experiences of the women interviewed for this study. Insights emerged from the fourteen
major categories found in the research questions.

Demographic information

Objective # 1 "Role of selective demographic information in obtaining high level
administrative positions"
RESEARCH QUESTION 1: What role did selective demographic information e. g.
(age; marital status; degrees earned; institutions attended; and racial origin) contribute to
your perceptions of addressing the challenges of obtaining high level administrative
positions?

This question investigates whether age; marital status; degrees earned; institutions
attended; and racial origin inﬂuenced the achievement of top level administrative
positions for the three categories of administration as (A) Vice Presidents and Provosts,
(B) Deans, and (C) Department Chairs/Heads and Directors. It is noted that demographic
information could be critical barriers that confront qualiﬁed female administrators when
seeking top level administrative positions in higher education. It is also necessary that
some hiring organizations and/or institutions have some of these factors, as requirement
for entry-level positions for high level positions in administration of higher education.

When aspiring female administrators fall below such standards and/or requirements

53

during interviews and/or hiring processes, they may perceive it as discriminatory
practices and/or biases against them.
Findings of the Frequency of Responses from the three Categories
Age
Category A
Analysis of age as a factor as it inﬂuenced the achievement of the female

administrators interviewed from category A, show that only one of the eight participants
indicated that age had inﬂuenced her achievement of a high level administrative position.
Seven individuals reported that age had no bearing on their achievement of high level
administrative positions.
Comments
Sb.l "My ﬁrst signiﬁcant position that I held was dean, and I held it at the age of thirty
one. But I think getting to holding that position as young as I was, helped me to move up
the ladder more quickly than if I had waited till I was much older to achieve that title."
Sb.2 "I became an administrator when I was thth three years old, so I don't think age
was a factor."
Sb.3 "My age in many instances was a disadvantage because I was so young; hence, I
started my administrative career when I was twenty six years old."
Sb.4 "Age has nothing to do with it other than the fact that I was not in my twenties.
You have to be a certain age from thirties up to be hired as an administrator."
Category B

Analysis of the responses of the seven subjects from category B found that only

one individual indicated that age had inﬂuenced her achievement in reaching a high level

54

administrative position. The remaining six participants reported that age had no
inﬂuence.
Comments
Sb.9 "Age has no inﬂuence on achieving a high level administrative position."
Sb. 10 "Age is not a factor, although probably a young person would not be a dean."
Sb.1l "Age may be a factor coupled with the level of experience."
Category C

Analysis of the comments from the ﬁfteen female administrators from this
category show that only two individuals indicated that their age had inﬂuenced their
selection to high level administrative positions. The thirteen other female administrators
in this category reported their age did not inﬂuence their selection to high level
administrative positions.
Comments
Sb.16 "Age has nothing to do with my attainment of a high level administrative
position."
Sb.17 "I don't believe age has anything to do with my attainment to the level of position
I hold."
Sb. 1 8 "All of the factors and age for example, have greatly inﬂuenced where I am
today as a director."
Sb. 19 "Age is a factor because you need to reach a certain age and have a certain level

of experience in order to be able to take on some of these positions."

55

Summary of Findings
Age does not appear to be a inﬂuence in a female being selected to a high level
administrative position. Of the thirty subjects interviewed twenty six indicated that age
was not perceived to be a factor in their selection to high level administrative positions.
It is also evident from the ﬁndings that there is no difference in the perceptions of the
female administrators between the three categories.
Marital Status:
Category A

Only one of the eight subjects interviewed from this category indicated that
marital status had inﬂuenced her achievement of a high level administrative position.
The other seven participants indicated that marital status had no inﬂuence in their
achievement of high level administrative positions.
Comments
Sb.1 "I was married and I think marital status probably inﬂuenced me in achieving the
position and staying in my present institution, rather than moving to another institution."
Sb.2 "Marriage is not a factor in my selection to high education administration; rather
it slowed my progress down while I continue ."
Sb.3 "None of these factors had inﬂuenced my selection except my experience and the
work I had done."
Sb.4 "Marriage is not a factor to my selection to this position."

Category B

56

One of the seven subjects reported that marital status had inﬂuenced her selection
to a high level administrative position. Six other subjects indicated that marital status had
no inﬂuence in their appointments to high level administrative positions.

Comments

Sb.9 "The marital status has very little to do with it. Rather, it probably limited my
mobility, my ability to move wherever there was an administrative position because my
husband held a signiﬁcant position with the automobile industry. Most of our income
was dependent on my husband's job. As such I didn't think it was wise to move for my
career as opposed to my husband's career."

Sb. 10 "Marital status is not a factor in my selection in a high education position."

Sb.11 "Marital status was a contributing factor in the fact that I went to school for my
doctorate when I was in my late twenties and I was married with two children; while I
had my graduate assistantship and my tuition and child care was supported. My husband
primarily provided all other ﬁnancial support all the time I was in the graduate school. If
I had not been married, I might not have got the support."

Category C

Analysis of the responses of the ﬁfteen subjects from category C found that two
individuals indicated that being married was a factor in their selection to a high education
administrative position. Thirteen participants commented that their married life had no
inﬂuence in their appointments to high education administrative positions.

Comments
Sb.16 "I don't believe marital status has anything to do with my attainment to the level

of position I hold."

57

Sb. 1 7 "Marital status is a factor in my attainment of high education administrative
position. I am married and my husband is also a department chair in the same college and
has been a professor for a long time. Our children are grown up and gone, so we are
enjoying the jobs because we share a lot of successes and talk about them and also share
a lot of defeats; so it makes our relationship a good one and very supportive of our
positions on the job."
Sb.18 "Marital status did not have any bearing on my being hired to a high level
administrative position here."
Sb.19 "Marital status has nothing to do with my advancement to the level I am now."
Sb.20 "The marital status also has some inﬂuence becaUse I am married to a very
supportive husband that has been encouraging me to apply for any career levels I
desir ."
Summary of Findings

Marital status does not appear to be an inﬂuence in a female being selected to a
high level administrative position. Of the thirty subjects interviewed, twenty-six
indicated that marital status was not a factor in their selection to a higher education
administrative position. The preponderance of evidence seems to indicate that the female
administrators interviewed believe that marital status is not an inﬂuencing factor in
achieving a high education administrative position.
Degrees Earned
Category A

Seven of the eight subjects ﬁ'om category A, indicated that degrees earned is the

most inﬂuential factor in obtaining a high level administrative position. Only one

58

individual reported that the degree earned is not a factor in promotion to high level
administrative position.

Comments

Sb.1 "Degrees earned certainly contributed to my ability to move into administration
because I had all the credentials that I needed in order to do all the things I needed to do."
Sb.2 "Certainly I think that my degrees are important and inﬂuential. I think having a
doctorate was not only a necessity but very important in the position that I have."

Sb.3 "I don't believe that all the factors listed had any inﬂuence on my attainment of
my position; with the exception of the degrees earned."

Sb.4 "I think that my promotion to the present position was far more related to my
experience for the work I have done; and my success rather than any of the factors
listed."

Category B
Analysis of the responses of the seven participants interviewed in Category B
found that all were aided by the degrees earned.
Comments
Sb.9 "Of all those factors, I think the most inﬂuential factor to the position that I hold
is the degree because I wouldn't even be considered if I did not have PhD."
Sb.10 "The degrees earned is a factor."
Sb.11 "Degrees have the most inﬂuencing factor."
Category C
Data on degrees earned Show that thirteen participants reported that degrees

earned had great inﬂuence in obtaining their high level administrative positions. Only

59

two individuals indicated that their degrees earned were not a factor in obtaining a high

level administrative positions.

Comments

Sb.16 "The largest factor for me is the degrees earned."

Sb.17 "There is no way I could have acquired the position without a full set of degrees.
Degrees earned was a strong factor for me."

Sb. 1 8 "Degrees earned is the factor that has a bearing in my achievement of a top level
administrative position."

Sb.19 "All I have is a Bachelors degree. It didn't have any bearing on my being hired."
Sb.20 "Degrees earned had inﬂuence because I have three degrees."

Summary of Findings

From the analysis of the comments of the thirty subjects interviewed, degrees
earned appears to be an inﬂuencing factor in a female being selected to a high education
administrative position. Of the thirty participants interviewed, twenty-eight indicated that
degrees earned were a factor in their selection.

It is also evident ﬁ'om the ﬁndings that there is no signiﬁcant difference in the
perceptions of the female administrators between the three categories and the issue of
degrees earned as an inﬂuencing factor.

Institutions Attended
Category A
Analysis of the eight subjects interviewed from category A show that seven of

them indicated that the kind of institutions they attended was not a factor in obtaining

60

their high level administrative positions. Only one individual reported that the type of
institution she attended was a factor in obtaining her high level administrative position.
Comments
Sb.1 "The institution I attended was not a factor in my achievement of the position I
hold."
Sb.2 "The institution ﬁ'om where my degrees were earned is not a factor."
Sb.3 "The institution I attended in general would not have inﬂuenced either because it
was so long ago."
Sb.4 "I would say that the degrees eamed was very helpful."
Category B

Five of the seven participants interviewed from Category B indicated that
institutions they attended were not a factor in obtaining their high level administrative
positions. Only two individuals reported that institutions they attended were a factor
Comments
Sb.9 "Institutions I attended does not have a bearing on my attainment of the top level
position."
Sb. 10 "The kind of institution I attended was not an inﬂuential factor."
Sb.11 "I would say that I strategically made sure that I attended what I consider to be the
best institutions from undergraduate to graduate school, which I think is a factor in
getting this position."
Category C

Analysis of the comments from the ﬁfteen female administrators show that four

subjects indicated that institutions they attended inﬂuenced their achievements of high

61

level administrative positions. Eleven female administrators reported that the institutions
they attended did not inﬂuence their achievements of high level administrative positions.
Comments

Sb.16 "I had attended a creditable institution which made it possible to the position that
I am in now."

Sb.17 "I attended an accredited and reputable university and it is an inﬂuencing factor."
Sb. 1 8 "The institution I attended is not much of a factor."

Sb. 19 "Institution I attended has no inﬂuence."

Sb.20 "The institution I got the degrees from, does not count towards my achievement
of the position."

Summary of Findings

Institutions attended do not appear to be an inﬂuence in a female being selected to
a high education administrative position. Of the thirty female participants interviewed,
twenty-three indicated that the institutions they attended were not a factor in their
selection to higher education administrative position.

It is also evident from the ﬁndings that there is no difference in the perceptions of
the female administrators between the three categories and the issue of institutions
attended as an inﬂuencing factor.

Racial Origin
Category A
Analysis of the eight females ﬁ'om category A, show that seven indicated that

racial origin has nothing to with their achievement of high level administrative positions.

62

Only one individual reported that her racial origin had inﬂuenced her achievement of
high level administrative position.
Comments
Sb.1 "About racial origin, I honestly think that in the positions I held, being white has
made my life easier."
Sb.2 "Since I am Caucasian I don't think that race is a factor in my own case."
Sb.3 "Racial origin would not be an enhancing factor. "
Sb.4 "I do not believe that race or natural origin has too much to do at all with my
attainment of the position."
Category B

Six of the seven subjects reported that their racial origin had no impact in their
achievements of high level administrative positions. One individual reported that her
racial origin was an inﬂuencing factor in her achievement of high level administrative
position.
Comments
Sb.9 "Racial origin has no inﬂuence in my achievement of high level administrative
position."
Sb.10 "My racial origin does not count as I am a Caucasian."
Sb.11 "Racial origin as a factor probably had a greater impact."
Category C

Further analysis on racial origin show that eleven of the ﬁfteen females indicated
that their racial origin did not have any bearing in their achievement of higher level

administrative positions. Three respondents commented that their racial origin had a

63

positive inﬂuence in their achievement of higher level administrative positions. One
indicated that racial origin had a negative impact in the achievement of a higher level
administrative position because it took her too long to get it.

Comments

Sb.16 "I would say my race has made a difference in this position."

Sb.17 "Racial origin has nothing to do with being hired here."

Sb. 18 "Racial origin has not very much to do with my selection at all."

Sb.19 "I don't think that racial origin was a factor in my selection."

Sb.20 "Racial origin doesn't have any impact on my attaining the position."
Summary of Findings

From the ﬁndings, it appears racial orientation does not play a signiﬁcant role in a
female being selected to a high level administrative position. Of the thirty subjects
interviewed, twenty-four indicated that racial origin was not a factor in being selected to
their high level administrative positions.

It is also evident ﬁ'om the ﬁndings that there is no difference in the perceptions of
the female administrators between the three categories and the issue of racial origin as an
inﬂuencing factor to selection in higher level administrative position.

Objective #2 "Qualifications essential to achieve top level positions"
RESEARCH QUESTION 2: What qualiﬁcations are essential for women to achieve top
level administrative positions in higher education?

This research question deals with the qualiﬁcations, which the female
administrators participating in the study perceive to be essential for women to achieve top

level administrative positions in higher education. It is perceived that the cause of low

64

percentage of women in the administration of higher education is not that potential
women do not possess adequate professional training, or, that they do not possess the
necessary qualiﬁcations and skills to get them into the desired top positions of
educational leadership.

There are some documented evidences that women administrators possess strong
faculty credentials as well as scholarly achievements as much as their male counterparts
do possess, yet, they are not hired in top administrative positions as ﬁequently as their
male counterparts are hired. For this reason, the investigator has formulated question #2,
to obtain the perceptions of the current female administrators participating in this study.
Findings on the Frequency of Responses from the three categories
Category A

The responses of the individuals participating from category A, show that
seven of the eight subjects, indicated that their ﬁrst choice of essential qualiﬁcations for
women to achieve top level administrative positions in higher education, is to have
formal and informal education for example, getting a Ph.D. or its equivalent, an Ed.D. or,
terminal degrees in the appropriate ﬁeld. Seven of the eight subjects also indicated that
women should have the same qualiﬁcations if not better qualiﬁcations than their male
counterparts.

The second choice of essential qualiﬁcations for women to achieve top level
administrative positions in higher education, as indicated by seven of the eight subjects
are as follows: well-grounded signiﬁcant experiences; strong faculty and scholarly
achievements in the ﬁeld of distinction; publications; budgeting and ﬁnance. They also

indicated that leadership skills in terms of listening and communicating with people are

65

essential. Only one individual indicated that women should have strong content
knowledge in their area of administration, in addition to listening skills.
Comments
Sb.1 "Today most women who would aspire to be Vice Presidents would be required
to get a Ph.D. or an Ed.D. Then beyond the educational degree, they would need
signiﬁcant experience in the area in which they want to be administrators."
Sb.2 "Women aspiring to higher education administration have to have every
credentials known to God and man. They have to have everything; the degrees, the
publications, the service and the visibility."

Sb.3 "It depends on the position as to what the qualiﬁcations should be. I do not think
it should be any different for women as for male counterparts. The qualiﬁcations should
not matter whether you are male or female. However, Ph.D. and advanced degrees is
essential for higher level administrative positions."

Sb.4 "Obviously anyone who aspires to higher administrative position must have a
content knowledge about the workings of large organizations. The person must
understand and be able to deal with people of a variety of backgrounds in a fair and open
manner, which requires good listening skills. Also, it is important to be able to have the
tenacity to do these jobs."

Category B .

Analysis of the comments from the subjects in category B, show that all seven

females indicated that women who aspire to higher level administrative positions should
have strong acaderrric qualiﬁcations from BA. to Ph.D. or its equivalent. They made

strong indication that women should have the same qualiﬁcations as men. Given that

66

they are academic credentials, they should have scholarly activities; professional
experiences; have skills in the areas of budgeting and ﬁnance. In addition they should
have leadership skills in communications and human relations.
Comments
Sb.9 "Clearly they have to have a Ph.D. in the ﬁeld in which they can demonstrate
that they have great scholarly activities. Being able to do research means you can think
clearly and rationally and that is a very important qualiﬁcation for anyone who wants to
be an administrator in higher education. An understanding of how education works at the
faculty level allows you to be a good administrator. "
Sb. 10 "I would think those women should have terminal degrees for example, a Ph.D.
like their male counterparts. They should be academically qualiﬁed in the areas of
budgeting, and a strong sense of leadership and managerial skills in human relations.
Women should be able to scan the environment and get a good understanding of the
culture in which they ﬁnd themselves. In this regard, they should know the
organizational structure, knowing what the job is all about."
Sb.11 “Women should have the same qualiﬁcations as the men have in terms of highest
degrees earned, and in terms of scholarly activities. I also think that they need
appropriate experiences like teaching experiences and other administrative experiences."
Category C

Eleven of the ﬁfteen females indicated that women should have the same
qualiﬁcation as men do have. For example, they need to have advanced degrees from
Masters to Ph.D. which are essential qualiﬁcation for women aspiring to top-level

administrative positions in higher education. Other essential qualiﬁcations indicated by

67

these subjects are as follows: faculty experience; research experience; knowledge of
budgeting and personnel management; and management skills.

Two subjects indicated that it is essential for women aspiring to top-level
administrative positions to have leadership skills; communication skills; good people-
skills; and to be visionaries so as to be able to do long range planning. While one other
participant indicated that it is essential for aspiring women to have only both formal and
informal qualiﬁcations; like preparations, thoroughness and attention to details. Another
participant indicated that the most important qualiﬁcation is that one has to be credible in
one's ﬁeld so that one can gain respect of the people one is serving.

Comments

Sb. 16 "Obviously you need to have academic qualiﬁcations, you need to have a Ph.D.
You probably need to have a certain amount of faculty experience and a certain amount
of research accomplishments. These things vary from institution to institution. It is also
a help if you can demonstrate that you had lower level administrative experience,
assistant position; perhaps in a dean's ofﬁce or associate head in a department; or that you
headed a program, etc."

Sb.17 "I think that this is an environment in which having a Ph.D. is very important.
But I also think that it is important for women to have some experiences prior to taking
on top-level job in higher education. They need to know something about budgeting and
something about personnel management. In addition, they certainly have to have a view
of what higher education is. They need to move beyond their own discipline and to

understand some of the issues that are actually facing higher education."

68

Sb. 18 "They need to have the same qualiﬁcations as men who would be applying for the
position of that sort. For example, advanced degrees like Masters and Ph.D. especially as
chair of department."
Sb. 19 "I think that women who aspire to higher level administration certainly need to
have leadership skills. They should be able to manage people and tasks. They need to be
visionaries and to do long range planing also manage day to day operations of the ofﬁce."
Sb.20 "I think they have to have both formal and informal qualiﬁcations. Informal
qualiﬁcations are, like preparations, thoroughness and attention to details."
Summary of ﬁndings

High academic qualiﬁcations appear to be essential for women to achieve top-
level administrative positions in higher education. Twenty-ﬁve of the thirty subjects
interviewed indicated that women should have the same academic qualiﬁcations such as
Masters degrees and Ph.D. degrees as men do have; and that such are appropriate for
women to achieve top-level administrative positions in higher education. Other
qualiﬁcations essential for women to achieve top-level administrative positions in higher
education as indicated by the subjects are: experiences; leadership skills; management
skills; communications skills.

It is therefore evident from the ﬁndings that there is a difference in the perception
of the female administrators between the three categories and the issue of qualiﬁcations
essential for women to achieve top-level administrative positions in higher education.

Objective #3 "Perceived societal sex-role stereotypes"

69

RESEARCH QUESTION 3: Do women administrators in higher education perceive
societal sex-role stereotypes to be hindrances to the advancement of women who seek
positions in higher education administration?

The dichotomy between what women should do or not do and the perceived roles
of men within the society has been cited as the biggest barrier to advancement of women
who seek positions in administration of higher education. Women administrators have
perceptions of the hindrances to their advancement to higher education administration
due to sex-role stereotypical attitudes of the society. It is from these preconceptions that
the investigator of this research framed this question to gain some insights from the thirty
female administrators participating in this study.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses From the three Categories
Category A

Analysis of responses of the subjects from category A, showed that six of the
eight females interviewed indicated that they certainly perceive societal sex-role
stereotypes to be hindrances to the advancement of women who seek positions in higher
education administration. These six subjects strongly agreed that societal sex-role
stereotypes are still hindrances to the advancement of women who seek positions in
higher education administration because gender equity in higher education administration
is not balanced yet. Only two subjects indicated that there were societal sex-role
stereotypical hindrances to advancement of women who sought positions in higher
education administration in the past; but they perceive they are breaking down now.

Comments

70

Sb.1 "Yes, I think that sexual stereotypes are certainly present in all of women's lives,
so they would be certainly in higher education. I think it is much less now than it used to
be ten or ﬁfteen years ago. The reasons being that there are so many more women who
have been seen by others to be in high level positions. However, I still notice for
example, there re still issues around child-care and the men at the top would turn to me
and say Dr. H. what do you think? I would usually say to them, don't you have children
or don't you have an opinion about child-care? In this regard, I believe there is still the
stereotype there, but it may be changing a bit."

Sb.2 "Yes, the society deﬁnitely does have stereotypical hindrances to the
advancement of women. In my particular institution for example, the people who have
been Vice Presidents in the University Relations division in the past were males; but it is
changing a bit but not yet balanced as expected."

Sb.3 "Unfortunately the answer to this question is still "yes". Women in administration
are still viewed as unable to make hard decisions. They are viewed as too ﬂuffy, that
they cry all the time. They are also viewed as sex object, which is very bothersome to me
and to most women I work with. Women are viewed as not safe to go on trips with men
because they may break up marriages. Women are not brought into the inner circles
because they are not part of "old boys" network, so it is difﬁcult to make decisions in the
men's room when you are not a man. It is difﬁcult to play golf with guys when you are
not a guy, so there is an exclusionary factor that gender canies with it."

Sb.4 "Surely women are perceived as those who should be housekeepers; cook and
chief bottle-washers at home. The society thinks that women should spend more quality

time with children instead of thinking that those women should have a shared

71

responsibility with spouses. People don't think of women being in those roles of higher
education administration. It is not that women are not capable but it is that women
should not be in those roles at all. However, the perception is changing."

Data from category B show that ﬁve of the seven female administrators
interviewed, indicated that they most deﬁnitely perceived societal sex-role stereotypes to
be hindrances to advancement of women who seek positions in higher education
administration. Two subjects indicated that they perceived societal sex-role stereotypes
to be hindrances to advancement in the past; but it is breaking down at least in the lower
levels.

Comments

Sb.9 "Most deﬁnitely, I think that women are perceived as not being able to handle
administrative responsibilities as well as men. The reason is that women are often
thought of as being soft and humanistic and this could be a hindrance. My own stand is
that women do not have to talk like men in order to be successful in administration; rather
one has to make sure that one has the skills. Women have been stereotyped in terms of
not being able to do certain things that men do, and it has been a hindrance."

Sb.10 "Yes, I certainly think there are still stereotypes when you look at the number of
women presidents, we have not made the gains that one would think should have been
made. However, for Health and Human Services when I ﬁrst started teaching, ahnost all
the Deans were men, there were no images of women then. In the past ten years my
counterparts are about 50/50 in administration and this has proved a little change. It is so

much ﬁrn to go to professional meetings now and see some women colleagues in some

72

levels of administration as male counterparts; but that is not true for Deans in all the
profession."

Sb.11 "Yes, societal sex-role stereotypes are hindrances to advancement of women. The
reason why I say this is because unfortunately in most positions in higher education, they
are often looking for males not females."

Category C

In category C, data show that thirteen of the ﬁfteen subjects interviewed indicated
that societal sex—role stereotypes is certainly a hindrance to the advancement of women
who seek positions in higher education administration. One individual indicated that
societal sex-role stereotype was not a hindrance in her own instance. Another subject
indicated that she is not sure that women who seek positions in administration of higher
education are being stereotyped.
Comments
Sb.16 "I think sex-role stereotype could be a problem especially the idea that somehow
women are not as tough as men are, or that women are more emotional than men are.
Certainly higher education along with other larger organizations tends to be organized by
men in ways that accommodate men's leadership styles. I think that sometimes, some
women have the tendency to develop consensus among people they may not be
interested in some of the political issues. In this regard, most of the time men view their
female counterparts as not being effective."
Sb.17 "I am aware that sex-role stereotypes are hindrances to advancement of women.
Obviously I know in some cases where women are disqualiﬁed because people think that

they can't do the job; and this is stereotypical. It is changing now."

73

Sb. 18 "Yes I perceive sex-role stereotypes to be hindrances to advancement of women
because, it makes serving in the positions of higher educational administration more
challenging."

Sb.19 "I am sure that there are such stereotypes or hindrances. There are stereotypes
that women are gossipper and can't keep secrets; stereotypes that, women are not rational,
that, women fall apart in crisis. All of these I suspect consciously or not play a role in the
minds of males who hire women in the administration of higher education."

Sb.20 I don't think that stereotype is a hindrance in my instance because in my particular
position, which is special education; women are needed to lead. I suspect that in some
organizations it might be more so."

Summary of Findings

Societal sex-role stereotypes appear to be hindrances to the advancement of
women who seek positions in higher education administration. Of the thirty women
administrators in higher education interviewed, twenty-four indicated that they perceived
societal sex-role stereotypes to be hindrances to advancement of women who seek
positions in higher education administration.

It is inferred from the ﬁndings that there is a difference in the perceptions of
female administrators between the three categories and the issue of societal sex-role
stereotypes as hindrances to advancement of women.

Objective #4 "Role of formerly held administrative positions"
RESEARCH QUESTION 4: What role did formerly held administrative positions in
higher education play in determining your present position? How many years total

experienced in prior higher education administrative positions?

74

Thirty female administrators who are currently practicing in three categories of
administration responded to this research question. Formerly held administrative
positions provide some kind of exposures to women administrators as well as helping
them to have an idea of governance structures of institutions. Having administrative
experiences at lower levels is preparation for female administrators, who want to advance
further to top management levels.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses From the three Categories
Category A

All eight subjects interviewed from category A indicated that they held various
administrative positions in higher education such as: Acting Registrars; Advisor;
Directors; Department Heads; Associate Deans; Assistant deans; Deans; Vice Provosts;
and Provosts; prior to their current levels of administration.

The total number of years Vice Presidents experienced in prior higher education
administrative positions ranged from two to twelve years. The years of total Provosts
experienced ranged from two to ten years.

Comments

Sb.1 "I started in higher education in 1975 and taught for a while, for a year and half,
then moved to be the director of counseling services for four years. I then moved to the
position of Dean of Students for two years. From there I moved to the Dean of Students
and; to the Assistant Provost for Student Affairs for six years. It is ﬁom there that I came

to my present institution as Vice President for Student Affairs."

75

Sb.2 "I started as Director of Public Information and I held that position for twelve
years; although a little change in responsibilities were added. At the same time I was
Assistant Vice President for Development for about twenty-six mon ."

Sb.3 "My previous administrative position was a director of Neuro-Sciences and I was
there for four years. I was also interim director of a Center for Neuro-Sciences in inter-
disciplinary research for two years."

Sb.4 "I started out as a secretary, and then I was research assistant; an administrative
associate and then assistant director. Prior to my present position, I was the director of
the Ofﬁce of Academic Planning for about ten years. Most of my career has been spent
in the ofﬁce, in a variety of positions for twenty years."

Category B

All seven subjects interviewed from this category, indicated that they held
approximately one to three positions in prior administrative positions in higher education.
Such positions are as follows: administrator of the Home Economic for State Extension;
Associate Director; Coordinator of Nursing Programs; Directors; Department
Chairperson; Associate Dean; Assistant Dean; and Consultant to the Provost.

The number of years each of the three participants, who held only one
administrative position in higher education prior to the current one, ranged from ﬁve to
twelve years. The number of years for the four participants that held more than two
administrative positions ranged from one to seventeen years.

Comments

Sb.9 "I was a Chairperson for twelve years; prior to assuming the Dean's position."

76

Sb. 10 "Most of my administrative experience in higher education have been in the area
of Nursing Research. My ﬁrst administrative position was coordinating the ﬁrst year
curriculum for one year. I then advanced to Associate Director for Nursing for four
years. Then, I went to be the Director of the National Institute for Nursing Research in
the National Institute for Health in Washington, for three years. Now my present position
is Dean of School of Nursing."
Sb.11 "I was Associate Director for Academic Programs at the State Coordinating Board
in Kentucky for ﬁve years."
Category C

Thirteen of the ﬁfteen subjects interviewed ﬁ'om this category, indicated that they
held one to ﬁve administrative positions in higher education prior to their current
positions. Only two participants indicated that they did not hold any administrative
positions prior to their current one.

The thirteen participants held positions such as: Associate Chairs and Assistant
Heads of a Departments; Chairs of a Department; Associate and Assistant Directors;
Directors; Coordinator of Programs. Some were high school principals; Assistant to the
President for Student Affairs; Assistant superintendent; Manager of Kellogg Biological
Station (Family Farms Project), and Supervisor of Child Development Laboratories. The
total number of years for the thirteen subjects who held from one to ﬁve positions in prior
higher education administrative positions ranged ﬁom one to fourteen years.
Comments
Sb.16 "I have been at my present institution since 1965, and this is really the ﬁrst

administrative position I have held. Prior to coming to this position, I was in the

77

Corporate Education Center which was a one year involvement with the business world
and doing academic contracts."
Sb. 1 7 "In my ﬁrst administrative position, I was a Director of Undergraduate

Advising Program for a very huge department for three years. I also served one
summer as a replacement for the Department Head. In my second position, I was
Director of Graduate Studies for a year; an Associate Chair and in charge of scheduling
classes for one year. Then I was a Chair of the Department of English for six years, and I
have been in my current position as Head of the Department for eleven years."
Sb.18 "I had none. I was only a professor prior to this position."
Sb.19 "I was an Assistant Principal in a high school for ten years. I was also an
Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent for academic instruction. At the same
time I was serving as Executive Director for summer Gifted and Talented Programs for
eight years."
Sb.20 "I was Executive Director of a small Foundation and I was there for six and half
years. I very much helped the growth of that Foundation; hence I was the ﬁrst staff
person."
Summary of ﬁndings

Formerly held administrative positions in higher education appear to play a very
important role in determining present positions. Of the thirty subjects interviewed,
twenty-eight indicated that formerly held administrative positions, which they perceived,
helped them in obtaining their current positions. Two individuals did not perceive
formerly held administrative positions to play important role in determining their present

positions. The number of years experienced in prior higher education administrative

78

positions does not appear to play a signiﬁcant role in determining their advancement to
higher level positions.

It is inferred from the ﬁndings that there is no similarity between the three
categories and the issue of the roles formerly held in administrative positions in higher
education. There is a difference, however, in the number of years each participant spent
in formerly held administrative positions within the three categories.

Objective #5 "Role teaching and other professional experiences play"
RESEARCH QUESTION 5: What role did teaching and other professional experiences
play in being appointed to higher education administrative positions?

Teaching and professional experience of any kind would seem to be of critical
importance for entry-level into higher education administration; as well as for continuing
advancement into top positions of higher education administration. Some organizations
demand as much as three years of teaching; while others may overlook teaching
experience and concentrate on professional experience.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses from the three Categories
Category A

An analysis of responses in category A ﬁnd that six of the eight subjects had
teaching and other professional experiences, which played important roles in being
appointed to higher education administrative positions. One individual indicated that she
had only professional experience but no teaching experiences. Another individual

indicated that she had neither prior teaching nor professional experiences.

79

Comments
Sb.1 "None other"
Sb.2 "I worked as a Management Analyst in the State Department of Education for one
year. I had nine years of teaching experience as a full-time faculty member in the
department of Educational Administration and Supervision."
Sb.3 "I taught in a community college for one year; and was a research associate in
both Schools of Public Health and Medicine where I worked on mental health issues for
three and half years. I worked as a counselor in the Rehabilitation Center, with inner-city
teenagers for two and half years."
Sb.4 " I have spent my whole career at this institution, and I started out as Assistant
Publication Manager, Associate Publication Manager and transferred to Manager of
Media Relations. I did all these for ﬁve years before I became a Director prior to
becoming Assistant Vice President for University Relations."
Category B

Five of the seven subjects interviewed reported that they had teaching and other
professional experiences that played key role in being appointed to higher education
administrative positions. Two individuals indicated that they had only teaching but no
other professional experiences that play key roles in being appointed to higher education
administrative positions.
Comments
Sb.9 "I taught in the public school for six years. Then I went into higher education as
an instructor for twelve years; also performed duties as a Chairperson at the same time.

Here in my present institution, I teach graduate courses once a year."

80

Sb.10 "I was a faculty member and still consider myself as a faculty member in this
institution for twenty years now. I do teaching; research and service role for people on
the campus."
Sb.11 "Through the positions that I mentioned, I literally worked myself up the tenure
ladder over time; which means a certain amount of research attention to science and
research. I have also done large amount of teaching particularly with graduate students
since 1975 until present. This means for about twenty-three years. The professional
experience is probably the most helpful; hence I have the experience in terms of
consultation; keynote speaking addresses; travelling in the professional organizations in
the nursing career ﬁeld, etc."
Category C

Thirteen of the ﬁfteen subjects interviewed indicated that they had teaching and
other professional experiences that played essential roles in being appointed to higher
education administrative positions. Two indicated that they had no teaching experiences
but had other professional experiences that were inﬂuential in being appointed to higher
education administrative positions.
Comments
Sb. 16 "I was as Assistant Professor for ﬁve years. I was Associate Professor for nine
years. Also I taught high school for two years prior to getting my Ph.D."
Sb.17 "I spent four years as a teacher of hearing and impaired prior to coming to my
present institution. I taught in the laboratory school of hearing and impaired for four
years. I joined the academic faculty as a professor of the hearing and impaired, in speech

language pathology. This included coordinating speech and hearing clinic, programs for

81

families of young children in the hearing clinics. I was in the classroom as professor
ﬁom 1988 to 1989."
Sb. 1 8 "I had taught for about twelve years as a faculty member at my present institution
prior to receiving my Ph.D. I had been a Social Worker and Program Director for social
work, for six or seven years."
Sb.19 "I began my career as head-start teacher after I ﬁrst graduated from university, I
worked with children in a Child-Care Center as a head teacher; also a lead teacher in the
nursery school. I was also a Child-Development Specialist for an elementary school
system. After I received my Masters and Ph.D., my ﬁrst job was an Assistant Professor."
Sb.20 "I have always been a teacher in environmental quality. I was a teacher with
community people hence; I did out-reach teaching for almost ten years. When I ﬁrst
came to the College of Natural Resources, my ﬁrst experience was resident instruction, in
which I taught four courses in undergraduate and graduate level."
Summary of Findings

Teaching and other professional experiences appear to play an important role in
being appointed to higher education administrative positions. Of the thirty subjects
interviewed, twenty-four indicated that they had teaching and other professional
experiences, which they perceived, helped them to being appointed to higher education
administrative positions.

It is also evident ﬁ'om the ﬁndings that there is no difference in the perceptions of
the female administrators between the three categories and the role teaching and other
professional experiences play in being appointed to higher education administrative

positions.

82

Objective #6 "Other education related experience"
RESEARCH QUESTION 6: Were there other education-related experiences that
inﬂuenced appointment to higher education administrative positions?

Education-related experiences are regarded as those varied education-related jobs,
which provided some economic security and some fulﬁllment to the individuals. Some
examples of educationally-related experiences are: tutoring; life-guarding; servicing as
camp counselors; supervisors and instructors; secretaries; nurses aides; food service
workers; and postal clerks; etc.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses From the three Categories
Category A

Analysis of the responses from this category, show that six of the eight subjects
indicated that they had other education related experiences. Only two individuals
reported that they did not have additional education related experience.

Comments

Sb.1 "I was engaged in grant writing and this is all I can think of in terms of additional
education-related experience."

Sb.2 "Yes, probably what supplemented for my experience within my regular work
environment was serving as president of a local school board in my community for seven
years."

Sb.3 "I served on several advisory bodies for Federal Government, including the panels
for review of research and graduate training awards for the National Institute and

National Science Foundation."

83

Sb.4 "I was active in the governance process of my professional organization as an
elected ofﬁcial for about ten to ﬁfteen years. I did this on the State and National level
and wound it down."
Category B

Four of the seven subjects interviewed indicated that they had other education-
related experiences. Three subjects reported that they did not have other education-
related experiences to what they previously stated.
Comments
Sb.9 "I would say, there is none in addition."
Sb.10 "I did not do it in higher education, but I had extensive international experience in
the Peace Core for two years and worked abroad for two years. Even prior to taking this
role, I did a lot of international training in the present institution."
Sb.11 Yes, I was training people as a dance teacher in many countries in Africa for
thirty years."
Category C

Eleven of the ﬁfteen subjects indicated that they had no additional education-
related experiences that inﬂuenced their appointments to higher education administrative
positions. Four indicated that they had educationally-related experiences in addition to
teaching and other professional-related experiences.
Comments
Sb.16 "There is none other."
Sb.17 "There is nothing else I can think of as educationally-related experiences."

Sb.18 "None other than what I just stated."

84

Sb.19 "Probably none other educationally-related experiences in addition."

Sb. 20 "Yes, I served on a number of committees and boards that are related to my
career."

Summary of Findings

Other education-related experiences do not appear widely held as an inﬂuence to
being appointed to higher education administrative positions. Of the thirty subjects
interviewed, sixteen indicated that education-related experiences were not an inﬂuence to
appointment to higher education administrative positions.

It is also inferred from the ﬁndings, that opinion was equally divided in the
perceptions of the female administrators, between the three categories and issue of other
education-related experiences, as an inﬂuencing factor to appointment in higher
education administrative positions.

Objective #7 "Applied positions and rejections/Contributing factors"
RESEARCH QUESTION 7: Have you applied for positions and been rejected? What
factors if known that might have contributed to your rejections when seeking
appointment to a higher education administrative position?

There were two itemized questions related to this area of the study. The ﬁrst part
of the question dealt with the positions, the subjects applied for, and were rejected. The
second part of the question dealt with the factors, if known, that contributed to the
rejections. This question was used to gain insights to what contributes to few females in
the administration of higher education. The question is also meant to provide insights as
to whether women do apply for as many positions in the administration of higher

education.

85

Findings on the Frequency of Responses from the three Categories
Category A

Six of the eight subjects interviewed in category A, indicated that they had
applied for positions and were rejected. The perceived factors for their rejections are as
follows: gender bias; making too much money; preference of internal candidate; and lack
of experience. One individual indicated that she did not perceive any factor that
contributed to her rejection. Two of the eight subjects from this category indicated that
they have not applied for many positions and therefore, have not been rejected.
Comments
Sb.1 "Interesting question, but I had never applied for many positions and been
rejected. But I did once applied for the position of presidency and I was rejected because
I was already making too much money. It was a position on at the institution "inside." I
had been nominated for the position and the woman who nominated me was on the
search committee, so it was one of those "old girls" network things; and it was nice that
it happened. I made entirely too much money that they could not understand why I
would be interested in the position. Also, I was not old and wise enough to do the job. I
reiterate that I had not applied for that many jobs, and normally I do not apply for jobs
miless I am sure I would get it."
Sb.2 "Not very many positions, but I can think of three positions that I applied for and
was rejected. Probably the one that stands out most was the one that occurred a long time
ago and that was when I was fresh out of the Graduate School. I was applying for a
research position that involved extensive travelling; and the woman supervisor told me

that she would not consider my application because I was a woman and would not be free

86

to travel. I tried to convince the female supervisor that I could travel for the job, but she
out rightly told me that it was not the appropriate position for a woman."
Sb.3 "None because I have only applied for one job in my whole life and I got it."
Sb.4 "The only memorable position I can think of, that I applied for and was rejected,
was offered to an internal candidate."
Category B

Four of the seven subjects interviewed indicated that they applied for various
positions and were rejected. The perceived factors that contributed to the rejections of
these subjects were as follows: lack of experiences in the areas they applied for; and
gender bias. Three subjects indicated that they had never been rejected for any positions
they applied.
Comments
Sb.9 "I applied for only two and was rejected. My rejections were simply lack of
sustained years of experience."
Sb.10 "I had never been rejected for any position I applied for."
Sb.11 "For initial teaching positions, I probably applied for ﬁve to ten positions. The
reasons for my rejections for the positions I applied for were nothing but pure gender
bias."
Category C

Analysis of the comments ﬁom the ﬁfteen subjects interviewed from category C
show that ten indicated that they have never been rejected for any positions they applied.
Only ﬁve subjects indicated that they have been rejected for various positions they

applied and for varied reasons. The perceived factors for the rejections for ﬁve of these

87

ﬁve subjects were as follows: gender bias; lack of qualiﬁcation; and lack of experience;
being pregnant.

Comments

Sb.16 "I have never had any rejections for a job."

Sb. 1 7 "I have not been rejected for any positions I applied."

Sb.18 "There is no rejection as an administrator."

Sb. 19 "I just had one rejection. I was told very clearly that there had never been a
woman in that position."

Sb.20 "The answer is none."

Summary of Findings

Women do seek appointments to higher education administrative positions.
Certain factors appear to contribute when rejected. Of the thirty subjects interviewed,
ﬁfteen indicated that they have applied for positions in higher education administrative
positions and have been rejected. They perceived varied reasons that mitigate against
them such as: gender bias; lack of qualiﬁcation; lack of experience; making too much
money; preference to internal candidate; and being pregnant.

It is also evident from the ﬁndings that there is no difference in the perceptions of
the female administrators between the three categories and the factors that contribute to
rejections. Half of the ﬁfteen subjects did not apply for positions and therefore they have
not had any rejections. In this regard, they did not identify any factors that contribute to
rejections of female administrators when seeking higher education administrative

positions.

88

Objective #8 "Role of professional networking"
RESEARCH QUESTION 8: What role did professional networking play in selection to
higher education administrative positions?

This particular research question was designed to gain some understanding of the
role of professional networking in the appointment of females to higher education
administrative positions. It is expected that very successful female administrators utilize
networking to get information regarding job openings. It is also assumed that
professional networking is absolutely essential for females if they so want to be known
and connected to important personnel involved in the hiring processes.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses From the three Categories
Category A

Seven of the eight individuals indicated that professional networking played
critical roles in appointment to higher education administrative positions. One individual
reported that she did not make use of professional networking, therefore, it did not play
any important role in appointment to higher education administrative position.
Comments
Sb.1 "I had used a lot of professional networking. I have both small groups of
colleagues that I stay in very close contact with as well as larger professional groups that
I have meetings with on regular basis. But, I think they both helped me to resolve
problems by talking about their own experiences and making my own experience

smoother. They helped me to identify positions they think I would be a good match."

89

Sb.2 "Networking is very important. Getting to know the people that are at the level
you want to get to, when you are intemal candidate help. Since I have never been an
external candidate I can't really speak to another institution."
Sb.3 "I have no experience of professional networking but I think it is a must for any
woman who wants to aspire to higher levels of administration. This is true because
people want to know who you are, and how you operate. People want to know how easy
you are to work with, or how difﬁcult you are to work with. All these brings to the table
the sharing of information with people who potentially are colleagues; or people who are
in roles where they are making decisions about who they are going to bring in an
institution in a particular position. In this regard, I deﬁnitely think that professional
networking is an absolute necessity for anyone who wants to advance in higher levels of
educational administration."
Sb.4 "Quite deﬁnitely. My mentors had network across the country and they are able
to call people and their names carry a lot of inﬂuence. When I need something, they
come to my aid and it is nice to have friends. I have a lot of them from different places
throughout the country. I call on them when I need them and they nominate me for
positions if I need to get in rather than having me to apply for them. Professional
networking is critical to a woman's success and essential for the career ladder."
Category B

All seven subjects interviewed indicated that professional networking played
critical roles in their appointments to higher education administrative positions.
Comments

Sb.9 "Networking probably has been a very key factor in my own career."

90

Sb.10 "I think a networking is extremely important. Also, a lot of good ﬁiends who
were male mentors helped towards my being hired in the positions."
Sb.11 "Professional networking is absolutely critical in advancement to higher levels of
administration. I think that there is a known appreciated factor that personal relationships
are absolutely critical because people just do not want to read about somebody in the
Curriculum Vita. They just do not only want to read somebody in the letters of
recommendation; rather they want personal contact with people who know a person
before them or talk of administrative role. Having your networks appears that other
administrators and ﬁeld staff and, faculty who have been your colleagues worked with
you, know your good recommendations and these are absolutely critical. In this case,
maintaining a broad networks at every level whether it is within the state and nationwide
helps if one wants to move ahead."
Category C

Of the ﬁfteen subjects interviewed fourteen indicated that professional
networking played important roles in their appointments to higher education
administrative position. One individual reported that she had never networked
professionally, so it did not play any key role in her appointment to higher education
administrative positions.
Comments
Sb.16 "Networking is really important and I would say there is networking in two ways.
Since coming to my present employing institution, requires me to interact with people all
across the campus. I work with people in many different divisions both on the academic

side and what I would call the logistical side, so I knew people in all kinds of jobs on

91

campus. I really made a lot of connections and those people were very helpful to me.
Secondly as a supervisor, I also had a lot of contact with faculty and community people
in this area. I did not realize that at the time, these people I knew through their children
have become valuable connections."
Sb.17 "I was hired in the department where I was a professor so, networking made a big
difference because people knew me from my department and the university at large. I
would say that professional networking is extremely important especially for women if
they want to advance to higher levels of administration."
Sb.18 "Excellent question but I have no excellent answer. I have never been a joiner of
a group type of person. I have always pursued my goals, ahnost always on my own
without adjoining networking groups."
Sb.19 "Professional networking was a key to my advancement. I was very successful
because I demonstrated what I could do. I believed that it was because other people
knew my work and what I was capable of doing that I got where I am now."
Sb.20 "Networking helped me when I was moving from college to gaining a new
position in the admissions ofﬁce. Networking helped me to be seen by the broader
university. It brought me into contact with a lot of people."
Summary of Findings

Professional networking is perceived to play a very important role in the
appointments of females to higher education administrative positions. Twenty-eight of
the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that professional networking played a key role in

their appointments to higher education administrative positions.

92

There was agreement between the three categories and the issue of professional
networking as an essential factor to appointment to higher education administrative
position.

Objective #9 "Role mentors play in appointment/Mentor's gender/Mentor's
profession"

RESEARCH QUESTION 9: What role did mentors play in being appointed to higher
education administrative positions? What was mentor's gender? What was your mentor's
profession?

This question was organized into three parts, to gain insights on the role mentors
play in appointments or selection of females to higher education administrative positions.
The ﬁrst part of the question dealt with what kind of help or advice mentors gave to
mentees to enhance their appointment to higher education administrative positions. The
second part of the question dealt with the gender of the mentors. The third part of the
question dealt with the various professions in which the mentors were engaged at the time
of interaction with the mentees.

Findings on the Frequency of responses from the three Categories
Category A

All eight subjects participating in category A, indicated that they had mentors and
that their mentors played very important roles in their advancement to higher education
administrative positions.

Three of the eight respondents indicated that they had both male and female mentors.
One of these three indicated that she had four male mentors and one female mentor.

Another one indicated that she had two male mentors and one female mentor, while the

93

third one indicated that she had both male and female mentors. Five respondents
indicated that they had only male mentors.

Two of the eight participants indicated that their male mentors were involved in
professorial professions, while one indicated that one of her male mentors was a
professor and the female mentor was a vice president for research. Five other
respondents indicated that both their male and female mentors were involved in higher
levels of administration; College President, Vice President in Business, Student Affairs,
Associate Provost in Academic Affairs, Director of Academic Planning, and, Public
Information.

Comments

Sb.1 "I had mentors and for the most part, they have been people who helped me
towards the identiﬁcation of my own strengths and weaknesses. They also helped by
suggesting ways to enhance my strengths and diminish my weaknesses. They were good
people for me to talk over my ethical mistakes."

"The mentors' gender were male and female. The male mentors' profession was
higher education. One of them was Vice President in Business and the other was Vice
President of Student Affairs. The female mentor's profession was a psychologist and a
nun."
Sb.2 "I did have a mentor who promoted me to Director. I think that I learned a lot
about how to be creative from him. I also learned how to treat subordinates and
employees nicely as well as how to manage ofﬁce. I know he was speciﬁcally

responsible for my promotion. He had direct impact on me."

94

"The mentor's gender was a male. He was my boss and Director of Public
Information and later on became Associate Vice President."
Sb.3 "I had many mentors, not only just one. I have had probably more male mentors
than I have had females. I had one outstanding female mentor because if it had not been
for her, I would not have been where I am today. My mentor had shaped my life and
shaped me again. I give her a great deal of credit for who I am today. She encouraged
me in a variety of ways to get my degrees, and encouraged me in my personal life. She
gives advice even today and she calls me when I am in troubled spot and she helps me.
The men in my life come and go but they are always there when I need them. Some of
these mentors had early inﬂuences in my life. All I had to do was to raise my hand and
tell them that I needed them. If I don't raise my hand, they will not help me."

"I had ﬁve mentors all together; four mentors were male and one was a female.
They were all educators by profession."
Sb.4 "I did have a mentor and didn't formally set up a mentor and mentee relationship
with the individual. However, I learned what to do and what not to do from him. He
taught me how to make decision which helped me to do things right. I watched and
observed him in times of decision-making processes. I had good and bad experiences,
which shaped my present and ﬁrture roles."

"My mentor was a male. He was a top-level president in higher education."
Category B

Seven subjects interviewed in category B, indicated that they had mentors and
that their mentors played advantageous roles in their appointments to higher education

administrative positions. Four of the seven individuals indicated that they had made use

95

of one to two female mentors in their professional advancement. Two indicated that they
had used two male mentors each, in their professional advancement. One individual
indicated that she had one male and one female mentor, that helped towards her
professional advancement.

Three of the seven individuals indicated that their mentors were administrators in
higher education as College President (male), Deans of Graduate School (male and
female), and Director of the School of Social Work (female). Two other individuals
indicated that their male and female mentors were Professors. Only two individuals
indicated that their mentors had combined professions; Researchers and Scientists and a
Doctor in Physical Therapy.

Comments

Sb.9 "I had several mentors and they helped me from the point of View that they served
as role models. They helped me in clarifying my objectives in what I wanted to do in
life. I also had family members who were also mentors and they served as role models in
helping me to continue to advance."

"All my mentors were males by gender. They were all involved in education."
Sb. 10 "I had several mentors, not just one mentor. I have mentors in terms of my
scientiﬁc career, as an administrator. The mentors were good in giving me feedback
from different perspectives in my career."

"I had both male and female mentors by gender. The male mentors were my
former scientiﬁc professors by profession. The female mentor was the Dean of the

Graduate School; and I have been following in their foot-steps ever since."

96

Sb.11 "I have had two mentors in my life-time. My ﬁrst mentor was my professor. She
was the one who really got me interested in research and helped me to learn the
discipline, and the enjoyment of discovering process in the sciences. She essentially
motivated me to go back to school to do my Doctorate work and then to continue in the
program of research. The second mentor was a woman I went to work with after I
ﬁnished my Doctorate program. She was an expert in how one facilitates other peoples'
research, as well as how one helps other colleagues to put together their research
programs. She was just exquisite in facilitating group research program."

"Both mentors were females by gender. Both of them were nurses by profession."
Category C

Fifteen subjects interviewed in this category indicated that they had mentors and
that the mentors played important roles in their professional appointments to higher
education administrative positions. Only three individuals indicated that they had no
mentor per-3e, or anybody they consider to have played any role in their advancements to
higher education administrative positions.

Nine of the twelve subjects in category C indicated that they had made use of all
male mentors. Two of the twelve subjects indicated that they had one male and two
female mentors and/or two males and one female mentor. One individual indicated that
she had a female mentor that helped in the advancement of her profession.

Six of the twelve subjects who had mentors indicated that they had one female
and four male mentors as administrators in higher education, and, four subjects indicated,

ﬁve of their mentors were college professors in the ﬁeld of education. Two individuals

97

indicated that four of the male and female mentors they had were involved in various
professions like educational and developmental psychology as well as in fund-raising.
Comments
Sb. 16 "I did have a mentor when I ﬁrst became a department head. My mentor helped
me whenever I had questions regarding my job. He taught me how to do things easily
and directed me to the right paths to go in my job."
"My mentor was a male by gender. He was an administrator in higher education."
Sb.17 "I didn't think I had anyone personally that I consider a mentor. However, there
were a number of people who helped me in my career over the years. The mentor I
guessed I remember fondly was my dissertation adviser. There was another person who
was in many ways a role model for those of us who came as young professors."

"The mentors were both male and female by gender. Both of them were full
professors."
Sb.18 "I really had three mentors in my graduate work. I had a committee, in which the
people really took personal interest in me, and each one of them mentored me in a
different way. I had one mentor who was the chair of my committee, who really helped
me in terms of my self-conﬁdence as an acadenrician. I came to Graduate School not
particularly interested in research, but very interested in applied work, but wanted to
know the rationale behind research strategies. My mentor saw in me some things that I
didn't necessarily see in myself."

"The second mentor was very ﬁne writer, and was a good person who was able to
obtain grants. This mentor helped me to get a $20,000 grant to write my dissertation.

He took me to national meetings so that I could meet people and have exposure at the

98

national level. He actually took me to a conference and introduced me to people and was
very helpﬁrl; hence I wouldn't have gone to that conference on my own."

"The third mentor was a woman in my Graduate School; and she was a very
encouraging person who I could basically approach and talk to about ideas I had
regarding my work and my future. All these mentors continued to have contact with me
since I ﬁnished my graduate program."

"Two of my mentors were males and one was a female by gender. All of them
were professors in higher education, by profession."

Sb. 19 "I did have a mentor and basically she helped in suggesting resource people who
solved certain problems or intervened with people to straighten out problem areas."

"My mentor was a woman by gender. She was an administrator in higher
education."

Sb.20 "I do not have anyone I considered to be a mentor per-3e. Certainly, I had learned
from a range of people along the way, both men and women, particularly the people I
worked with in previous positions. I learned more from observations and experience than
from the point of View of a mentor who took particular interest in my career in a very
coherent way."

Summary of Findings

The role that mentors play appears to be very important. Of the thirty subjects
interviewed, twenty-seven indicated that mentors played essential roles in their
appointment to higher education administrative positions. The role of mentor was an
essential factor. The mentors' gender does not appear to be a factor. The mentors'

professions were most often in ﬁelds or professions related to the mentees professions.

99

It is also implied from the ﬁndings that there is no difference in the perceptions of
the female administrators between the three categories and the issue of mentors as an
inﬂuencing factor appointment to higher education administrative positions.

Objective #10 "Negative challenges encountered/Positive situations experienced"
RESEARCH QUESTION 10: During the hiring process what negative challenges were
encountered? What positive situations were experienced?

This question addressed negative challenges the participants encountered while
being hired. It also explored positive situations the subjects participating in the study
experienced during hiring process. Obviously the female administrators interviewed in
this study were increasingly aware of this theme of "empowermen " as the essential
and/or dominant nature of certain hiring personnel during selection process. They
recognized the various inﬂuences, and the negative challenges and/or positive situation
females experienced in their advancement to various higher levels of management.
Findings on the Frequency of Responses from the three Categories
Category A

Analysis of the comments of the eight subjects from category A, show that four
indicated that they had encountered negative challenges during the hiring process. Three
subjects indicated that they did not encounter negative challenges during hiring process.
One individual indicated that she is neutral about the kind of encounters she had.

Seven of the eight subjects indicated that they had experienced positive situations
during hiring process. One individual indicated that she is neutral about her experience

of positive situations.

100

Comments
Sb.1 "Most of my encounters have been positive. I think for the most, the
organizations with which I made applications for the last twenty years, were higher
education institutions. I think that they are Afﬁrmative Action Processors, and their
whole ways of interviewing people were very open and fairly inclusive. This has been
especially true in the Student Affairs area than in some other areas of the university.
They are a more diverse population in their staffs. I think that they always feel that it is
important to have more inclusive search committee."
Sb.2 "I never had any negative challenges because I only applied for one job. They let
me have my leave as I desired one smnmer, so it was a positive experience"
Sb.3 "I ﬁrst of all had positive encounters rather than negative challenges and this
helped me to carry on with other future jobs or interviews. I got ideas from positive
encounters, which helped me to make conscious decisions. The negative challenge,
which I had was just arguments for salary, which was not really much to argue about;
rather I depended on my performance to boost me up."
Sb.4 "They have not been basically positive or negative challenges, but just challenges.
I came to this university at the good time."
Category B

Four of the seven subjects indicated that they encountered negative challenges
during the hiring processes. Three other subjects indicated that they did not encounter
negative challenges during the hiring process. In terms of positive situations, all seven
subjects in this category indicated that they experienced positive situations during hiring

process.

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Comments

Sb.9 "I had positive encounters in the two jobs I have been able to achieve in higher
education administration. I found the interviews to be very open and fair in the hiring
process. I was looking for what would contribute to my grth and development in both
situations and I was able to see that during interview process. For negative encounters, I
did not have any but, they did ask me if my experiences in the smaller institutions I
worked would help me to handle or ﬁrnction well in a bigger institution like the one I am
working at now."

Sb.10 "One of the negative challenges I had was just the enormous amount of time it
takes to go through the interview process. For example, people who are very busy, to
have a long interview process can really be burdensome, even though I understand that
the process is very important for people to talk to the people they are going to hire.
Positive encounters would be the wonderful people I had met, through the
interview process which I talked about what my interests were."

Sb.11 "I had not had any negative challenges in the hiring process because I have
always got the jobs I applied for, and my job was always created new for me. However,
sometimes one negative challenge is that in general people would not know all the
mismatches of a job before they apply for it. They do not know the tough competition
that they are going to face during the hiring process; because they were not
communicated to, so that at the end they face disappointments and feelings of
inadequacy. The hiring process often times takes a toll out of the peoples' ego. I think
that organizations should be more open and more counseling-oriented, rather than being

more business-oriented."

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Category C
Ten of the ﬁfteen subjects indicated that they encountered negative challenges

during the hiring process. Only ﬁve subjects indicated that they did not encounter
negative challenges during the hiring process. For positive experiences, ten of the ﬁfteen
subjects interviewed indicated that they experienced positive situations during hiring
process. Five individuals indicated that they did not experience positive situations during
hiring process.
Comments

Sb. 16 "The most memorable one was when I was being hired as an Assistant Professor,
as I just got out of the graduate school. I remember going to interview in one institution
where they segregated male applicants from female applicants. Different committees in
different rooms interviewed us. I was told later that I was the best female applicant but
obviously they hired a male. In general I have not sought many jobs or positions rather, I
have been sought for them. I cannot say that I have had very serious challenges. For
positive encounters, many people have treated me in the way I expected to be treated."
Sb.17 "I have actually had all positive experiences in all the places I had put up
applications. I was appointed for some of the positions I have held. "
Sb. 1 8 "I have not had challenges or various encounters with organizations because I
have been in not more than one organization and I have not applied for very many jobs."
Sb.19 "The negative challenges I had was that I could not be hired because I was a
woman. But my positive encounter was when the hiring personnel was very open in

dealings with me."

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Sb.20 "Yes, I had negative challenges. I guess sometimes, it can be a challenge when
interviewing with groups. During the two or three major positions I have had, I had a
situation with one individual and it was not very pleasant."

Summary of Findings

Eighteen of the thirty subjects encountered negative challenges. Negative
challenges encountered consisted of: arguments for salary; extensive interviews; gender
bias; illegal questions; lack of honesty and fairness in dealings; sex-role stereotypical
attitudes; and, segregation of applicants. Eleven indicated that they did not encounter
negative challenges. One individual was neutral about the kind of challenge she
encountered. It is inferred from the ﬁndings that there is a difference in the perceptions
of female administrators between the three categories and the issue of negative challenges
encountered.

Twenty-four subjects indicated that they experienced positive situations. Positive
situations consisted of the following: afﬁrmative action processors; permission for leave;
gaining insights for future interviews; fairness and openness in dealings. Five indicated
that they did not experience positive situations during the hiring process. One individual
was neutral about experience of positive situations. It is inferred from the ﬁndings that
there is no difference in the perceptions of female administrators between the three
categories and the issue of positive situations experienced.

Objective #11 "Exhibited behaviors/actions observed"
RESEARCH QUESTION 1 1: What behaviors or actions exhibited by representatives of
the employing institutions were observed that cause you to believe that a female was

inappropriate for a higher education administrative position?

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Frequently qualiﬁed females do not understand that certain employing institutions
are structurally too complex and form "systems, and within such systems many elements
and individuals involved in the hiring process affect the selection decisions or the
"climate" for women to be hired as educational leaders (Hoferek 1986). An explanation
of what this means to potential female administrators is that certain individuals of the
employing institutions, involved in the hiring process may be stereotyped as to what
females should do and what they should not do. To this effect, some hiring committees
may exhibit certain behaviors and/or actions to show the females that it is inappropriate
for them to compete with the males for higher education administrative posts. It was for
the reason to gain insights from the perceptions of the subjects’ participating in this
study that the researcher asked this question.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses from the three Categories
Category A

Analysis of the comments ﬁ'om the eight subjects participating from category A,
show that ﬁve, indicated that they observed certain behaviors and actions exhibited by
individuals of employing institutions, involved in the hiring process that caused them to
believe that a female was inappropriate fer a higher education administrative position.
Three subjects ﬁom this category did not indicate that they observed any behaviors or
actions exhibited by individuals involved in their hiring processes.

Comments
Sb.1 "In fact, I had few behaviors ﬁ'om representatives of employing institutions back
very early in my career, and I think part of it was a perception of both gender and youth

which were double constraints. More recently I began to feel that I have been recruited

105

by institutions in part because of my gender, and that it was important for them to ﬁnd
some females."
Sb.2 "I never had any negative interactions with my employing institution, except for
the fact that they paid me less than they paid my male counterparts who were promoted to
the same level at the same time with less experience."
Sb.3 "I have had people ask inappropriate questions like how I would juggle with
taking care of my children while I was working."
Sb.4 "I observed that a woman's voice does not count much. When you are in the
midst of males in an employed institution, women cannot make decisions for men. This
made me draw conclusion that women are a disadvantage to making tough decisions;
they are not to tell men what to do or what not to do; because they are not taken serious
when they are working in male-dominated organization."
Category B

Three indicated that they had observed behaviors and actions exhibited by
individuals of employing institutions involved in the hiring process that caused them to
believe that a female was inappropriate for a higher education administrative position.
Four other individuals from this category indicated that they did not observe behaviors or
actions exhibited by individuals of the employing institutions involved in the hiring
process, which caused them to believe that a woman was inappropriate for a higher
education administrative position.
Comments
Sb.9 "I know already from my positions that there are not many women administrators;

and this really made me question commitment of the university to hiring women at my

106

level. I would say it is true because as a chairperson I was the only woman within the
college I was in."
Sb.10 "I would say that probably nothing has happened that I observed in my present
institution."
Sb.11 "I have not really had any negative encounters about females applying for higher
positions. During my experiences, being a female has not been a disadvantage for me."
Category C

Ten subjects indicated that they observed exhibited behavior and/or actions from
individuals of employing institutions involved in the hiring process that they caused them
to believe that a female was inappropriate for higher education administrative position.
Five subjects indicated that they did not observe exhibited behaviors or actions by
individuals of employing institutions involved in the hiring process that caused them to
believe that a woman was inappropriate for higher education administrative position.
Comments
Sb.16 "I have not observed behaviors or actions in any institution. I never had a sense
that being a woman is a problem. I happen to be in a career ﬁeld that is very much
dominated by females; so that may be part of it."
Sb.17 "I think that frequently there is an assumption that women are not in the networks
that are important. It is also assumed that women cannot act as leaders. There is often a
failure to recognize that leadership is not the ordering of people around or appearing to
look like a male leader when you are a female leader."
Sb. 1 8 "In my interviews for administrative positions there were no observed behaviors

or actions. However, from my observations from various institutions, when I look around

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at women being hired for other administrative positions like mine, I do not see many
women. I think the very fact that in certain institutions, all the higher administrators are
male, leads me to suspect that women are at disadvantage when they are being hired."
Sb. 19 "Being a woman has not been a disadvantage in my instance."
Sb.20 "It is certainly important for a woman to understand what is legal because I was
asked illegal questions about my marital status and how I would juggle with family life
during hiring processes. All these lead me to believing that being a woman can be a
disadvantage when seeking higher level administrative positions."
Summary of Findings
Observed exhibited behaviors or actions do not appear to cause a female to
believe that she is inappropriate for a higher education administrative position. Of the
thirty subjects interviewed, eighteen indicated that they observed exhibited behaviors and
actions. Twelve indicated that they did observe exhibited behaviors and actions. It is
inferred from the ﬁndings that the perceptions of the subjects were divided between the
three categories and the issue of observed behaviors or actions as being inappropriate for
women.
Objective #12 "Perceived role conﬂicts between personal obligations/administrative
duties"
RESEARH QUESTION 12: What role conﬂicts have you experienced between
maintaining your personal obligations and your administrative duties?
This research question deals with whether a female administrator experiences conﬂicts

between maintaining personal obligations and their administrative duties.

108

In the past, some known authors cited in the literature reviews that senior-level education
administrative duties require committed hours of work. They also cited that it would be
very difﬁcult for potential females to give equal preference to administrative duties as
well as to their personal or family obligations without overworking themselves (Perry
1993)

Recently, it is noted that role conﬂicts between personal obligations and
administrative duties should not be the most plausible reasons why qualiﬁed women
administrators should not be hired into higher education administrative positions. This is
because individuals can arrange to manage their personal lives to balance with job
responsibilities. Women have proved that they can do both jobs even when it is visibly
seen that it takes much out of them.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses from the three Categories
Category A

Analysis of responses of the subjects from this category show that all the eight
participants indicated that they have experienced all kinds of role conﬂicts between
maintaining personal obligations and higher education administrative duties.

Comments

Sb.1 "I have four children and a husband. I try not to miss any of my children's major
events, I have never really missed any major events like graduation. My workload at
times causes me to miss some activities that I would have gone to, had I not had to work.
My job causes me to be out of town at times, and I am married to a fairly traditional man
who thinks I should take care of the family. He thinks it is inappropriate when he has to

take care of the children in my absence. This is a conﬂict, but there are times when one

109

has to put family ﬁrst; and there are times when one has to put work ﬁrst. I have to do
both because I am required to do it."

Sb.2 "I think I cannot attribute any conﬂict to a problem of having a family. This is
true because I think that once anybody makes a career decision, you have to do your best
to balance both of them. I try to do it all or I pay somebody else to do some things I have
no time to do for example, my house chores. I had made some conscious decision to take
leave of absence in the past when I could not do it all. It was difﬁcult to keep up with the
family and sixty hours of credits for a Masters degree and working full-time jo ."

Sb.3 "Yes, I have experienced conﬂicts with time-management. One needs to
complete tasks because my position in the administration is 50% appointment and 50%
on professional role. I have a need to continually balance time between the two roles in
higher education. Also, the allocations that I have to my personal life is also time-
managemen ."

Sb.4 "I am married and I have a daughter who is twenty-two years; and I work long
hours in my job. Over the years I have instances where both my family and my job make
demands on me. Even with my personal efforts, I have gone back to school twice. I have
probably spent seven years as a part-time student, trying to earn degrees as well as
holding a full-time job. I absolutely believe as an Associate Provost in my ofﬁce that
peOple have real life and not just their job. I believe that both family life and job always
have to be important, and having said this, I try to make every accommodation I can for
people who work for me. I am a good planner and well organized and I have been
fortunate not to have signiﬁcant traumas in my family. I am pretty able to balance both

the responsibilities of my job and those of my family life. My husband shares

110

household duties and he is quite supportive of my career and me. With all the support,
there are still some days when I have conﬂicts with choice as to what things I should do
ﬁrst. I have aged-dependent parents; and I have had a couple of occasions I had to go to
take care of my sick father. With all these responsibilities, I still feel quite fortunate
enough to be in my present position because even though I can work a hundred hours a
week; yet it is not such a big constraint on my personal life."
Category B

All seven subjects indicated that they have experienced various role conﬂicts
between personal obligation and higher education administrative duties.
Comments
Sb.9 "I have experienced a great deal of conﬂicts because I have had increased
responsibilities in terms of my parents as they have gotten older. This has deﬁnitely been
a conﬂict that I really have had to balance as part of my personal obligations. Another
thing I would say in terms of conﬂict is that sometimes I have a tendency to neglect my
personal needs; my job always comes ﬁrst and this is not too good. I have been working
on how I can maintain balance and taking care of myself as well as fulﬁlling
administrative responsibilities."
Sb.10 "This is a very good question, because it is very difﬁcult if you are in
administrative position of a chair, dean or higher. The role of an administrator requires
an enormous amount of time and lots of commitment. Most of the people I knew are
working about seventy hours a week or more. It requires that your spouse or children are
going to be very supportive and very understanding of the time you spend on the job.

You also have to make a personal commitment yourself to the fact that these personal

111

relationships are very important in your life. Trying to balance personal life with
administrative responsibilities can be very conﬂicting."

Sb.11 "Over the years as I have two children, the only time I did not work was when my

children were newly born. After they turned two years old, I started to work so that both

work and family obligations were important to me. It did not mean that I have to give up
one for the other. I have a supportive husband who over the years did not see that a
woman, as having a traditional stay-at-home role. I do not think that I always had time
for everything I had to do, and nobody has time for everything they wanted to do.
However, I always set priorities because I have some deadlines but my family
understands this. I have support from my family to meet my deadlines. I take off
sometimes to spend vacation together with my family, as this is important to me. All I
am trying to say is that there is conﬂict, but it is a kind of relief to have a supportive
family."
Category C

Thirteen of the ﬁfteen subjects indicated that they have experienced conﬂicts at
different levels. Only two individuals indicated that they have not experienced role
conﬂicts between personal obligations and higher education administrative duties.
Comments
Sb.16 "There is a lot of conﬂicts that go along with this job. It is expected that where
there are university activities that take place during week-endings, or, evenings that I
should be in attendance. My perceptions are that the university activities really come
ﬁrst for me. If I don't perform administrative duties during off-hours, I think it is looked

on with dissatisfaction. The challenge has been there always, to be able to disassociate

112

my professional role with my personal role. This has been true when it comes to
evaluating personnel particularly my faculty colleagues. Separating personal obligations
from administrative characteristics is not always easy. "

Sb. 17 "I feel that I have conﬂict at two levels. Being an administrator of a large unit, it
is very hard to devote time to my own scholarship because I give a lot of time to my
administrative duties. I feel a lot of tension all the time. I have a family, I have an
elderly parent who lives in my home; it is a constant struggle to try to have enough time
to spend with my family and do my administrative job. I work twelve to fourteen hours'
days, come to ofﬁce early and leave ofﬁce later around 6 pm. or 7 pm. I work
Saturdays and Sundays and travel a good deal. It is hard to try to maintain a rich family
life, a rich scholarly and administrative life even with my husband's support. I ﬁnd it a
real challenge on a day to day basis."

Sb.18 "I do not experience any role conﬂicts. I am extremely busy. I have a husband
and two children and a house to maintain. My husband and I have more work than
people who have one job to do between them without children do. Although there is not
enough time to spend with my family, I ﬁgure out what I want to do and I do it. There
are always problems and pressures in getting things done because my role is more
complex than normal life, I get busy."

Sb. 1 9 "Yes, there is conﬂict because there is never enough time to do everything.
Although I am not married and have no children; yet I still do not have enough time to
spend with my relatives and family at home."

Sb.20 "There are role conﬂicts. Administration is time consuming, it is part of my

divorce and I have no time to do research which I would love to do."

113

Summary of Findings

It appears that there were indeed role conﬂicts between maintaining personal
obligations and higher education administrative duties. Twenty-eight of the thirty
subjects interviewed indicated that there were role conﬂicts between maintaining
personal obligations and higher education administrative duties. It is also evident from
the ﬁndings that there is signiﬁcant difference in the perceptions of the female
administrators between the three categories and the issue of role conﬂicts as an
inﬂuencing factor in higher education administration.

Objective #13 "The greatest Accomplishments/Satisfactions/Aspiration to an even
higher level/Why?

RESEARCH QUESTION 13: What was the greatest accomplishment
achieved/satisfaction as a higher education administrator? Do you aspire to an even
higher level of administration? Why?

The ﬁrst part of this research question dealt with the greatest accomplishments
achieved and satisfaction the have had as higher education administrators. The second
part of the question dealt with whether the female administrators aspire to an even higher
level of administration. The third part of the question dealt with the reasons why they
would like to aspire to an even higher level of administration or why they would not like
to aspire to an even higher level of administration.

The research investigator imagined that generally people scufﬂe for certain job
markets because they are either both ﬁnancially and personally rewarding; or because
they wanted the higher positions in order to achieve some accomplishment or get some

sort of gratiﬁcation and self-fulﬁllment of their career goals. This research question was

114

timed to gain insights about what makes the subjects, happy amidst the scramble with

tough competition and long hours of stressful duties.

115

Findings on the Frequency of Responses From the three Categories

Category A

A.a. Analysis of the comments ﬁ'om category A, show that all the eight subjects
indicated that they have achieved accomplishments and are satisﬁed as higher education
administrators. One individual indicated that she has achieved accomplishments, but
without satisfaction.

Ab. In response to aspiration to an even higher level of administration, four
individuals indicated that they do not aspire to higher level of administration; while two
indicated that they do aspire to higher level of administration. Two indicated that they
were undecided about what to do.

Ac. For the reasons why they would like or would not like to aspire to an even higher
level of administration, ﬁve of the subjects gave reasons why they would or would not
like to aspire to an even higher level of administration. Three did not gave reasons why
they want to aspire or why they do not want to aspire to an even higher level of
administration.

Comments

Sb.la. "I think I have had multiple speciﬁc goal achievements in each job I have had.
The greatest satisfaction I have had as an administrator was being able to have positive
inﬂuence on the lives of young people. I get to do that almost daily."

b. "I think my answer is probably no further aspiration to an even higher level of

administration."

116

c. "I have had people who keep nominating me for presidency; but I am not sure of
the life-style that I would like because it would take me away from studen ."
Sb.2a. "I have worked on a number of publications over the years that I thought were
very successful, and some of them won awards. I have worked on a lot of strategic plans
that have been followed and all have been successful. The most important thing is that
they are all ﬁnancially rewarding to my institution, and I am happy. All of these give me
great satisfaction."

b. "I really do aspire to an even higher level of administration."

c. "I am happy with what I do for now but I think I have been prepared for a Vice
Presidential position."
Sb.3a. "My greatest satisfaction has not happened yet. I think it will happen when I have
got my doctorate degree. But I have made a wonderful contribution to my present
employed institution. * I have done what I have thought for a lot of individuals who were
here in the same position, prior to my coming there in a different perspective and in a
different fresh approach. I have been open to my colleagues and motivated people to
getting the job done very well. I work well with people, but I do not think I have done
great things."

b. "Yes, I think I have aspiration to higher level of administration, preferably a
college presidency."

c. "I am not sure why of late."
Sb.4a. "I get satisfaction in helping students and making a difference in their lives. I

give people advice as a mentor and make a difference in their lives, and this is a great

117

satisfaction to me. The other accomplishment and satisfaction is making a difference in
the lives of the staff that I work with."

b. "I do not aspire to any other higher levels of administration."

c. "I do not want the headaches of higher education any more."
Category B .
Ba. All the seven subjects indicated that they have achieved greatest accomplishments
and are satisﬁed as higher education administrators.
Bb. Six of the seven participants indicated that they have no further aspirations to an
even higher level of administration. One individual indicated that she would aspire to an
even higher level of administration.
Bc. Six of the seven subjects gave reasons why they would or would not like to aspire
to an even higher level of administration. One individual did not give any reason why
she would or would not like to aspire to an even higher level of administration.
Comments
Sb.9a. "My greatest feeling of accomplishments has been in seeing the grth and
development of students. When I see what students achieve and accomplish over time,
and they tell me how valuable my services are to them as a role model, I feel very
satisﬁed. Another satisfaction is to look at the difference we made in terms of positive
outcomes within the institution and the progress of the programs."

b. "Yes, I would like to aspire to higher level positions. This is something that I am
sort of trying back and forth. I am looking at positions as provost or university

presidency but I truly believe in people going through the ranks. In this regard, before I

118

would become a university president, I would like to have the experience as a provost. I
have moved from faculty member to chairperson and then Dean."

c. " Everyone does not have to look for that perspective, but, I have to look for what
makes me feel comfortable."

Sb.10a."I found that the greatest satisfaction and accomplishments are getting programs
through and getting funding for people who wanted to do things, and, encouraging new
people to get involved in different ways. These achievements are what I get my
satisfaction from my day to day activities as an administrator."

b. "No, I do not want any more busier lifestyle. I think as an Associate Dean, I can
protect myself a little bit from the public relations role that a dean has to play. But once I
get into higher levels, I really have to be at the mercy of my position every day, and every
hour. I have no freedom of choice. At least now I have a little choice, because I have
peers who can substitute for me and I have an administrative team around that can handle
some of the public relations activities."

c. "I think I am just satisﬁed where I am at this point."

Sb.1 1a."I have had the opportunity to mentor many women as well as men, but more
women. I have had the opportunity to see many women achieve Ph.D. and higher
degrees, or ﬁnish college programs; I think these are a great satisfaction to me. The last
several years, my passion has been the recruitment of minority teachers, especially those
who already have their degree and want to teach in urban areas. It is a great satisfaction
to see students who work very hard to achieve their goal to a certiﬁed teacher and get
gainful employment. I would say that if I were really looking at what satisfaction is, it

would be to see the achievement of others."

119

b. "I would have enjoyed being a Dean, but after forty-one years, this is my last
year."

c. "Being in higher education all these years, I am going to retire this year."
Category C
Ca. All ﬁfteen subjects interviewed, indicated that they have achieved greatest
accomplishments and were satisﬁed as higher education administrators.
Cb. Eleven of the ﬁfteen subjects indicated that they do not aspire to even higher
levels of administration. Three subjects indicated that they do aspire to higher levels of
administration. One individual was undecided as to whether she would aspire to an even
higher level of administration.
Cc. Thirteen subjects gave reasons why they would or would not like to aspire to an
even higher level of administration. Two individuals did not give any reason why they
would or would not like to aspire to an even higher level of administration.
Comments
Sb.16a. "My greatest satisfaction as an administrator has been working in the department,
working with a number of colleagues, about twenty-eight full-time faculty members. My
greatest accomplishment was bringing them all together about ten years ago when I
began a series of retreats on professional development. I have been pleased with the
progress they have made and the course of action they have taken and the growth and
change over the past ten years."

b. "I do not aspire to an even higher level of administration because I am of an age

where I am closer to retirement."

120

c. "I would have liked to go for the Vice Presidency if I was ten years younger, I am

not, so I will retire."
Sb. 1 7a. "My greatest accomplishments and satisfactions have been working with
students. Sometimes there are students who without my assistance or intervention would
not have completed college. I think some of my greatest accomplishments are those
students that I have been able to help achieve their goals. I have written some grant
proposals and they were successful."

b. "I do not know if I aspire yet because the higher you get into higher levels of
administration, the less you are connected with students, or, with yourself."

c. "I think I have to be political and I am not interested in being political from what
I have seen. I would rather be a lowly administrator or a lowly professor rather than
being at a provost or other levels."
Sb.18a. "I have made a difference in the program as a director, and the program has made
a difference in my life. We have been able to provide to poor people who did not have
enough to eat. I have helped students who were in ﬁnancial need to succeed. Some of
the students I helped have done very well and moved to higher levels than mine. The
graduate students are the greatest accomplishments and satisfactions."

b. "I do not aspire to an even higher level of administration."

c. "The reason is that I do not see much opportunity."
Sb.19a. "I would say that my greatest accomplishment and the thing I get satisfaction
from is to feel that the center that I directed has grown to a much ﬁrmer foundation since

I came. I get satisfaction ﬁ'om making the institution stronger and for making me to

121

serve more women and to contribute to advocacy and research, which we feel is
importan ."

b. "I do not at this time aspire to other higher levels of administration."
Sb.20a. "I feel a sense of satisfaction from dealing with students who want to be
admitted into the university. Serving local and foreign students to the best of my ability
as a director of admissions is an accomplishment and satisfaction."

b. "I do not aspire to an even higher level of administration.

c. "I feel happy to deal with students at this level."
Summary of Findings
1. Accomplishments and satisfaction are important to female administrators in
higher education. All thirty females interviewed indicated that their greatest
accomplishment achieved gave them satisfaction as higher education administrators.
Findings indicate that respondents are basically in agreement between the three
categories, and, the issue of greatest accomplishment achieved and satisfaction derived as
administrators of higher education.
2. Of the thirty females interviewed, twenty-one indicated that aspiration to higher
level of administration was not important. It is also noted ﬁ'om the ﬁndings that there is
no difference in the perceptions of female administrators between the three categories.
3. Twenty-four subjects gave plausible reasons why they would or would not like to
aspire to higher levels of administration. It is also inferred from the ﬁndings that there is
no difference in the perceptions of the subjects between the three categories and the

reasons to aspire or not aspire as an inﬂuencing factor to decision-making process.

122

Objective #14 "Advice or Council to aspiring women"
RESEARCH QUESTION 14: What advice or council would you give to women
aspiring to administrative positions in higher education?

This question was administered to the thirty female administrators. Question 14
deals with the kind of advice or council, which the selected female administrators would
give to other females who have the desire to enter into higher education administration.

The research investigator believed that advice or counsel would also be beneﬁcial
and/or inspirational to other females who currently are not in administration or are
practicing on the lowest levels of administration and would desire to advance to higher
education administrative levels. The investigator believed it was valuable for
CXperienced female administrators who have experience to give guidance and counseling
to "upcorrring aspirants" or younger female administrators. Advice or encouragement
offered to potential women would help them to develop strategies which in turn will
prepare them to overcome the obstacles, prior to seeking higher education administrative
positions.

Findings on the Frequency of Responses from the three Categories
Category A

Analysis of the comments from the subjects interviewed from category A, ﬁnd

that all eight subjects encouraged aspiring women to go for higher education

administrative positions, because the career ﬁeld is for both men and women. Advice the

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given by six subjects are; that aspiring women should get academic credentials, and

experiences.

Additional advice common in the responses, six of the eight individuals,
emphasized that aspiring women should be academically qualiﬁed, better prepared than
their male counterparts by way of formal education. For example, they should get
advanced degrees like Masters and Doctorates in order to overcome the barriers
confronting them when seeking higher level positions. Six individuals also indicated
that women should have mentors; network; and be prepared to work hard. Two
individuals indicated that they encourage other women to have professional experiences
and administrative skills in areas of educational administration; apply for the right
positions; have the right values; be patient and have a balance between their personal and
professional lives.

Comments

Sb.1 "The number one advice I give to aspiring women is that they go for it but, they
must be sure that that they are applying for the right position they want. Just because it
looks good does not mean that it is the right job for everybody. They should do
professional development kinds of activities. They need to select role models and
particularly one in the area that they aspire to; and do not look for only the positives but
take a constructive look at what individuals do or do not do that they can learn from in
terms of their next experience. Finally I reiterate and encourage aspiring women to apply

for higher level positions in educational administration."

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Sb.2 "My advice would be that aspiring women try to get as much early education as
they can. They should keep learning and be comfortable with ambiguity because there
would be a lot in life. They should review their own values very quick and continue to
act in their own values. They should keep a balance in their lives; have time for spiritual
needs, physical as well as intellectual needs because they will dry and burn out if they
don't. I advise they go for it!"
Sb.3 "My counsel to women who aspire to positions as administrators in higher
education is that, it is very important for them to gain as much experience as they can get,
and get it in many different roles as possible. I also believe that networking is a very
important aspect because it allows them to not only understand the advantages of these
top positions, but, also helps them to understand the opportunities available. They should
go for positions in higher education!"
Sb.4 "Women aspiring to positions as administrators of higher education should have
faculty credentials, which are very important. They should have experience in academic
unit and this is very essential regardless of the position in higher education. They should
go for competition in administrative positions in higher education because I believe that
women can do it."
Category B

In category B, all of the seven subjects indicated that they should encourage
aspiring women to pursue top positions in higher education. Four of the seven subjects
gave strong emphasis to good qualiﬁcations, varied experiences, be focused, use of
professional networking, maximization of contributions to employing institutions and

deriving satisfactions from self-fulﬁlhnent, self-esteem and dignity. Three individuals

125

recommended that women aspiring to higher education administrative positions should
make use of mentors have strong values and beliefs, as well as spirituality, etc., if they

want to advance to top levels of administration.

Comments

Sb.9 "I recommend that a woman administrator be true to her own values and beliefs.
She should be committed to servant leadership, and ﬁnd satisfaction in the success of
others rather than her success. I encourage aspiring women to go for positions of
administration of higher education!"

Sb.10 "Women who are aspiring for positions as administrators of higher education
should really go for it. They should be focused and have a vision. They should know
that it takes lots of energy. They should ﬁnd a good mentor, in fact probably a set of
mentors that will help them."

Sb.1 1 "One very important piece of advice to aspiring women would be to take
advantage of networking opportunities. They should make sure that there are
programs that they can enroll in for example, leadership programs or other things they
can participate ﬁrlly so that people have understanding of who they are. They need to
volunteer for something so that they become more visible, also that people have the
chance to watch them and how they work. If women are stereotyped that they cannot
handle work; but if women demonstrate that they can do things, it helps a lot if they
prove that they are interested in the administrative roles. It is also important to prove that
they can do it. I therefore, recommend that they should go for higher education

administrative positions."

126

Category C

The subjects interviewed in category C, encouraged aspiring women to seek top-
level positions in higher education. Eight of the ﬁfteen subjects indicated that they
counsel aspiring women to acquire academic qualiﬁcations, make use of mentors, engage
in professional networking, and have experience in the ﬁeld of administration. Three
individuals recommended involvement in community services. One individual advised
that women should try not to lose their temper. Three advised women to try to have a
balance between personal and professional lives.
Comments
Sb.16 "My advice to aspiring women to positions as administrators of higher education,
is that they go for it. From my personal experiences, there are women who look for
differences; so I advise women to take things for face value. Higher education is stressful
all right, so I would advise other women to do a better job than I have done, of balancing
their personal lives with their jobs. Perhaps, they should not attend those extra curricular
activities that are expected of my job."
Sb. 1 7 "Probably the most important advice to aspiring women to positions as
administrators in higher education is to have support networks that are not at their place
of work. I encourage them to take care of their health in terms of eating well and

exercise, and balancing their time between work and their lives. They should take

127

courses in degrees that lead to their future career aspirations. They should go for higher
levels of administration if they are qualiﬁed because the positions are for men and

women."

Sb.18 "I would encourage aspiring women to go for positions in administration of
higher education. They should get appropriate acaderrric qualiﬁcations at any level they
are capable of reaching."
Sb.19 "The two cautions that I would give to aspiring women are what I would hope I
could manage to do. I advise them never to lose their temper. The other piece of advice I
would give is that they need to be straight forward, and, open as possible in dealing with
people; because it would be much simpler in the long run. I advise them to go for
positions of higher educational administration."
Sb.20 "I highly recommend that women go for positions in administration of higher
education. They should have a balanced life. They should take care of themselves from
a personal perspective, in terms of their health, physically and mentally. They should
take care of themselves in terms of their family lives as they work diligently. I
recommend women to have control of their destiny and not letting anyone else run it for
them. They should set the course of their lives and their lifestyles."
Summary of ﬁndings

The results that emerged from question 14 show that the female administrators
took advantage of their experiences to offer advice and/or counsel to improve the futures
of other female successors. The respondents have accurate perception that

administration of higher education is for both men and women. They offered universal

128

advice for aspiring women to be persistent in their pursuit of competence and excellence
in administration of higher education.

The most important advice or encouragement given to women aspiring to
positions in higher education administration is that; they work hard to get as much
education as possible in the appropriate ﬁeld. By doing so, they will be able to overcome
or combat the obstacles which generally greet women on their attempts to advance into
top level administrative positions in higher education. They also encouraged aspiring
women to get experiences in addition to their academic qualiﬁcations. They should also
make use of the female mentors and male mentors as well. They should network with
professionals who can remove the barriers for them is of signiﬁcant importance. This
advice is very important because the female participants in this study have ﬁrst hand
experience in the use of mentors and professional networking. Another critical factor is
recognition of their own gifts and talents.

Finally, the collective voice of the participating administrators is that other
aspirants to higher education administration, should not be discouraged with the negative
challenges they might encounter during the hiring processes. Rather, they should take
advantage of positive encounters and forge ahead towards advancement.

It is noted that the administrators interviewed for the study, feel a sense of
accomplishment and satisfaction, although, administrative duties are very stressﬁrl, time
consuming and energy draining. From their own accomplishments they advised aspiring
women to work hard once they get into the career arena, but, they should try to keep a

balance between their personal life and their administrative duties.

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CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary

Chapter ﬁve presents a summary of the ﬁndings and conclusions based on the
data analysis. From the ﬁndings, recommendations are made for further research and
advice for aspiring females aspiring to higher education administrative positions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges encountered by
women administrators in achieving higher education administrative positions. Research
studies dating from the 19803 to the 19903 provide evidence that there have been gains in
the number of women in higher education administrative positions (Mandel, 1986).
Findings from a 1984 study showed that although, women have made impressive gains in
higher education leadership. They neither disclosed all the painful challenges they
encountered in attempts to advance to such positions, nor did they disclose the challenges
confronting many other qualiﬁed but not hired women leaders (Shavlik & Touchton,
1984)

It was for those females who may desire to become administrators in higher
education that this study emerged. Thirty females ﬁom three major Universities in

Michigan, currently in positions of higher education administration were selected for

130

purposes of obtaining perspectives that would be helpful in counseling females seeking to
become administrators. The following fourteen research questions were developed to

achieve the purpose of this investigation:

1. What role did selective demographic information contribute to the perceptions of
the subjects in addressing the challenges of obtaining high level administrative positions:
(age; marital status; degrees earned; institutions attended; and, racial origin)?

2. What qualiﬁcations are essential to achieve top-level administrative positions in
higher education?

3. Do women administrators in higher education perceive societal sex-role
stereotypes to be hindrances to the advancement of women who seek positions in higher
education administration?

4. What role did formerly held administrative positions in higher education play in
obtaining their present position? How many years of total experience in prior higher
education administrative positions?

5. What role did teaching and other professional experiences play in being appointed
to higher education administrative positions?

6. Were there other education related work experiences that inﬂuenced appointment
to higher education administrative positions?

7. What factors might have contributed to rej ection(s) when seeking appointment in
higher education administrative positions?

8. What role does professional networking play in selection to higher education

administrative position?

131

9. What role did your mentors play in being appointed to higher positions of
educational administration? What was the mentors' gender? What was the mentors'

profession?

10. During your hiring process were negative challenges encountered? What positive
situations were experienced?
11. What comments, behaviors or actions were exhibited in the hiring process that
might be interpreted that a female was inappropriate for a higher education administrative
position?
12. What role conﬂicts did female administrators experience between maintaining
personal obligations and administrative duties?
13. Do female administrators have a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction? Do
female administrators aspire to an even higher level of administration? Why?
14. What advice or council would female administrators give to women aspiring to
administrative positions in higher education?

Thirty subjects were classiﬁed into three categories of administration: Category A
(Provosts, Vice Presidents); Category B (Deans), and, Category C (Department
Chairs/Heads, and Directors). All thirty subjects responded to the fourteen research

questions.

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Findings and Conclusions
RESEARCH QUESTION 1
What role did selected demographic information contribute to the perceptions of
the subjects in addressing the challenges of obtaining high level administrative positions:

(age; marital status; degrees earned; institutions attended; and, racial origin)?

Age:
FINDINGS

Four of the thirty subjects felt that their relatively young age was a contributing
factor in obtaining a high-level administrative position. Twenty-six did not perceive age
as a contributing factor to obtaining high-level administrative positions.
CONCLUSIONS

Four subjects who perceive age as playing an important role or contributing factor
to their appointment to high-level administrative position tend to believe that it is more
favorable to seek high-level administrative positions when one is relatively younger.
Twenty-six subjects who did not perceive age as inﬂuencing their achievement of a high-
level administrative position believe that one can favorably reach a high-level
administrative position, at any age. Conclusion may be made that age does not
necessarily play an important role in a female being selected for a hi gh-level

administrative position.

133

Marital Status:
FINDINGS

Four of the thirty subjects felt that marital status contributed to their achievements
of high-level administrative positions. Twenty-six subjects did not feel that marital status
contributed to their achievements of high-level administrative positions.
CONCLUSIONS

Marital status was not perceived as contributing to the achievement of higher
education administrative positions. Marital status provided emotional support for some
participants of the study. For some it alleviated ﬁnancial problems. Husbands provided
ﬁnancial support that prevented hindrances to advancing to higher levels of
administration. It is reiterated that the preponderance of evidence seems to indicate that
the perceptions of the female administrators interviewed believe that marital status is not
an inﬂuencing factor in achieving a higher education administrative position.
Degree Earned:
FINDINGS

The majority of the subjects believed that degrees earned were very important to
their advancement to higher education administrative positions. Twenty-seven subjects
indicated that degrees earned were important factors in their achievement of higher
education administrative positions. Three indicated that the degree earned was not a
factor in their achievement of higher education administrative positions.
CONCLUSIONS

Individuals, who earned advanced degrees and are currently holding the highest

level of administration, were in agreement that eamed advanced degrees were very

134

important to their appointment to higher education administrative positions. Degree
status for entry into higher education administrative positions is more highly valued as
criteria in the higher levels than in the lower levels.

Institutions Attended:

FINDINGS

Twenty-three of the thirty subjects did not believe that institutions attended
played an important role or made a signiﬁcant difference in their achievement of higher
education administrative positions. Seven subjects supported the position that institutions
attended did make a difference in their appointment to higher education administrative
positions.

In Categories A and B, (the Vice Presidents, Provosts and Deans), twelve of
ﬁfteen perceived that degrees from “certain institutions” did not make a difference in
their achievement of higher education administrative positions. Three perceived degrees
from “certain institutions” attended did make a difference in their achievement of higher
education administrative positions.

In Category C, (Departments Chairs/Heads and Directors), eleven of ﬁfteen
perceived that degrees from certain institutions did not make a difference in their
achievement of higher education administrative positions. Four of ﬁfteen perceived
degrees from certain institutions attended did make a difference in their appointment to
higher education administrative positions.

CONCLUSIONS
The majority of the subjects interviewed were of the opinion that institutions

attended were not factors in their achievement of higher education administrative

135

positions. Institutions attended do not appear to be an inﬂuence in a female being
selected to a higher education administrative position.

Perhaps one may conclude that it is not the institution from which a female gets
her degree that is important, but, the fact that an appropriate degree is earned.

Racial Origin:
FINDINGS

Twenty-six of the thirty subjects did not perceive racial origin as an inﬂuencing
factor in their achievement of higher education administrative positions. Four stated that
racial origin was an inﬂuencing factor in their achievement of a higher education
administrative position.

In Categories A and B, (Vice Presidents, Provosts and Deans), thirteen of the
ﬁfteen subjects did not perceive racial origin to be an inﬂuencing factor in their
achievement of higher education administrative positions. Two perceived racial origin to
be an inﬂuencing factor.

In Category C, (Department Chairs/Heads, and Directors), thirteen of ﬁfteen
subjects did not perceive racial origin to be an inﬂuencing factor in their achievement of
higher education administrative positions. Two perceived racial origin to be inﬂuencing
factor.

CONCLUSIONS

One may conclude that racial origin does not appear to be an inﬂuence in a female

being selected to higher education administrative position. Of the thirty subjects

interviewed, twenty-one were Caucasian, eight were Black. Twenty-four of the thirty

136

subjects did not perceive racial origin as an inﬂuencing factor in their selection to higher
education administrative positions.

Two of the twenty-one Caucasians, believed that racial origin made a signiﬁcant
difference in their appointments. Three of the Black subjects, believed that their race had
a positive impact in their appointments. One of the Black subjects believed that race had
negative inﬂuence in her advancement because “it took her too long before she got in.”
Conclusion may be drawn that race may play an important role in a female being
appointed to a higher education administrative position. However, it all depends on the
individual’s perception and the nature of the job.

RESEARCH QUESTION 2

What qualiﬁcations are essential for women to achieve top-level positions in
higher education?
FINDINGS

Twenty-ﬁve of the thirty subjects indicated that advanced degrees, Masters, Ed.D.
or, Ph.D. are essential qualiﬁcations for women to achieve top-level positions in higher
education. The twenty-ﬁve also indicated that women need to have the same
qualiﬁcations as men have; get well-grounded experiences; possess faculty and scholarly
achievements; have knowledge of budgeting and ﬁnance; leadership skills in the areas of
communication and listening; personnel and management skills; and have published.
Five indicated that advanced degrees are not essential for women to achieve top-level
positions in higher education. Rather, they indicated that women should have content

knowledge in the area of ones' choice: communication and listening skills; formal and

137

informal qualiﬁcations like thoroughness and attention to details; leadership skills; good
people-skills; and be Visionaries that do long range planning.
CONCLUSIONS

Advanced degrees Masters, Ed.D. or, Ph.D; experiences; budgeting and ﬁnance
skills; leadership skills; communication and listening skills; and faculty and scholarly
achievements for example, publications; are identiﬁed as qualiﬁcations essential for a
female to achieve a top-level administrative position in higher education.

The review of literature, on the issue of essential qualiﬁcation as an inﬂuencing
factor tend to be in support of the ﬁndings from the information obtained in this study. A
study by (Moore, Twombly, and Martorana, 1985) supported the notion that the
administrative career paths of female college administrators indicated that over 50
percent of these females held doctorate degrees. The authors stressed that women
seeking top positions should realize that 90 percent of all presidents and provosts hold
doctorate degrees, and about 80 percent of the women presidents and provosts who hold
doctorate degrees.

A study of women administrators showed that more commonalties in the degree
paths of the interviewees, emerged with the doctorate degrees and/or terminal degree. It
was reported that most of the participants in the study held doctorates in educational
administration and supervision, with some indicating course work in curriculum (Hill &
Ragland, 1995).

Both the reviews of related literature and the perceptions of the female

administrators in the study support the position that academic qualiﬁcations are critical

138

factors inﬂuencing the appointment of females to higher education administrative
positions.
RESEARCH QUESTION 3

Do women administrators in higher education perceive societal sex-role
stereotypes to be hindrances to the advancement of women who seek higher education
administrative positions?

FINDINGS

Twenty-eight of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that they perceived
societal sex-role stereotypes to be hindrances to the advancement of women who seek
higher education administrative positions. Two individuals did not perceive societal sex-
role stereotypes to be hindrances.

CONCLUSIONS

Societal sex-role stereotypes appear to be a hindrance to the advancement of
females seeking higher education administrative positions. A review of literature, on the
issue of sex-role stereotypes, tends to support the conclusions drawn from the ﬁndings of
this study.

Stereotypical preconceptions, or prejudice are the biggest advancement barrier
that women face today (Catalyst, 1990). Similar sex-role stereotypes lead men to believe
that women are not strong enough to "control" the faculty (Shavlik and Touchton, 1988).
Morrison (1992) reported that stereotypes about women and people of color in general
are common among managers. For example, women are often assumed to be indecisive

and unable to be analytical.

139

Hill & Ragland (1995) commented that "in spite of promising demographic
statistics; equal opportunities for women to secure positions and advance in educational
leadership, they are still hampered by some of these historical myths."

Societal sex-role stereotypes are commonly perceived as hindrances to females
seeking higher education administrative positions.

RESEARCH QUESTION 4

What role did formerly held administrative positions in higher education play in

obtaining their present position? How many years total experienced in prior higher

education administrative positions?

FINDINGS

Twenty-eight of the thirty subjects indicated that they held prior administrative
positions in higher education, and that these experiences played an important role in
determining their current positions. Each one of the twenty-eight subjects had many
years of experiences prior to being selected to their present positions. The total number
of years experienced in prior higher education administrative positions ranged from one
to seventeen years. Two individuals indicated that they did not hold any prior higher

education administrative positions.

140

CONCLUSIONS

Formerly held administrative positions in higher education appear to play a
signiﬁcant role in obtaining a higher education administrative position. The review of the
literature on this issue also supports the ﬁndings.

A descriptive study of women as college and university presidents showed that
formerly held administrative positions played an important role in determining their
current positions. Six percent held prior presidential positions; thirty-six percent held
prior positions as vice presidents; about two-thirds held the positions in academic affairs;
one percent held a position as associate/assistant vice president. Thirteen percent held the
position of dean or director of acaderrric affairs. In ofﬁce of associate and academic
dean, two percent held prior administrative positions; two percent were department chairs
(Touchton, Shavlik and Davis, 1993).

Formerly held administrative positions play essential roles in determining a

female’s future selection for a higher education administrative position.

RESEARCH QUESTION 5

What role did teaching and other professional experiences play in being appointed
to higher education administrative positions?
FINDINGS

Twenty-four out of thirty subjects interviewed indicated that teaching and other
professional experiences played important roles in being appointed to higher education

administrative positions. Five indicated that they had either teaching or other professional

141

experiences. One individual indicated that she had neither teaching nor other
professional experiences, but I was appointed to a higher education administrative
position.

CONCLUSIONS

Teaching and other professional experiences are thought to play signiﬁcant roles
in a female being appointed to higher education administrative position. The review of
literature is consistent with the study ﬁndings that teaching and other professional
experiences play important roles in being appointed to higher education administrative
positions.

The ﬁrst teaching assignments and the ﬁrst job heavily inﬂuence one's
perceptions about work cultures. Furthermore, contrary to some assumptions about
leadership, many educational leaders stay in the classroom, while others either move to
principal post, university faculty positions, superintendent post, district ofﬁce positions,
or a variety of agency, governmental and entrepreneurial avenues (Hill and Raglan,
1995)

The ﬁndings and the review of literature, provide perceptions that teaching and
other professional experiences are very important in being appointed to top-level
administrative positions in higher education.

Teaching is highly recommended to females seeking higher education administration
positions. They should gain ﬁrst hand experiences in teaching and related professional
areas. It is important that aspiring women understand that both teaching and professional

experiences are entry-level for almost every educational leader.

142

RESEARCH QUESTION 6

Were there other education-related experiences that inﬂuenced appointment to
higher education administrative positions?
FINDINGS

Fourteen of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that they had other
education-related experiences that inﬂuenced their appointments to higher education
administrative positions. Sixteen indicated that they did not have other education-related
experiences that inﬂuenced their appointments to higher education administrative
positions.

CONCLUSIONS

Education-related experiences might, to a certain degree, inﬂuence to a female’s
appointment to a higher education administrative position. Of the thirty subjects
interviewed, only fourteen indicated that prior education-related experiences inﬂuenced
their appointments to higher education administrative positions. Sixteen did not have
related experiences.

The literature review supports the notion that education-related experiences
inﬂuence appointment to higher education administrative positions. Education-related
work experiences are those that reﬂect a wide variety of education-related jobs, which the
subjects held prior to teaching. These experiences ranged from tutoring, life guarding;
camp counselors; playground supervisors; and, swimming instructors. Often, it is has
been reported that when women receive letters of rejection from hiring organizations,
lack of experience is cited "as the main reason" why they were not hired (Hill and

Ragland, 1995).

143

The study ﬁndings seem to agree with other studies that education-related
experiences may be a variable inﬂuence in the appointment of a female to higher
education administrative positions. The ﬁndings present an equally divided perspective
in the three categories of administration.

RESEARCH QUESTION 7

What factors might have contributed to rej ection(s) when seeking appointment to
higher education administrative positions?
FINDINGS

Fifteen of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that they had applied for higher
education administrative positions and had been rejected. Of the ﬁfteen who were
rejected, thirteen indicated that the perceived factors that contributed to their rejections
were gender bias; lack of experiences; lack of qualiﬁcation; making a good salary; and,
preference for an internal candidate. Two of the ﬁfteen did not identify factors that
contributed to their rejections. The remaining ﬁfteen indicated that they had never been
rejected for positions they applied.

CONCLUSIONS

Females seeking appointments to higher education administrative positions vary
in their experiences. Certain factors however, do appear to contribute to their rejections.
For example, gender bias; lack of experiences; lack of qualiﬁcation; making a good
salary, and, preference for an internal candidate.

Literature reviews support the ﬁndings that females who apply for higher
education administrative positions are rejected more frequently than their male

counterparts. Reasons for rejections are found in gender bias and lack of experience. In

144

top-level positions females are more likely to be making greater job search efforts than
their male counterparts. However, men are likely to be pre-selected for such positions
while women only reach these positions after extensive efforts (Pavan, 1989). Other data
cited that the number of years it took women to reach presidential posts could only be
realized based on the condition that they had been in their current positions as deans,
Viewed as second in importance to the presidency (Vaughan, 1989).

The perceptions of the subjects differ between being rejected and the factors
contributing to the rejection.
RESEARCH QUESTION 8

What role does professional networking play in selection to higher education
administrative positions?
FINDINGS

Twenty-seven of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that they made use of
professional networking, and, that it played a very important role in their selection to
higher education administrative positions. Three indicated that they did not make use of
professional networking.
CONCLUSIONS

Professional networking appears to play a very important role in a female's
selection to a higher education administrative position. Literature reviews support the
ﬁndings that professional networking plays a key role in the selection of a female to
higher education administrative positions.

It is cited that in one study of more than one hundred female administrators, that

62% reported that they were assisted in ﬁnding jobs by their major advisors (Metz and

145

McNealy, 1990). Professional networking is not only recommended for advancement of
women towards the hiring processes in top positions of higher education administrations,
but, it is critical to female leadership development as well as the probability of
employment promotions (Astin & Leland, 1991; Hersi, 1993; Turner & Thompson, 1993;
Hill & Ragland, 1995).

Comparing ﬁndings of the study with reviews of literature that supports the
position that professional networking plays a signiﬁcant role in the selection of females
in higher education administrative positions.

RESEARCH QUESTION 9

What role did mentors play in being appointed to higher education administrative
positions? What was your mentor's gender? What was your mentor's profession?
FINDINGS

T wenty-seven the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that mentors played
critical roles in their being appointed to higher education administrative positions. Three
indicated that mentors had no inﬂuence in their being appointed to higher education
administrative positions.

Of the twenty-seven who indicated that they had mentors who played important
roles in their appointments to top positions, sixteen indicated that they had male mentors.
Five indicated that they had only female mentors, and six indicated that they had both
male and female mentors.

Of the twenty-seven whose mentors played essential roles in being appointed,
fourteen had mentors who were administrators in higher education. Eight had mentors

who were a college professors. Two had mentors who were researchers by profession.

146

Three had mentors who were; a developmental psychologist, a doctor of physical therapy,
and, a fund-raiser.
CONCLUSIONS

Mentors are perceived to play essential roles in a female being appointed to a
higher education administrative position. Of the thirty subjects interviewed, twenty-
seven indicated that mentors played essential roles in their being appointed to higher
education administrative positions. Both male and female mentors play supportive roles.
There were no gender preferences stated by the subjects. The professions of the mentors
may be an inﬂuencing factor. This inﬂuence may be because the type of their
professional involvement.

Literature reviews also support the ﬁndings that mentors are able to help in
clarifying personal visions of what educational leadership means, and to also aid in
developing a sense of commitment to a career in the ﬁeld of educational administration
(Daresh & Playko, 1990b). The role of mentors are very important to the point that it
helped a female to be recruited to the position of Chief Academic Ofﬁcer (Walton, 1998).

Conclusions may be made from the ﬁndings that the female administrators are in
basic agreement regarding the roles mentors play in being appointed to higher education
administrative positions. Mentors do play an important role.

RESEARCH QUESTION 10

During the hiring process were negative challenges encountered? What positive

situations were experienced?

FINDINGS

147

Eighteen of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that they encountered
negative challenges during the hiring processes. Eleven did not encounter negative
challenges during the hiring processes. One individual indicated that she is neutral about
negative challenge encountered during the hiring process.

Twenty-four out of the thirty subjects experienced positive situations during the
hiring process. Five out of the thirty subjects indicated that they did not experience
positive situations during the hiring processes. One individual indicated that she is
neutral about her positive situation experienced during the hiring process.
CONCLUSIONS
Female administrators seeking higher education administrative positions encountered
negative both negative challenges and positive experiences during hiring processes.

Literature reviews also support the ﬁndings of this study. It has been reported
that females experienced discouraging attitudes such as being asked about how they
could juggle with an administrative job while simultaneously raising children (Martin &
Grant, 1990).

Positive situations were also experienced. Although a female may encounter a
negative challenge, it may not necessarily have a negative inﬂuence in being selected to a
higher education administrative position.

RESEARCH QUESTION 11

What comments, behaviors or actions, were exhibited by individuals of the

employing institutions involved in the hiring process, that might be interpreted that a

female was inappropriate for a higher education administrative position?

148

FINDINGS

Nineteen of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that there were comments,
behaviors and actions exhibited by individuals involved in the hiring process, that might
be interpreted that a female is inappropriate for a higher education administrative
position. Eleven of the thirty indicated that they did not observe any such comments,
behaviors or actions.

CONCLUSIONS

Comments, behaviors or actions exhibited by individuals representing the
employing institutions were perceived differently by the subjects. Comments,
experienced by the subjects as being negative were: how would you juggle your job with
child-care responsibilities; women can't make decisions for men; assumption that, women
can't act as leaders; and, lack of collaboration with females.

Other observations found support of the ﬁndings that females may be sent
negative messages by being ignored during important discussions, interrupted when
attempting to make a point. Women may be dismissed through inferences that indicated
or assumed that a male was really the one to complete a project or make a successful
decision (Stokes, 1984).

RESEARCH QUESTION 12

What role conﬂicts did female administrators experience in maintaining personal

obligations and administrative duties?

FINDINGS

149

Twenty-eight of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that they have
experienced varied role conﬂicts between maintaining their personal obligations and their
administrative duties. Two individuals indicated that they have not experienced such
conﬂicts.

Areas of conﬂicts include: keeping a balanced family life; completing
administrative tasks and meeting deadlines; time-management; taking care of personal
health in terms of eating well and exercising; keeping up with household chores;
maintaining a social life; and, ﬁnding relief from long-hours of work and pressure.
CONCLUSIONS

Female administrators in higher education experience role conﬂicts between
balancing personal obligations and administrative duties. Experiencing role conﬂicts
does not however seem to jeopardize administrative duties.

Literature reviews support the ﬁndings that there are sacriﬁces in balancing work
with personal life. Also there are defeats in discovering a way to do administrative duties
without the twelve-hour day, or six-day week and forty-eight week year schedules. It is
difﬁcult at times, to work out ways of being more effective in fewer hours or days (Perry,
1993)

Although female administrators do experience role conﬂicts in maintaining
personal obligations and administrative duties, equal priorities and balance can be given
to both. Women can still excel in the administration of higher education, even with the

experiencing of role conﬂicts.

150

RESEARCH QUESTION 13

Do female administrators have a sense of accomplishments and satisfactions? Do
female administrators aspire to an even higher level of administration? Why?
FINDINGS

Twenty-nine of the thirty subjects interviewed indicated that they have a sense of
accomplishments. One individual indicated that she had a sense of accomplishment, but
not satisﬁed as a higher education administrator. The satisfaction of accomplishments
were as follows: being role models; getting assigned projects well-done; improving
graduate programs; helping students succeed; making differences in students; developing
staff; providing vision in leadership; raising funds for the employing institutions. Other
satisfaction of accomplishments include: mentoring other men and women; recruitment
of students for their institutions; bringing department faculties together; being teacher
educators; seeing that the gifted and talented students excel; and, serving both local and
international students.

Twenty-one of the thirty subjects did not aspire to higher levels of administration.
Six aspired to higher levels of administration. Three were undecided about their future
ambitions.

Twenty-four of the thirty subjects gave reasons why they would or would not like
to attain higher levels of administration. Six did not give reasons addressing their
aspirations. Reasons for seeking higher levels of administration were: being prepared for
the next level; being the next in line based on faculty merit; and, encouragement from

ﬁiends and mentors. The general reasons for the subjects not seeking higher levels of

151

administration are: nearing retirement; not wanting the “hassles” at higher levels; and, the
desire to pursue other projects.
CONCLUSIONS

Female administrators do have a sense of accomplishment, which gives them a
sense of satisfaction. Of the thirty subjects interviewed, twenty-nine indicated that they
have achieved a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as higher education
administrators.

Literature reviews support the notion that the demonstration of competence and
satisfaction tend to be major factors for females who seek positions in higher education
administration (Dopp & Sloan, 1986; Hill & Ragland, 1995). Female administrators do
indeed get satisfaction that comes from occupying multiple roles of administrative duties
and family life (Newman, 1993).

Female administrators tend not aspire to higher levels of administration after
serving for many years in administrative positions. Burn out from their administrative
jobs seems to be a key factor. They have a longing to change from their current
responsibilities and pursue other projects of interest.

One conclusion from the ﬁndings regarding achievement at higher levels of
administration was not consistent with the literature review. According to the ﬁndings of
one researcher, women administrators would like to become administrators again if they
had a chance, even after their retirements (Dopp & Sloan, 1986; Hill & Ragland, 1995).

Conclusion may drawn from the ﬁndings that the majority of female
administrators can make ﬁrm decisions as aspiring or not to aspiring to higher levels of

administration after some years of faithful services in current administrative positions.

152

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 14

What advice or counsel would female administrators give to women aspiring to
positions as administrators in higher education?
FINDINGS

All thirty subjects interviewed took advantage of their experiences to offer advice
and/or counsel to aspiring women. The thirty subjects perceive that administration of
higher education is for both men and women. They offered universal advice to aspiring
females to be persistent in their pursuit of competence and excellence in each responsible
position that they hold. The most important advice or encouragement given was to work
hard and get as much education as possible, in the appropriate ﬁeld. This will help them
to overcome or combat the obstacles, which women tend to encounter in advancing to top
level administrative positions in higher education.

Thirty subjects also advised aspiring women to earn advanced degrees; obtain
good academic credentials; have appropriate professional experiences; engage in
professional networking; make use of mentors. They also counseled aspiring women to
practice patience; have strong beliefs and spirituality; have balance between personal and
professional lives; and, work hard and maximize contributions to the institutions that
employs them.

Finally, the collective voice of the practicing administrators is that other aspirants
should not be discouraged if they encounter negative challenges during the hiring
process. Rather, they should take advantage of positive encounters and forge ahead
towards advancement.

CONCLUSIONS

153

Practicing female administrators do take advantage of their experiences to offer
advice or counsel to women aspiring to positions as administrators in higher education.
All thirty subjects interviewed perceive that administration of higher education is for both
men and women. Consequently, they encourage other aspiring females to “go for it.”
Advice or council, however, is important for aspiring females to succeed in
administration of higher education.

The ﬁndings in the study tend to be in conformity with the literature review, that
women administrators offered encouragement to other women who might be pursuing
administrative positions in the 19003 to either "go for it" or "do it" (Edson, 1988).
Women offered other secondary universal advice or counsel about formal education
centered on pursuing doctorates and/or advanced degrees, experiences, and, on the use of
mentors (Tannen, 1990; Edson, 1988).

One may conclude that there is no difference in the perceptions of the participants
with respect to the importance of advice or counsel as an important factor in helping
other aspirants.

Observations

The following observations are based on the analysis of the ﬁndings in this study
and the insights the investigator gained throughout the course of the study. The
perceptions of selected women administrators towards higher education administrative
positions, provided insight into the challenges that females tend to encounter when
seeking higher education administrative positions. The issue of women being treated

with inequity when pursuing administration in higher education has received attention

154

and will continue to receive attention as long as women continue seeking higher
education administrative positions.

During the interviews, the study participants collectively stressed that there are
serious societal sex-stereotypical hindrances that need to be completely removed. Such
action would permit females to be more visibly recognized, and, on equal basis with their
male counterparts. The study participants are aware that females have made gains in
appointments to higher education administrative positions. They still believe, however,
that balance, proportionately, is needed with male counterparts. The study participants,
in the categories of, Presidents/Provosts, Deans, Department Chairs/Heads, and Directors
were in basic agreement with the contributions that they have made in the administration
of higher education, and, the satisfactions derived. However, they still stress that aspiring
females should be given the opportunity to serve when they are clearly ready and willing
to be hired.

Future Research

Based on the ﬁndings of this study, there should be a focus on the following
recommendations and suggestions in order to come up with more meaningful solutions
and more positive and reliable results on the issue of gender equity in higher education
administration:

1. This study was restricted to a small population of selected female
administrators from three higher education institutions in Michigan. A future study
should be conducted involving a larger sample size of female administrators in higher
education. Individuals selected nationwide would be necessary to avoid close proximity,

and protect the identiﬁcations of subjects. The end result of this would be to generate

155

candid responses from the subjects and results that could be generalized more than what
the present study provided.

2. An extensive study of the perceptions of female administrators should be done
in the Jrurior and Community Colleges as well as in Private four-year Colleges.

3. A more comparative survey of the perceptions of both male and female
administrators in higher education should be conducted to determine their attitudes
towards gender equity in higher education administration.

4. Expanding the survey utilizing more experienced and retired female
administrators of higher education might tend to generate responses that would not be
inﬂuenced by the fear of not loosing their jobs.

5. Each subject of this study has responded to research questions according to her
type of experiences and employment with a particular institution at the time of the
interview. Follow-up research could be conducted to determine if study participants will
tend to change their perceptions when in a different institution or a different job

placement.

156

APPENDIX

TRANSCRIPT INTERVIEWS WITH SUBJECTS

QUESTION 1

What role did selective demographic information (age; marital status; degrees earned;
institutions attended; and racial origin) contribute to your perceptions in addressing the
challenges of obtaining high level administrative positions?
CATEGORY A
Sb.1 I am not sure about age. My ﬁrst signiﬁcant position that I held was a dean. I held
it at the age of 3 1. But I think getting to holding that position as young as I was helped
me to move up the ladder more quickly than if I had waited till I was much older to
achieve that title.

Marital status had no hearing at all.

Certainly I think that my degrees are important and inﬂuential. I think that having
a doctorate is not only a necessity but very important in the positions that I have.

I am not such that the institution I attended matter a lot, perhaps somewhat but not
a lot.

About racial origin, I honestly think in the positions I held being white has made
my life easier.
Sb.2 I became an administrator when I was thirty-three years old, so I don’t think age
was a factor.

I was married and I think marital status probably inﬂuenced me in achieving the

position and staying in my present institution rather than moving to another institution.

157

I have an MA in my particular ﬁeld, which is advancement in Public Relations, a
Ph.D. is not normally required rather, an MA is usually sufﬁcient. In this case, having an
MA certainly helped to advance to this level. I have two degrees from the University of
Michigan and Western Michigan University.

For institutions I attended, I would say that degree earned from the University of
Michigan was certainly helpﬁrl.

Since I am Caucasian, I don't think that race is a factor in my own case.
Sb.3 My age in many instances was inﬂuential because I was so young hence I started
my administrative career when I was twenty-six years old.
I was married and divorced, but it does not have a positive impact on my advancement.

My degrees earned certainly contributed to my ability to move into administration
because I had credentials that I needed in order to do all the things that I needed to do.

The institutions I attended had no bearing whatsoever.

Racial origin had no inﬂuence on my achievements at all.
Sb.4 Not all of the factors have inﬂuence for example; age and marital status have
nothing to do with my achievement of my administrative positions.
However, I do believe that degrees earned is an important factor in terms of the position
of Vice President of University Relations. I believe that advanced degree is far more
acceptable within higher education institutions for top level positions than say a
Bachelors degree. Obviously one advanced degree like doctoral degree is advantageous
as well. I do not have my doctoral degree yet, but I have all but dissertation done at the

University of Michigan. I believe that even working to that extent towards the ﬁnal

158

degree has been advantageous in terms of my reaching this level of administrative
position.

Institutions from where those degrees were earned is not a factor.

I do not believe that race or natural origin has too much to at all with my
attainment of the positions. But in all honesty I would say that it has been my
experience in the present institution as I have been here for some twenty ﬁve years now,
that there has not been a female Vice President of color prior to my taking the position.
Sb.5 My administrative position is Associate Provost. I don't believe that all the
factors listed had any inﬂuence on my attainment of my position, with the exception of
the Ph.D. Since my position is Faculty Affairs and I have a Ph.D., which is appropriate
for that title. So, I am saying that my degrees is what inﬂuenced much.

Sb.6 Age has nothing to do with my attainment of my positions, other than the fact that
I was not in my twenties. You have to be a certain age from thirties up to be hired as an
administrator.

Marital status is not a factor in my achievement of top level administrative
position.

Degrees earned would be obvious factor because the policy of my employed
institution is to have a Ph.D. in the academic ﬁeld. You need to have the highest degree
available to you in your ﬁeld as a minimum requirement.

Institutions I attended would not have inﬂuenced because it was so long.

Racial origin would also not be enhancing factor either.

Sb.7 I became an assistant to the president at a relatively young age of thirty, so in that

sense that was my ﬁrst major administrative position; but age was not a factor to my

159

position. I had been newly married at the time, but it still had no bearing on my
achievement of the position.

I had acquired my Ph.D. from Michigan State University and had been asked to
join the faculty in the college of education; and at the same time to hold a role in the
ofﬁce of institutional research which was a research institute looking at higher education
issues. In a sense, degrees earned is inﬂuential because I had the Ph.D. Institutions I
attended did not count much or matters.

With regard to my racial origin I am a Caucasian, but my race is not inﬂuential to
my achievement to top level positions I held.

Sb.8 I do not believe any of the factors listed had inﬂuence on my achievement of the
top position I am holding. I do not have a Ph.D. but my credentials are suitable for this
position. There are other kinds of positions in my institution that I could not aspire to. I
think my promotion to the present position was far more related to my experience and for
the work I have done that the success I have rather than any of the factors listed.
CATEGORY B

Sb.9 With age I was fairly young, but I thought I was old at the time when I went back
to school for my doctorate. I was only twenty- eight years and I thought I was going to
be over thirty before I ﬁnish. Right now, I am in my mid-ﬁfties and I thought what a kid
I was then; so age is not a factor.

Marital status was a contributing factor in the fact that I went to school for my
doctorate when I was in my late twenties, and I was married with two children. While I

had my graduate assistantship and my tuition and child-care was supported. My husband

160

primarily provided all other ﬁnancial support all the time I was in Graduate School. If I
had not been married, I wouldn't have got that kind of ﬁnancial support.

Certainly it was necessary to have a Ph.D., so degrees earned was a contributing
factor to achieving the position I am holding in the administration of higher education.

The institution I attended does not have a bearing on my attainment of the top
position.

My racial origin does not count at all as I am a Caucasian.

Sb.10 My age as a factor does not have any impact whatsoever.

For marital status, I am not manied so, it did not have any inﬂuence on my
achievement to this level of position.

For degrees earned, I would look at that from the point of View of positive factors.
The reason why I say this is that I had a Masters and a Ph.D. degree, so looking at my
academic accomplishments I think it has been more positive factor than negative towards
my attainment of the position I am holding.

For the best institution, I would say that I strategically made sure that I attended
what I consider to be the best institutions from undergraduate to graduate school. I even
did my Post Doctoral Studies at Harvard University which I think is a factor in getting
this position.

Racial origin as a factor probably had a greater impact. The reason that I say this
is because when I came into this position in 1987, I was the ﬁrst African American to
hold the position as dean in three different areas on this large institution. In this regard, I

feel that in my particular case racial origin is a factor in my getting into positions at this

161

particular level; although it may have inhibited other women of my race from being
selected in the same level of profession.
Sb.1 1 Age is not such a factor, although probably a young person would not be a dean.

Marital status is not a factor.

The largest factor for me is the degrees earned, in terms of the position I hold in
the long time of successful and professional career; and leadership in the profession of
nursing.

Institution could be a factor however, I did not attend the very top institutions in
the country and yet, I have been able to advance in my career without too much
difﬁculty. I would admit though it is interesting to watch men when they look at my
curriculum vitae and when they noticed that I have a Masters degree from Yale
University; not a Bachelor or Ph.D. degree, but Ph.D. particularly which is more
prestigious ﬁ'om a less prestigious university.

Racial origin has no impact on the achievement of the position or in my
successful professional career.

Sb. 12 Age has no inﬂuence on my achieving top level position.

The marital status has very little to do with it except that it probably my mobility
and ability to move wherever there was an administrative position. The reason why I
am saying this is because my husband held a signiﬁcant position with the automobile
industry and most of our income was dependent on that. As such I didn't think it was
wise to move for my career as oppose to his career. In this regard, I was place-bound to

some extent, which often limit one's ability to achieve top administrative positions.

162

For degrees earned, I didn't ﬁnish my Ph.D. until 1986. I was over ﬁfty years old
at that time, so that has some inﬂuence on achieving a top level position because I wasn't
really eligible for such a position until the achievement of the Ph.D. degree.

As regards the institution I attended, my undergraduate was at a small well known
little arts college and Miami University. My Masters degree was ﬁom the University of
Cincinnati, which is a rather prestigious university. My Ph.D. was from Wayne State
University but all these did not inﬂuence my achievement to the level of my position as
associate dean.

My racial origin as an African American has no inﬂuence on my achievement of
my position.

Sb.13 Age may be a factor, but only related to the level of experience.
I do not think that marital status has anything to do with my achievement of my
position at all.

Degrees earned and institutions I attended have the most inﬂuence.

It is difﬁcult to tell whether or not racial origin have any effect whatsoever. I
doubt it has because I didn't know whom the other candidates were that I competed
against for the particular position that I am in now.

Sb. 14 Age has nothing to do with my attainment of the position I hold.

Marital status is an inhibiting factor because my husband was fully employed here

at the university and that constrained my ability to move for other national level

competition for equal position.

163

Of the these factors, I think the most important and inﬂuential factor to the
position that I hold is the degree earned because I wouldn't even be considered if I didn't
have the Ph.D.

The kind of institutions I attended is not an inﬂuential factor.

My racial origin is not an inﬂuential factor at all.

Sb.15 My age has no bearing on my achievement of top level position.

Marital status has no bearing on it even though I am married and have children.

The degrees earned are a factor because I have a BA. ﬁ'om Taladiga College in
Alabama; MA. from Smith College School of Social work, Northampton Massachusetts.
I got my Ph.D. in Social Work from the same Smith College in Northampton
Massachusetts. The Ph.D. is the degree that is necessary for my advancement to higher
positions.

The institutions I attended are not a factor.

Racial origin as I am African American, has no bearing on my advancement.

164

CATEGORY C
Sb.16 I do not believe that age, marital status and racial origin has anything to do with
my attainment to the level of position I hold.

The factor that inﬂuenced the position I am holding now was my doctoral degree.
I believe that terminal degree, which is Ph.D. I got from University of Michigan was the
most important factor leading to my position as department head; without the doctoral
degree one does not hold the position of department head at the university.

The institution I attended which is the University of Michigan, is an inﬂuential
factor.

Sb.17 I do not think that age; marital status; institutions attended as well as racial origin
have anything to do with my advancement to the positions I hold.

Degrees earned is a factor because I had a Ph.D. in Human Development and
Family Studies which is the major area covered by my career and the department I am
employed in. I also have a minor in Public administration and these most contributed to
my getting this position.

Sb.18 I do not think that my age or marital status had anything to do with my attainment
of the present position.

The Ph.D. degree I had from a major university is an inﬂuencing factor.

I had attended a creditable institution that made it possible to get the position that
I have.

I am not sure that racial origin has anything to do with my attainment of the

position.

165

Sb. 19 Age, marital status or racial origin has nothing to do in my achievement of top
level administrative position.

For degrees earned; obviously one has to have a Ph.D. in the appropriate ﬁeld,
and so my Ph.D. degree I earned from an accredited and reputable university inﬂuenced
my achievement of this level administrative position I am now.

I attended an accredited and reputable institution, and it is an inﬂuencing factor.
Sb.20 With the ﬁrst factor, which is "age", I think that a little or a lot of maturity is
required to beneﬁt in the administration of higher education; therefore I would
recommend top positions in higher education for people who have experienced enough
of life and enough of academia to be able to make decisions. Based on my own
experience I think age is really a factor.

For marital status, I am married and my husband is also a department chair in the
same college and has been a professor for a long time in this same institution. Our
children are grown up and gone, so we are enjoying the jobs because we share a lot of
successes and talk about them and also share a lot of defeats and so; it makes our
relationship a good one. This factor is very supportive of my position as department
head.

For the degrees earned, I have a Ph.D. from Michigan State University, A Masters
degree, and a BA ﬁ'om the University of California at Davis. It would be very unwise
for someone to tackle an upper level academic position without full set of degrees such as
these mentioned. There is no way I would have acquired the position without my

qualiﬁcation. Having degrees outside of my employing institution is also helpﬁrl because

166

it gave me a broader perspective on academic governance, academic policies and
experiences that helped a great deal. I would say that my degrees earned are a factor.

The kind of institutions I attended are both recommending factors.

The racial origin as I am Caucasian I would say, has made a difference in being
hired in my position.

Sb.21 I do not think age or marital status has any inﬂuence.

But degrees earned have inﬂuence because I have three degrees, BA. with a major
in Education and History from the University of Indiana. I have an MA. in Education
ﬁom Loyola University in Chicago, and Education Specialist degree in Secondary
Administration as well as Gifted Education from Purdue University in West Lafayette,
Indiana.

Institution I attended has no inﬂuence.

Racial origin as I am Aﬁican American, was not a negative factor because I got
the job whenever I applied.

Sb.22 None of these factors have very much inﬂuence at all.

Marital status didn't have any bearing on my being hired here.

All I have was a Bachelors degree and it does not have any inﬂuence. I believe it
was what I was able to accomplish as a fund-raiser that has much inﬂuence.

Sb.23 In terms of age, I think I had to be a certain age coupled with some level of
experience in higher education in order to be considered for top level positions. In this

regard age is a factor.

167

Marital status didn't really have a big inﬂuence. I needed to have a supportive
spouse because these jobs are typical kind of 8 am. to 5 pm. jobs especially when one
has school age children.

In terms of degrees earned it would have inﬂuence a lot if I had a doctorate
degree, but I don't have a Ph.D., so it is not a factor.

The institution I attended is not much of a factor.

My racial origin doesn't have any impact on my attaining the position either.
Sb.24 The only factor that has inﬂuence in my achievement of the position that I hold is
my degrees earned. I hold a Master of Science degree in education with focus on
exercise physiology, ﬁom University of Michigan. I also hold a Masters of Business
Administration from Eastern Michigan University, focusing on Organization
Development and Finance. The Masters degree on Business Administration has certainly
provided support for me in terms of my achievement in administrative position.

Sb.25 The factors like age; marital status; institutions attended; and racial origin have
nothing to do with my advancement to the level of position I am now.

Degrees earned are the only factor that has a bearing in my achievement of top
level administrative positions. My ability also contributed.

Sb.26 Age doesn't play any part, only that I wasn't very young when I started. In this
regard I was old enough to take up higher administrative post.

Marital status, I was married but it doesn't have a bearing.

Degrees earned are much of a factor especially as I have my Ph.D.; without which

I do think I would not have been considered.

168

Institutions I attended would not be a big inﬂuence only that I attended Ohio State
University because it has Agriculture/International Agriculture. Even so, it is not a factor
in my selection to higher education administration.

I think racial origin was seen as a good inﬂuence since this program I am
handling was focused in Latin America. Had I been a Latino that would have a good
thing but since I am black, that was probably considered a good thing since we also work
in Africa. However, I don't think it would have mattered because there has been others
that worked in this program but are whites. I think it is seen as a plus but not something
that was required.

Sb.27 I don't think that age has been a factor in my achievement of the position.

Marital status "yes” and the fact that I am married to a faculty member perhaps
helped towards my achievement of the level.

The most important factor is the degrees earned. I have a Ph.D. in academic
subjects in history from the University of Wisconsin; and this was a factor in my
selection in my previous position as well as my current position.

The institution I got the degrees does not count towards my achievement of the
position.

I don't think that racial origin was a factor in my selection for the positions.

Sb.28 Age did not make any difference in assuming this position as director of the
center because I had somewhat more than ﬁfteen years experience prior to assuming the
position; so it was not age per-3e, but the fact that I had administrative experience.

Marital status is not a factor to my being hired in this position.

169

In terms of degrees earned, I do not have a Ph.D. and this is a negative factor for
me; so in some sense I needed to have the Ph.D. degree.

For institutions I attended, I am a graduate of University of Michigan that I think
is helpful in getting the positions at the university.

I do not think that my racial origin inﬂuenced my achievement of the position
here.

Sb.29 I am sure age has some inﬂuence because I think I was mature enough to be able
to assume not only the responsibility of the job but also the interactions that is necessary
for this level.

Marital status also has some inﬂuence because I am married to a very supportive
husband that has been encouraging me to apply for any career levels I desired.

Degrees earned are necessary because I have a Bachelors degree as well as a
Masters degree and without the degrees in the ﬁeld, it probably would not have been
possible for me to achieve this level of administration.

Institutions I attended do not have any inﬂuence.

Racial origin probably played a negative part for the fact that it has taken me a
little bit longer to get to this level. I think that if I had not been African American, it
would have been easier for me to move a little bit faster.

Sb.30 All of the factors mentioned examples have greatly inﬂuenced where I am today
as a director ﬁ'om a proactive positive point of View in preparing me for this position.

In terms of my formal education, given the fact that I am the director of Risk
Management and Workers Compensation, it required formal training not necessarily in

the areas of Risk Management or Workers Compensation but in ﬁnancial area. My

170

Bachelors degree in Finance, as an example, helped to prepare me for this position
therefore I am saying that degrees earned are a factor.

QUESTION 2

What qualiﬁcations are essential for women to achieve top-level administrative positions
in higher education?

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 Certainly, I think women need to get as much education as they can get. They
need both the education and the experience in the problem- solving areas, particularly in
everything from technological skills for example working with computers; budgeting and
ﬁnance skills. They should certainly need a good background in training and dealing
with personnel and increasingly legal issues are important for women to have training.
Sb.2 Women who would aspire to be Vice Presidents would require getting a Ph.D. or
Ed.D. Beyond the educational degree, they would need signiﬁcant experience in the area
that they want to be administrators.

Sb.3 In academic affairs, a strong academic background is essential in order to even
pass the stages of approval by faculty and other Academic Affairs personnel. They
should have the necessary academic qualiﬁcation for example Ph.D. or equivalent of
Ed.D. On the operational side of the institution in higher education, I think that they
experience level has to be a knowledge base, has to be related to area one is planning to
work in for example in Student Affairs, one has to have some experience in areas such as

enrollment, ﬁnancial aid, admissions and perhaps even marketing.

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Sb.4 Women in higher education administration need to have every credentials known
to God and man. They have the degrees and the publications. They have to be
everything because if there is any ﬂaw in their credentials, they will be thrown out of the
pool. One of my mentors told me earlier on that I needed to go ahead and ﬁnish my
Ph.D. because I would be thrown out of many pools of candidates if do not have the
degree. I went and got the degree and consequently I was not thrown out the pool, so
women have to be twice prepared to get the job.

Sb.5 The qualiﬁcations required involve leadership abilities and the experience in
dealing with administrative appointments. To a degree, this is done by working through a
series of appointments with increasingly greater responsibility. Women should also get
terminal degrees.

Sb.6 It depends on the particular position. Certainly, generally people need to have
strong faculty credentials for example, temrinal degree and scholarly achievement in their
ﬁeld of distinction.

There are other kinds of administrative positions in higher education that are ﬁlled
by men and women and are not technically academic administration for example; in
ﬁnance area, business, student affairs, development etc., you need proper credentials but
you can't generalize.

Sb.7 It all depends on the position as to what the qualiﬁcation should be. I do not think
it should be any different for women as they are for their male counterparts. The
qualiﬁcations should not matter whether you are male or female. However, Ph.D. and

advanced degrees for higher or top level administrative positions.

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Sb.8 Obviously, anyone who aspires to higher administrative position must have a
good content knowledge about the workings of large organizations. The person must
understand and be able to deal with people of different background in a fair and open
manner. This requires good listening skills. Also, it is important to be able to have the
tenacity in the work as it could take to do these jobs.

CATEGORY B

Sb.9 Clearly they have to have a Ph.D. in the ﬁeld in which they can demonstrate that
they have great scholarly activities. Being able to do research means that you can think
clearly and rationally and that is a very important qualiﬁcation for anyone who wants to
be an administrator in higher education. An understanding of how education works at the
faculty level allows you to be a good administrator.

Sb.10 I would think those women should have terminal degrees for example, Ph.D. like
their male counterparts. They should be academically qualiﬁed in the areas of budgeting,
and have a strong sense of leadership and managerial skills in human relations. Women
should be able to scan the environment and get a good understanding of the culture in
which they ﬁnd themselves. In this regard, they should know the organizational
structure, and knowing what the job is all about.

Sb.1 1 Women should have the same qualiﬁcations as the men have in terms of highest
degrees earned, and in terms of scholarly activities. I also think that they need
appropriate experiences like teaching experiences and other administrative experiences.
Sb. 12 Given that they have certain level of advanced degrees from Masters to Ph.D.,
other major qualiﬁcations are leadership skills; willingness to take risks. They should

have vision for where it is that they and the group they are leading are going. They

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should have communication skills for example, being able to speak easily and
spontaneously.

Sb.l3 They should have terminal degrees like Ph.D. or its equivalent of Ed.D. according
to the level of position they are seeking. Beyond that I think women need to get some
experience in administration along the way, whether they choose to take the middle level
management positions or not is not as important as it is. They have to learn some
administrative skills so that they manage projects, be able to do budgeting and mange
personnel. They should learn the university system or whatever system they plan to work
in, in terms of how the politics work or how appropriations and priorities are set.
Women really need to become involved in the administration if they want to want to be
administrators.

Sb. 14 Actually, I don't think they are any different than they are for men. Women
should earn degrees from the beginning level, which is BA. to Ph.D. if they are capable
of doing it.

Sb.15 It is important to have the appropriate degrees. I think a variety of experiences
are necessary. Ability to make decisions and to be reﬂective; to be collaborative; to
engage people; to promote understanding; and be willing to listen but be a decision-
maker are important.

CATEGORY C

Sb.16 Obviously you need to have academic qualiﬁcations, you need to have a Ph.D.
You probably need to have a certain amount of faculty experience and a certain amount
of research accomplishments. These things vary from institution to institution. It is also

helpful if you can demonstrate that you had lower level administrative experience,

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assistant positions; perhaps in a dean’s ofﬁce or associate head in a department; or that
you headed a program, etc.

Sb.17 I think that this is an environment in which having a Ph.D. is very important
qualiﬁcation. But I also think that it is important to women to have some experiences
prior to taking on top level job in higher education. They need to know something about
budgeting and something about personnel management. In addition, they certainly have
to have a View of what higher education is. They need to move beyond their own
discipline and to understand some of the issues that are actually facing higher education.
Sb. 1 8 They need to have the same qualiﬁcation as men who would be applying for the
position of that sort. For example, advanced degrees like Masters and Ph.D. especially as
a chair of department.

Sb.19 I think the most important is that one has to be credible in one's ﬁeld in order to
gain respect of the people you are serving. Without a strong positioning in one's ﬁeld of
endeavor, I don't think that one would have the same relationship with one's faculty. It is
also important that one has patience.

Sb.20 Women should go for terminal degrees, without this I doubt whether they would
qualify for the same position as I hold now. Other qualiﬁcations include leadership
skills. In this case, women should be decision-makers and leader of men and women.
These days they talk about vision and it is important that in leadership roles, women
should determine what their visions for the organizations employees and faculty in higher
education are.

Sb.21 I think that women who aspire to higher level administration certainly need to

have leadership skills. They should be able to manage people and tasks. They need to be

175

visionaries and to do long range planing while also managing the day to day operations
of the ofﬁce.

Sb.22 In terms of degrees a lot of think that you need to have Ph.D. to excellent
administrator but it is not necessarily applicable; but one need to go beyond the
Bachelors degree level and have graduate degree, for example Masters. I think there has
to be a combination of quality administrative experience along with the degree in order to
achieve a top-level administrative position in higher education. One needs good inter-
personal skills, excellent written communication skills. It is expected that female
administrators be much more skilled than males in the way they handle people and staff
in terms of treating them equitably and involving as well as empowering them to do the
work.

Sb.23 Anyone aspiring to top-level administrative positions in higher education has to
have the qualiﬁcations in the ﬁeld. It is important to have good people-skills, good
communication skills plus public speaking and writing skills. In addition, they have to
be able to work well with a variety of audiences, understand students and be able to
interact with faculty.

Sb.24 I think there are both formal and informal qualiﬁcations. Informal qualiﬁcations
are like preparations, thoroughness and attention to details.

Sb.25 It is important to have advanced degree in the area of educational administration
in order to qualify as an administrator in higher education.

Sb.26 I think they should be the same qualiﬁcation as men and should be performance

spaced and how much we can accomplish towards the goal as we are given.

176

Sb.27 The qualiﬁcations for women certainly should be the same as it would be for men.
However, I think we are still in an era where I think that women have to be better
prepared than men. Women have to be better prepared in terms of formal education,
social experiences and interactions because these are the type of things that give us
conﬁdence. Women have to demonstrate that they have the qualiﬁcations, so advanced
degrees are highly recommended.

Sb.28 They are the same as they are for men who aspire to top-level administrative
positions in higher education. I suppose the critical one for my position in the ofﬁce of
International Programs is understanding and endorsement of the goals of the university as
well as an understanding of the demands made on different groups within the
organization.

Sb.29 Certainly having a Ph.D. or other terminal degree is increasingly critical. I think
also that it is important for people who want top-level administrative positions to have a
range of other administrative experiences along the way. Again it all depends on what
ﬁeld one is in and whether one aspires to truly academic leadership positions such as
Dean or to an academic-related position such as my own as a Director. It is also
important to have a variety of administrative experiences like ﬁnancial management and
budgeting.

Sb.30 Higher education is the key; some positions may not require as much
qualiﬁcations. However, when you look in terms of higher education and what the
competition would be or who you would be competing with; I would say that a Master

degree would be the minimum qualiﬁcation for my particular position as a Director. I

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would say it is not always the case, but a Masters degree or above would make it a little
easier for women.

QUESTION 3

Do women administrators in higher education perceive societal sex-role stereotypes to
hindrances to the advancement of women who seek positions in higher education
administration?

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 Yes, I think that sexual stereotypes are certainly present in all of women's lives,
so they would be certainly here in higher education. I think that it is much less so now
than it used to be ten or ﬁfteen years ago. The reasons being that there are so many more
women who have been seen by others to be in high level positions. However, I still
notice for example, there is still issues around child-care and the men at the top would
turn to me and say Dr. H. what do you think? I would usually say to them, don't you
have children or don't you have an opinion about child-care? In this regard I believe
there is still the stereotype there, but it may be changing a bit.

Sb.2 I deﬁnitely think back when I started working in the late sixties that there were
worst stereotypes. I worked for employers here who thought that the only appropriate
role for women is either to be a secretary or stay at home and be a mother. Before I came
to work at my present employed institution I wanted to work in the publishing industry
outside higher education; and because I am a female they had to start me as a secretary.
While, at the same time they a male counterpart with the same background was employed

at a higher level.

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Today, I do not think that the same stereotypes exist because I have several
female friends who are Vice Presidents. I know women who are Presidents or
Chancellors in higher education, so life has changed for women recently.

Sb.3 Yes, the society deﬁnitely do have stereotypical hindrances to advancement of
women. In my particular institution for example, the people who have been Vice
Presidents in university relations division in the past were males; but it is changing a little
bit but not yet balanced as expected.

Sb.4 Unfortunately the answer to this question is still "yes". Women in administration
are still viewed as unable to make the hard decisions. They are viewed as too ﬂuffy; that
they cry all the time. They are also viewed as sex objects, which is very bothersome to
me and most of the women with whom I work. Women are viewed as not safe to go on
trips with men because they may break up marriages even though they are married and
wouldn't want to break up maniages in any way. Women are not brought into the inner
circles because they are not part of "old boys" network, so it is difﬁcult to make decisions
in the men's room when you are not a man. It is difﬁcult to play golf within guys when
you are not a guy, so there is an exclusionary factor that certainly the gender does carry
with it.

Sb.5 There are certainly historical stereotypical hindrances that have barred women
from advancement to top positions. I believe that those stereotypes are breaking down
and certainly in my present employing institution there are no longer open barriers to
females; hence the administration in general are eager to hire women in any post.

Sb.6 I certainly do think that there is a bias against women. First of all when you talk

about academic administrative positions, there have been so few women who are in the

179

academics as full professors. In the positions, there has been typically men who have
been promoted to Associate Provosts; Provosts; Vice Presidents and Presidents. I do
think that women are perceived not to be as serious and scholarly, and that has meant as
less lacking to be promoted in my employing institution. In the history of my institution
which was founded about a hundred and ﬁfty years ago, they didn't have any female
executive ofﬁcer, some years past. In this kind of position that I have, and some other
areas where administrators don't necessarily come out of the faculty ranks; there are some
women in positions for example, in business but they are rarely promoted. When one
study the representation of women in my institution, it is noted that about 65% to 70% of
staff positions are held by women but there are rarely so many in top positions where
they can make decisions.

Sb.7 Surely, women are perceived as those who should be housekeepers, cook and
chief bottle-washers at home. The society thinks that women should spend more quality
time with children instead of thinking that women should have a shared responsibility
with spouses. People don't think of women being in those roles of higher education
administration. It is not that women are not capable, but it is that women should not be in
those roles at all. However, the perception is changing recently.

Sb.8 I perceive that the society believe that women are not as competent as men are.
To this effect, sexual stereotype plays a signiﬁcant role in how people's abilities are
perceived.

CATEGORY B

Sb.9 Most deﬁnitely, I think that women are perceived as not being able to handle

administrative responsibilities as well as men. The reason is that women are often

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thought of as being soft and humanistic and this could be a hindrance. My own stand is
that women do not have to talk like men in order to be successﬁrl in administration; rather
one has to make sure that one has the skills. Women have been stereotyped in terms of
not being able to do certain things that men do, it has been a hindrance.

Sb.10 Yes, I certainly think there are still stereotypes when you look at the number of
women presidents, we have not made the gains that one would think should have been
made.

However for Health and Human Services when I ﬁrst started teaching, ahnost all
the Deans were men, there were no images of women then. In the last ten years my
counterparts across are about 50/50 in administration and this has proved a little change.
It is so much fun to go to profession meetings now and see some women colleagues in
some levels of administration as male counterparts; but that is not true for Deans in all the
profession.

Sb.1 1 I think it is very true internally as well as in the United States, although women
are beginning to he give some preferences. The system is trying to provide sort of broader
diversity in higher education administration and, ranks because traditionally males have
occupied these positions. Somehow, they are now turning around to hire women. It is
more difﬁcult to break the stereotypical barriers at the president level, but at a lower level
for example deans, associate provosts and provosts as well as chairs etc., it is easy for
women to get these levels.

Sb.12 I deﬁnitely think that there are stereotypes that women should be teachers in
lower levels than being in administrative roles in higher education. There has been

stereotyping in terms of the kinds of things women should do and the idea that it gets to

181

be though at the top level. Men also took the stand that women are not qualiﬁed to do the
job at higher levels; and racial is another stereotyping as well. It is sexual stereotyping
and I do not think that they should completely stand in the way potential female's
advancement.

Sb. 13 I think that it is deﬁnitely true in the past number of years but now the nrunber of
women in higher educational administration is improving. There was not a pool of
women in administration because of a particular sexual stereotype that women did not ﬁt
in, only 50% of the executive group are in fact females.

Sb.14 Yes, societal sex-role stereotypes are a hindrance to advancement of women. The
reason why I say this is because unfortunately in most positions in higher education, they
are often looking for males not females.

Sb. 15 Yes, societal stereotypes are hindrance to advancement of women no matter what
they do. Certainly there are stereotypes in terms of women not being able to handle
pressure, not being able to be good clear thinkers, and those types of stereotypes do still
hinder women.

CATEGORY C

Sb.16 I think that sex-role stereotype could be a problem especially the idea that
somehow women are not as tough as men are, or that women are more emotional than
men. Certainly higher education along with other larger organizations tends to be
organized by men in ways that accommodate men's leadership styles. I think that
sometimes, some women have the tendency to develop consensus among people they
may not be interested in some of the political issues. In this regard most of the time men

view their female counterparts as not being effective.

182

Sb.17 I am aware that sex-role stereotypes are a hindrance to advancement of women.
Obviously I know in some cases where women are disqualiﬁed because people think that
they can't do the job; and this is stereotypical. It is changing some now.

Sb.18 Yes, I perceive sex-role stereotypes to be a hindrance to advancement of women
because, it makes serving in the positions of higher educational administration more
challenging.

Sb. 19 I am sure that there are such stereotypes or hindrances. There are stereotypes that
women are gossipers and can't keep secrets; stereotypes that women are not rational; that
women fall apart in crisis. All of these I suspect consciously or not play a role in the
minds of males who hire women in the administration of higher education.

Sb.20 I don't think that stereotype is a hindrance in my instance because in my particular
position, which is special education, women are needed to lead. I suspect that in some
organizations it might be more so.

Sb.21 I certainly do think so but I think that women have come a long way and we
certainly have very positive female role models in higher levels in the administrative
positions of higher education. I think sex-role stereotype is still something that women
have to be constantly aware of; and it is not necessarily a struggle that we have in terms
of how we are perceived. The whole issues of control and anger and how we handle
those kinds of things and just managing difﬁcult situations. I think that there is still some
perceptions on the part of the society that women have to put up with anything; but we
just cannot put up with this sort of hindrances to advancement.

Sb.22 I think stereotypes still exists in terms of roles and breaking through the "glass

ceiling"; and the way women are advancing is not through the "good old boy" networks.

183

As you look at higher levels of administration of higher education in general, you know
that stereotypes still exists.

Sb.23 I probably think sex-role stereotypes are a big put-down to women in the
administration of higher education.

Sb.24 On one hand "yes" I do perceive that women are stereotyped. I see that there are
people who have closed mind about what women cannot do, and there is not much
women can do to eliminate sex-role stereotype. On the other hand, I do believe that
women can demonstrate that they are qualiﬁed for the jobs or equal for the positions.
Sb.25 I am not sure that I think of them as being as strong hindrance; but I certainly
think that some of the baggage as regards the gender stereotypes about women affect the
interactions with faculty; administration as well as with students.

Sb.26 It can be, it depends a lot on the institution. It certainly has decreased over the
last twenty-ﬁve years. I sense that in the administration of higher education, the kind of
mistakes that are tolerated may be greater for men than for women. This is something
that can affect the women's career.

Sb.27 I would have to say "yes" because often I see that I am the only female attending a
certain meetings in my level of administration and my voice is over looked or neglected.
I have to say things more than once because the attention is not always there when I
speak; so I think sex- stereotype is a hindrance. When you go to a meeting, you have to
re-establish your credibility and I base this on the fact that I am a female.

Sb.28 I strongly think so or agree but I don't know what the statistics are at this point. I

know that when I was ready to start my ﬁrst job in educational administration, some of

184

the men with whom I worked challenged me that I would not get the job, but I went on
and got it anyway. I called this kind of attitude a hindrance and more so, stereotypical.
Sb.29 Yes, I strongly believe and think that there are some stereotypes that hinder
women ﬁom advancement; and that women have to achieve more in order to get to the
next level. For myself, I have to work harder than my male counterparts do in order to
get ahead.

Sb.30 Yes, I do perceive sex-role stereotype to be a hindrance to advancement of
women. I think that there is perception that there are certain areas of administration that
women are more suited for or for which men are more suited. However, it has started to
change because for along time women were not considered for Deanships, Vice
presidents or Presidencies for large institutions. I think that this will continue to be the
trend where at the large institutions the chief executive ofﬁcers are males and much of
top level administrators are almost males.

QUESTION 4

What role did formerly held administrative positions in higher education play in
obtaining their present position? How many years total experienced in prior higher
education administrative positions?

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 I started in higher education in 1975 and taught for a while for a year and half
then moved to be the director of counseling services for four years at the University of
Maine. I then moved to the University of Arkansas as the Dean of Students for two
years. From there I moved to Case Western Reserve University where I was the Dean of

Students and; then to Washington State University where I was Vice Provost for Student

185

Affairs for six years. It is from there that I came to my present employing institution as
Vice President for Student Affairs.

Sb.2 I started as Director of Public Information and I held that position for twelve years
although a little change and responsibilities were added. I was Director of
Communications for ten years, when they added other responsibilities. At the same time
I was Assistant Vice President for Development for about twenty-six months which is a
little over two years.

Sb.3 I began my administrative career as Assistant Dean of the College of Education at
the University of Alabama in a variety of positions from 1973-1980. While I was there, I
was Assistant to the President for two years; and ACE Fellow; Acting Head of the
Women's Program; Acting Head of the Department of Special Education for one year
each. I was the Head of the Department of Leadership and Counseling at Eastern
Michigan University for four years; and Associate Dean of the Department of College of
Education at the University of Birmingham at Alabama while I was on leave for seven
months. I retmned back to my present employing institution to serve as Associate
Dean in the College of education for about three years. I have been serving as Vice
President for Acaderrric Affairs for ten months now.

Sb.4 My ﬁrst introduction to higher education was at a Business College in Detroit for
one year but I came out of it because I did not like to commute. My next role was at
Eastern Michigan University as an Advisor of Financial Aid for ten years. I then
advanced to Associate Director for another ten years; and left the University for
Washtenaw Community College where I became Assistant to the President for two and

half years. When I returned to the University, I became Associate Director of University

186

Development for two years doing fund-raising and managing the university development
ofﬁce under a male Director. From1989 to 1995, I moved to the position of the
Executive Associate to the President Secretary to the Board of Regents for six years. As
a result of this, I learnt all aspects of the institutions and all the skills used in terms of
operating; running; administering and overseeing a higher education institution; which
brought me to the level of Vice President for University Relations.

Sb.5 My previous administrative position was a director of Neuro-Sciences and I was
there for four years. I was also interim director of a Center for Neuro—Sciences in inter-
disciplinary research for two years.

Sb.6 Prior to my present position, I was the director of the Ofﬁce of Academic
Planning for about ten years. Most of my career has been spent on the ofﬁce, in a variety
of positions for twenty years. I started out as a secretary, and then I was research assistant
an administrative associate and then, assistant director.

Sb.7 I was a clinical director for oral rehabilitation or audiography at Speech and
Hearing Clinic here; the director of Graduate Studies; and Assistant Chairperson in the
Speech and Hearing Clinic ﬁom four to ﬁve years. I then became Assistant Dean in the
College of Communication Arts and Sciences for about ten years. I moved into the
position of Acting Registrar during the conversion to the Student Information System for
two years, during which more responsibilities of Financial Aid and Scholarships are
added.

Sb.8 I was an Assistant Director in the ofﬁce of Institutional Research, then I moved to
be as assistant to the President for four years. Then I moved back to academic

administration as Assistant Provost, dealing with everything ﬁ'om Computer Technology

187

to Libraries for four years. I then became Associate Provost for ﬁve years and then
Provost to present.
CATEGORY B

Sb.9 I was a Chairperson for twelve years, prior to assuming the Dean's position.
Sb.10 Most of my administrative experience in higher education have been in the area of
Nursing Research. My ﬁrst administrative position was coordinating the ﬁrst year
curriculum at the University of Califomia, San Francisco for one year. I then advanced
to Associate Director for Nursing at the University of Arizona, Tucson Medical Center
for four years. Then, I went to be the Director of the National Institute for Nursing
Research in the National Institute for Health in Washington, for three years. Now my
present position is Dean of School of Nursing.

Sb.1 l I was Associate Director for Academic Programs at the State Coordinating Board
in Kentucky. It is about the Kentucky Council on Higher Education and this position
lasted for ﬁve years.

Sb. 12 I really had only one position prior to becoming Associate Dean and that was the
Director of Student Teaching; and I held that position for ten years.
Sb.13 I was Director of Extension Evaluation Unit for about ten years. I was also
Director of International Programs for about ten years. Prior to taking this position, I was
the Administrator of the Home Economic Extension Field Staff for whole state extension
for three years.
Sb.14 Before I became Acting Dean of the Graduate School, I was Associate Dean for

Student Affairs for four years. I was also Associate dean and Director of Center for

188

Electronoptics for seventeen years; I had a very long administrative role at a much lower
level.

Sb.15 I was Assistant Dean of the College of the Social Science for two years. Then, I
was asked to become part of the staff for the Provost ofﬁce as a Consultant for two years.
I have been the interim Associate Dean of the Graduate School since then.

CATEGORY C

Sb.16 I have been at my present institution since 1965, and this is really the ﬁrst
administrative position I have held. Prior to coming to this position, I was in the
cooperative education center which is one year involvement with business world and
doing academic contracts.

Sb.17 In my ﬁrst administrative position at Indiana University, I was a Director and
Undergraduate Advising Program for a very huge department for three years. I also
served one summer as a replacement for the Department Head. In my second position at
the University of Missouri, St. Louis, I was Director of Graduate Studies for one year, an
Associate Chair, and in charge of scheduling classes for one year. Then I was a Chair of
the Department of English for six years, and I have been in my current position as Head
of the Department for eleven years.

Sb. 1 8 None. I was only a professor prior to this position.

Sb.19 I held the position of Associate Director in the Natural Resources and Public
Policy Program at my present institution four years. I was really in charge of staff
development so I worked with (NRPP) the Natural Resources Policy Program staff,
looking for opportunities for them to grow in their jobs and learn new ways of working. I

was a specialist for wasting energy programming for University Outreach for ﬁve years.

189

I was the manager of Kellogg Biological Station (Family Farms Project) for ﬁve years. I
have been in this position for one and half years.

Sb.20 I was the Program Supervisor of the Child Development Laboratories here at my
current institution for fourteen years.

Sb.21 I was an Assistant Principal in a high school at Gary, Indiana for ten years. I was
also an Administrative Assistant to the superintendent for academic instruction. At the
same time I was serving as Execirtive Director for summer Gifted and Talented Programs
for West Lafayette, Indiana for eight years.

Sb.22 I was Executive Director of small Foundation and I was there for six and half
years. I very much helped in the growth of that Foundation; hence I was their ﬁrst staff
person.

Sb.23 After I ﬁnished my Ph.D. in 1984, I worked for the university of Wisconsin ﬁrst
as an Assistant Director and Editor; later as a researcher also doing the same editorial
work; and ﬁnally as Assistant Director of Land and Tenure Center. These positions
lasted for eight years. In 1992, I moved to my present position as a Director of
International Program, and I have been there since.

Sb.24 Prior to this position, I was in the central administration for two years, and in
another administrative position for two years. Also, I was in one of the colleges in the
same university for thirteen years. In the early part of my career, I held a series of
positions in an institute at the University which did research service in advocacy.

Sb.25 I held the positions of Assistant and Associate Director of Advising for three to

four years each. I then moved to Director of Advising and I have been in it since.

190

Sb.26 I had no prior administrative position; hence my present employing institution is
my ﬁrst and only experience in higher education. This past January, I celebrated my 20th
year at this institution.

Sb.27 I was an Associate Director in the Counseling Center in my current institution for
ﬁve years. Prior to being Associate Director, I was an Assistant Director for nine years in
the same Counseling Center.

Sb.28 Prior to the present position, I held the position of Director of Health Services. I
was also the Associate Director of Recreation in a male department at Eastern
Michigan University focusing at the business side of the role for four years.

Sb.29 Prior to coming to my present institution, I was mostly Assistant Director of
Undergraduate Diversity Program from six to seven and half years. I held the position of
Assistant President for Student Affairs at Indiana University, in Pennsylvania for three
years. I was also Assistant Director of Admissions at Pennsylvania State University for
one year. For ﬁve years I was coordinator for the Graduate minority Students Program
for College of Agriculture at Pennsylvania State University.

Sb.30 I was an Assistant Director of Bean Crop for two and half years, prior to holding
my present position. I just came through the ranks.

QUESTION 5

What role did teaching and other professional experiences play in being appointed to

higher education administrative positions?

191

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 None other.

Sb.2 I worked as a Management Analyst in the State Department of Education in
Olympia, Washington for one year. I had nine years of teaching experience as a full-time
faculty member at Bowling Green State University, in the department of Educational
Administration and Supervision.

Sb.3 I taught in a Community College for one year; and was a Research Associate in
both Schools of Public Health and Medicine where I worked on mental health issues for
three and half years. I worked as a counselor in the Rehabilitation Center, with inner-city
teenagers for two and a half years.

Sb.4 I have spent my whole career here at my present employing institution, and I
started out as Assistant Publication Manager, Associate Publication Manager and
transferred to Manager of Media Relations. I did all these for ﬁve years before I became
a Director prior to becoming Assistant Vice President for University Relations.

Sb.5 I have been a faculty member at my present institution since 1980. I progressed
through the ranks ﬁ'om Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and ﬁrll
Professor. I have been teaching as part of my professorial duties for twenty years.

Sb.6 I had a variety of jobs prior to coming to my present hired institution. I was a
third-grade teacher and a buyer at a department store.

Sb.7 I taught here at my current employed institution as a professor. I did both clinical

teaching and classroom teaching and still does.

192

Sb.8 I am a faculty member in the College of Education. I taught graduate courses in
Statistics, Evaluation Method, and Curriculum Development, to guest lectures in both
graduate and undergraduate courses. Also, I have done some work with other
Universities in providing commentaries regarding change in higher education.
CATEGORY B

Sb.9 I taught in the public school for six years. I then went into higher education as an
instructor at the University of Maryland, in College Park for twelve years and also
performed duties as Chairperson at the same time. At my present institution, I teach
graduate courses once a year.

Sb. 10 I was a faculty member and still consider myself as a faculty member in this
institution for twenty years now. I do teaching; research and service role for people on
the campus.

Sb.1 1 Through the positions that I mentioned at the University of Arizona, I literally
worked myself up the tenure ladder over time; which means a certain amount of research
attention to science and research. I have also done large amount of teaching particularly
with graduate students since 975 until the present. This means for about twenty-three
years. The professorial experience is probably the most helpful, hence, I have experience
in terms of consultation, keynote speaking addresses; travelling in the professional
organizations in the nursing career ﬁeld, etc.

Sb.12 I taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo, for several years before I

went to Kentucky.

193

Sb. 13 I have been teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses; and have been
professionally involved in the program evaluation training which is a ﬁeld of my
expertise.

Sb.14 I was a social worker, as director of Family Service Agency for over thirty-ﬁve
years. I taught dance at Community College as Acting Dean of the Dance department,
for two years. I then taught Social Work at Graduate School for over twenty years; and
was also a director of the program for Social Work.

Sb.15 I was an Assistant and Associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and
Assistant and Associate professor at this present institution. I was also a public and
private school teacher at Ohio and Indiana.

CATEGORY C

Sb.16 I was an Assistant professor at Indiana University for ﬁve years. I was Associate
professor at the University of Missouri, St. Louis for nine years. Also I taught at high
school for two years prior to getting my Ph.D.

Sb.17 I Spent four years in Illinois as a teacher of hearing and impaired prior to coming
to my present institution. I taught in the laboratory school of hearing and impaired in
this university for four years; then I joined the academic faculty as a professor of the
hearing and impaired, in speech language pathology. This included coordinating speech
and hearing clinic, programs for families of young children in the hearing clinics. I was
in the classroom as professor from 1988 to 1989 when I left for one year with cooperative

center at Eastern Michigan University.

194

Sb. 1 8 I had taught for about twelve years as a faculty member at my present institution
prior to receiving my Ph.D. I had been a Social Worker and Program Director for social
work, for six or seven years.

Sb.19 I began my career as a head-start teacher after I ﬁrst graduated from university. I
worked with children in a Child-Care Center as a head teacher; also a lead teacher in the
nursery school. I was also a Child-Development Specialist for elementary school system
in Western Pennsylvania. After I received my Masters and Ph.D., my ﬁrst job was as an
Assistant Professor in this present institution.

Sb.20 I have always been a teacher in environmental quality in California. I was a
teacher with community people hence; I did out-reach teaching for ahnost ten years.
When I ﬁrst came to the College of Natural Resources, my ﬁrst experience was resident
instruction, in which I taught four courses in undergraduate and graduate level.

Sb.21 I started off many years ago as a third-grade teacher, then a fourth-grade teacher.
I then went into high school and taught English to tenth and eleventh graders. I served as
a Counselor to grades eighth to twelfth in two high schools. I also served as a Counselor
on special assignments to six schools in Gary, Indiana.

Sb.22 Yes, I continued to develop my professional expertise by attending classes and
seminars until I became a certiﬁed F und-Raising Executive which took a lot of extra time
on week-ends.

Sb.23 I taught a graduate-level practicum course in the Counseling Center; also did
some teaching at local Community College some years ago.

Sb.24 I have done some teaching in the public schools, prior to moving into

administrative roles. I also worked on the Federal Government level.

195

Sb.25 Primarily, I do teach two Freshman-level courses at my present institution, before
I took this administrative position.

Sb.26 I directed a nursery school for about two years. I was a secretary for a number of
years. Also, I was a psychologist in a State School for delinquent girls in Ohio for two
years. I have done a number of jobs associated with moving wherever my husband has
moved. I taught course on problem-related issues in the College of Urban Affairs for a
good number of years.

Sb.27 My ﬁrst teaching experience dated back to two years. I worked in the Peace Core
in Ethiopia when I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin; also a teaching
assistant in the African Survey course there. Later on, I worked with the Land Tenure
Center for eight years. For professional experience, before I went back to Graduate
School in Aﬁican History, I was a Reference Librarian at Yale University for six years.
In addition, I taught a course in Bibliographic Methods to Yale undergraduates.

Sb.28 The only professional experience I have had has been in volunteering positions,
taking pieces of Chairing professional organizations’ Board of Directors.

Sb.29 Prior to coming to my present institution, I worked for Xerox Company for one
year. I was an Assistant Buyer for one of the major Retail Stores; then I moved to higher
education and started in the Admissions Ofﬁce as an admission representative.

Sb.30 I had no teaching experience with regards to the position I am holding. In terms
of professional experience, I worked in the Detroit Bank and Trust. Also, I worked at

Michigan Consolidated Gas Company, which has the headquarters in Detroit, Michigan.

196

QUESTION 6

Were there other educationally related experiences that inﬂuenced appointment to higher
education administrative positions?

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 I was engaged in grant writing and this is all I can think of in terms of additional
education-related experience.

Sb.2 I tried to teach every place I have been for example, I have been teaching one
graduate course a year in my present institution.

Sb.3 I taught English in night school for two years and worked in the high school in
addition.

Sb.4 Yes, probably what supplemented for my experience within my regular work
environment was serving as a president of a local school board in my community for
seven years.

Sb.5 I served on several advisory bodies for Federal Government including the panels
for review of research and graduate training awards for the National Institute of Health
and National Science Foundation.

Sb.6 I cannot think of any educationally related experience in addition, so the answer is
none.

Sb.7 I was active in the governance process of my professional organization as an
elected ofﬁcial for about ten to ﬁfteen years. I did this on the state and national level and
wound it down.

Sb.8 There is nothing else signiﬁcant I can think of.

197

CATEGORY B

Sb.9 I would say, there is none in addition.

Sb.10 I did not do it in higher education, but I have extensive international experience in
Peace Core for two years and worked abroad for two years. Even prior to taking this
role, I did a lot of international training in the present institution.

Sb.1 1 Yes, I was training people as a dance teacher in many countries in Aﬁica for
thirty yearS-

Sb.12 I would say no, that I can think of any other education—related work experience
because I have been at this institution most of my adult career in terms of working.
Sb.l3 There is no other education-related work experience in addition to those I already
stated.

Sb.14 Yes, I was engaged in grant-writing work.

Sb.15 Not really in my role as Associate Dean. I worked with Yellow Child Study
Institution in Detroit which has a common project in Detroit. I had worked with various
positions with American Red Cross. I had done some work with the Children's
International Summer Village, as a leader in those areas.

CATEGORY C

Sb.16 There is none other.

Sb.17 There is nothing else I can think of as education-related work experience.

Sb. 1 8 None other than what I just stated.

Sb.19 Probably none other education-related work experience in addition.

Sb.20 Nothing more than I stated.

198

Sb.21 Yes, I served on a number of committees and boards that are related to my career.
I am on the Midwest Talent Search Advisory Board at North Western University since
1981. I have been on Michigan Talent Search Advisory Board since its inception in
1987. I served as board member for Michigan Alliance Giﬁed Talent Education. I
worked for special Population Committee for the National Association for Gifted
Children. I worked with Professional Development Tasks Forces for the National
Association for the Gifted and Talented Children and also for Curriculum Development.
Sb.22 There is none other work experience in addition to what I stated.

Sb.23 Yes, I was engaged in public practice for psychology for a few years and still do it
to some extent. I did some grief seminars in my community and church; and previously
did some substance abuse work.

Sb.24 I have done some work on F ederal-level, serving United States department of
Education Committees which has something to do with substance abuse prevention as
well as in some national organizations.

Sb.25 Probably not outside of what I just stated.

Sb.26 None other than teaching in the College of Urban Affairs before moving into the
College of Agriculture.

Sb.27 No, there isn't any other.

Sb.28 There is none other I could think of.

Sb.29 Apart from the research projects and others I just stated, there are none in
addition.

Sb.30 I had other menial work experience as an undergraduate, working my way

through school but not on professional level.

199

QUESTION 7

Have you applied for positions higher education administration and been rejected? What
factors if known or perceived, that might have contributed to rejections when seeking
appointment to higher education administrative positions?

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 Interesting question, but I had never applied for many positions and been rejected.
But I did once applied for the position of presidency when I was at Bowling Green, and I
was rejected because I was already making too much money. It was a position at the
institution "inside". I had been nominated for the position and the woman who
nominated me was on the search committee, so it was one of those "old girls" network
things; and it was nice that it happened. I made entirely too much money that they could
not understand why I would be interested in the position. Also, I was not old and wise
enough to do the job. I reiterate that I had not applied for that many jobs, and normally I
do not apply for jobs unless I am sure I would get it.

Sb.2 Not very many positions, but I can think of three positions that I applied for and
was rejected. Probably the one that stands out most was the one that occurred long time
ago and that was when I was fresh out of the Graduate School. I was applying for a
research position that involved extensive travelling; and the woman supervisor told me
that she would not consider my application because I was a woman and would not be free
to travel. I tried to convince the female supervisor that I could travel for the job, but she
outrightly told me that it was not the appropriate position for a woman.

Sb.3 None because I have only applied for one job in my whole life and I got it.

200

Sb.4 The only memorable position I can think of that I applied for and was rejected,
was one at Eastern Michigan University in the 19808. Before I got to the interview
process, I had inquired whether there were internal candidates or competitors, but they
lied to me that there were none. Eventually when I got to the interview, there were
minimum internal candidates who applied for the position, and the hiring personnel
offered the job to an internal candidate. I think they had preferred the internal candidate
to me.

Sb.5 Over the course of my career, there are not all that many positions I applied. My
career in the ofﬁce of Academic Planning was the one I was promoted fairly quickly,
and within the ofﬁce I was pleased with the work I did then. I did apply for a couple of
other university positions over the years, but I didn't get them. I did not think much about
those positions and what contributed to my rejections because they are insigniﬁcant.
Sb.6 I didn't apply for any other positions. I didn't even apply for the position I am
holding now, rather I was asked to take up this position; so there were no rejections.
Sb.7 I could only think of one at Michigan State University, but I did not get it. My
rejection was not because of the issue of gender bias; rather another woman got it
because she had more experience than I had.

Sb.8 There was one position for which I was not appointed, but was rejected. It was
neither due to gender bias nor race, but simply due to lack of experience.
CATEGORY B

Sb.9 I applied for only two and was rejected because I was seeking some

administrative positions in the international arena. I did not have sustained years of

201

international work, hence, most of my assignments were short-term assignments. My
rejections were simply lack of sustained years of experience.

Sb.10 I had never been rejected for any position I applied for.

Sb.1 1 For initial teaching positions, I probably applied for ﬁve to ten positions. The
reasons for my rejections for the positions I applied for were nothing but pure gender
bias.

Sb. 12 I am very lucky so far that I have never had any rejections.

Sb. 1 3 I had not applied for any positions and had rejections rather, I have always been
asked to take up positions.

Sb. 14 The only time I had ever been rejected was when I applied for two dean's
positions in the last several years. I think that the primary factor that contributed to my
rejections was that both of the institutions happened to be research oriented and because I
have been in the administrative positions for the last twenty years my scholarly activities
are not research-based, and therefore, not as extensive as they needed.

Sb. 1 5 I had not applied for very many positions in my career. However, I applied about
three places and was not even asked to come for interview. At that point, I had no idea of
what factors contributed to my rejections, other than lack of experience and lots of
competitors.

CATEGORY C

Sb.16 I have never had any rejections for a job, rather I have always been successful any
time I applied for a job and the moves I have made.

Sb. 1 7 I have not been rejected for any positions I applied.

Sb18 There is none as an administrator.

202

Sb. 19 I just had one rejection when I applied for the position of Sea Grant which is
another Extension Outreach Program. I was told very clearly that there had never been a
woman in that position before. For my own good, they said that they were turning me
down. As a matter of fact, the door is still closed for females as far as that position is
concerned.

Sb.20 The answer is none. I was made chair of my department at the University of
Missouri, St. Louis. It was a normal rotation position and I was the last member of the
department to be asked to accept the job. My current position is the only one I ever
applied for, so I have not been rejected before.

Sb.21 During the course of my career I feel very blessed that for the majority of the
time, I can say that I got jobs that I applied for. I do not necessarily think that in great
part I was prepared and qualiﬁed; but at the same time, many people are qualiﬁed and
they don't necessarily get the positions they applied for.

Sb.22 Prior to this position as a director I was interviewed for several positions; one at
University of Michigan and two others elsewhere, but I was not offered any of the three.
I think the reason was I did not think that I had the appropriate qualiﬁcations. There
might be some other factors not known to me. If gender was a factor for my rejections in
those positions, I do not know.

Sb.23 I recall being rejected from one position which I attributed to the fact that I was
pregnant. Other than that I could not recall being rejected for any position, nor have
applied for many in fairness. I was recruited for this position and the two previous

positions that I applied prior to this and which I got. I think that part of it is that I have

203

been very selective in terms of the positions I had looked for and had not sought a lot of
positions in my career.

Sb.24 I have never been rejected for any positions because I had not applied for very
many in my career.

Sb.25 I have not been really rejected. I applied for a position in Houston Texas in
Gifted and Talented Education, and they offered me the position. I didn't take it because
it was lower than what I was doing at the time. I was always asked to apply to positions
instead.

Sb.26 I just applied to Michigan State and was never rejected, so I was hired to the
College I am now working. This was signiﬁcant advancement for me because the
College I was working in the same institution was small, with about four thousand
alumni.

Sb.27 I applied for only one job a few years back and I was rejected. It may have been
due to lack of experience.

Sb.28 I had not applied for many positions in the past, but those I applied for, I got
them, so I had not been rejected for positions.

Sb.29 There has not been any rejections so far, rather I have been in positions that were
created for me.

Sb.30 The only rejections I had was when I applied for Dean of International Students;
but I didn't know much about the factors that contributed to my rejection. The person

they hired must probably had the qualiﬁcations; there may be are other host of reasons.

204

QUESTION 8

What role did professional networking play in appointment to higher education
administrative positions?

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 I had used a lot of professional networking. I had both of small groups of
colleagues that I stay in very close contact with as well as larger professional groups that
I have meetings with on regular basis. But I think they both helped me to resolve
problems by talking about their own experiences and making my own experience
smoother. They helped me to identify positions they think I would be a good match.
Sb.2 Networking is very important. Getting to know the people that are at the level
you want to get to, when you are internal candidate helps, but since I have never been
an external candidate I can't really speak to another institution.

Sb.3 I have no experience of professional networking but I think it is a must for any
woman who wants to aspire to higher levels of administration. This is true because
people want to know who you are, and how you operate. People want to know how easy
you are to work with, or how difﬁcult you are to work with. All these brings to the table
the sharing of information with people who potentially are colleagues; or people who are
in roles where they are making decision about who they are going to bring in an
institution in a particular position. In this regard, I deﬁnitely think that professional
networking is an absolute necessity for anyone who wants to advance in higher levels

of educational administration.

205

Sb.4 Quite deﬁnitely. My mentors had broad network across the country and they are
able to call people and their names carry a lot of inﬂuence. When I need something, they
come to my aid and it is nice to have friends and I have a lot of them from different
places throughout the country.

I call on them when I need them and they nominate me for positions if I need to
get in rather than having me to apply for them. Professional networking is critical to a
woman's success and essential for the career ladder.

Sb.5 I don't really think that professional networking helped me, rather my
advancement was more circumstantial than networking in higher educational
administration.

Sb.6 I think that in order to achieve administrative positions you always need
individuals who are prepared to be your sponsors and advocates. Those networks need to
include men and women, and they need to able to provide trustworthy commentaries
regarding your competencies and talents in the ﬁt; between your approaches to any
positions to which you might need to aspire.

They also need to be your advocate in providing good references and counsel to
let people know that you are indeed specially qualiﬁed for the position. Professional
networking was a great help towards my advancement.

Sb.7 Networking in my case was not in a formal sense but, rather informally. It
involved speaking with and gaining advice ﬁom senior professionals in my area. In this

case it was very good and highly recommendable.

206

Sb.8 I went within the university with really large network of colleagues. It really
helped me a lot to advance because it all meant that I was visible and known to men who
certainly had good reputation in the university. I also had a fairly extensive professional
network outside the university because the work of my ofﬁce is the kind that needs a lot
of collaboration with other universities. Many of these university's personnel wanted to
interview and hire me most of the time, and I know that all these invitations and job
offers is due to professional network contacts with people who knew me else where.
CATEGORY B

Sb.9 Networking probably has been a very key factor in my own career. I was the ﬁrst
Director of Nursing Institute for Nursing Research of the National Institute of Health in
Washington, DC. Opening and having the opportunity to start this brand new
government agency was very exciting. A lot of it was based on the research reputation
that I had built a number of years, and working with a number of my professional
colleagues and every state in the union. There is not any state in the country I had not
already been involved in terms of consultation or working with doctoral program; or
providing research consultation; or key-noting their research conferences. These kinds
of networking and knowing the number of people and having good sense for the research
agenda for nursing really was a great aid to being able to attract the position for the
National Institute.

Sb. 10 I think a networking is extremely important. One of my reference letters came
ﬁ'om American Council on Education (ACE). I was the Director of Women's Initiative
for Women Administrators, and I had been involved with a woman administrator

networking in Kentucky; and she wrote me a wonderful letter of recommendation. The

207

provost noted that I had a letter from American Council on Education (ACE), as part of
my recommendation and that helped. Also a lot of good friends who were male mentors
helped towards my being hired in the positions.

Sb.1 1 Professional networking is absolutely critical in advancement to higher levels of
administration. I think that there is a known appreciated factor that personal relationships
are absolutely critical because people just do not want to read about somebody in the
Curriculum Vita. They just do not only want read somebody in the letters of
recommendation; rather they want personal contact with people who know a person
before them or talk of administrative role. Having your networks appears that other
administrators and ﬁeld staff and faculty who have been your colleagues

Sb. 12 Professional networking is very important piece because other professionals have
to know you; and they are the people who have to recognize that you have something to
offer and will then support your going forward of the position. I highly recommend
professional networking because it was a critical factor to my advancement.

Sb.13 I think professional networking is very important. As part of my experience here
at my institution. I participated in a couple of leadership programs, one with CIC
institutions, in particular which allowed me to have contact with a lot of people in the
administration building who got to know me better. They could see how they would
work with me, and that kind of networking is extremely important in terms of particular
women. It is important that people have a chance to see who you are and what you think

before they can look at your application.

208

Sb. 14 I think it is extremely important that women connect to both locally as well as
nationally. I have had as many invitations to apply for Deanships but because I am
placed-bound, I could not really go just any place. Those connections came from my
participation on national and statewide committees and local committees such as AACTE
(the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education); and ATE (Association of
teacher Education). The Renaissance Group has been a tremendous help and extending
my recognition both locally as well as nationally.

Sb.15 Networking had a great impact in my advancement to higher levels of
administration. I think that the ﬁrst job I had as chairperson came because I had involved
professionally on the national level as a consultant with the university program; and so I
was asked to take the position and I applied and got it. With the present position, I was
heavily involved in the professional networking and it helped me in advancing to this
position.

CATEGORY C

Sb. 16 Networking is really important, and I would say there is networking in two ways.
Since coming to my present employing institution, requires me to interact with people all
across the campus, I work with people in many different divisions both on the academic
side and what I would call the logistical side, so I knew people in all kinds of jobs on
campus. I really made a lot of connections and those people were very helpful to me.
Secondly as a supervisor, I also had a lot of contact with faculty and community people
in this area. I did not realize that at the time these people I knew through their children
have become valuable connections. Today as the chairperson for example, there is

almost no administrative meeting I go to, that I do not meet people I have known. As a

209

result of this, it often means that I can open the door. It means people know me, people
trust me, people thought I do a good job. The result of this is that I have a reputation,
aside from my reputation as a chairperson which has been very helpful to me. In the
community it has also been very helpful for example, several people I have come in
contact with in Lansing area schools, those are decision-makers in that systems are good
people to be networking.

I have colleagues all over the country, in the state and national levels. I do a lot of
international speaking, key-note speaking, for the last ﬁve years for international
conferences for example, in Korea, Hong Kong, Australia and Europe, and all these
give me credibility. I have found that networking helped a lot towards advancement to
higher positions.

Sb.17 I was hired in the department where I was a professor so, networking made a big
difference because people knew me from my department and the university at large. I
would say that professional networking is extremely important especially for women if
they want to advance to higher levels of administration.

Sb. 18 Excellent questions but I have no excellent answer, because I have never been a
joiner of a group type of person. I have always pursued my goals, almost always on my
own without adjoining networking groups. I have gotten an enormous amount of support
and beneﬁt from all female department chairs that came to me after I became a
department head here on campus. They are a total of ten women on the entire campus
and we are very blunt and open to each other. Apart from this, I would not say that I am

professionally involved in networking.

210

Sb. 19 I suppose professional networking is important if you are ambitious and seeking
higher levels of administration. I am not sure I consider my position particularly as the
highest level however; it helps to know people. I have been active in National
Organization (Association of the Department of English); and I suspect that my activity
there was helpful in my getting my current position. I think it is important to get to know
people who are working in all kinds of positions that one is interested in but, I did not
sort of actively network to advance.

Sb.20 I think my performance as a conscientious professor, and my interactions across
campus and within my own department must have somehow; lead to being offered the
position as department head. I would say it is professional networking locally that helped
a lot towards my advancement.

Sb.21 Networking helped me when I was at Pennsylvania State University moving ﬁ'om
college to gaining a new position in the admissions ofﬁce. Networking helped to be seen
by the broader university. It brought me into contact with a lot of people.

Sb.22 I believe that networking works towards advancement; but I can't really put my
ﬁnger on how professional networking helped me. All I know is everybody who has
offered me a job has been in touch with their networks and may have interacted with the
hiring personnel before they offered me a position. I know this is true because the people
that have hired me in the past had told me that they have heard from such and such a
person. In this case, professional networking is extremely important; so we have to be

nice to people because we don't know who will help.

211

Sb.23 One thing I found is that you can't wait for professional networking to come to
you rather; you have to create professional networking. I belong to American College
Health Association (ACHA) which represent College Health Centers across the country;
over six hundred universities are involved in this organization. I am the chair of the
administration section of this national organization. I didn't get where I am because I
belong to the organization rather; I worked hard to make contacts within the university. I
knew people in all the different divisions so that I understand how the university
operates. I talked to people that can teach me about the politics of the organization, so
this type of network has really supported me. Talking to colleagues and knowing that
they have experienced some of the same joys and ﬁ'ustrations helped me a lot.
Sb.24 Networking was very important and has been certainly in my career. Much of my
networking 1 would say is very informal, but it is very important to interact with people
that you feel that can beneﬁt you. I would say that professional networking is very
beneﬁcial for people at all level.
Sb.25 Professional networking certainly aided me in being offered this position by
virtue of the fact that I knew a number of faculty members in Michigan; having lived in
the area for several years.

Prior to being offered the position, it meant that the hiring personnel knew me and
knew my qualiﬁcations; and I think that this was a factor in being offered the job.
Sb.26 Professional networking has been absolutely critical for the fact that I have spent
my career in the same institution. It has meant that people got to know my work abilities

and me and I think that kind of connections that were there certainly helped. For

212

example, I would not have been recruited for this present position if the search committee
had not known me; so I think that networking had been an important factor.

Sb.27 Professional networking is absolutely critical for advancement to any higher
positions.

Sb.28 It was a great assistance to me. I highly favor networking because I was very
active in professional organizations outside of my employers and I got lots of experience
in this manner.

I got actual experience by holding leadership positions in professional networking
organizations. Also I worked with other people and gained knowledge ﬁ'om their
experiences they shared with me as a group. There were times I was challenged during
the course of the day and I could pick up the telephone and communicate with
individuals. It was particularly helpful either by sharing my challenges with the person
or having some insights about how the person handled the same challenge.

Sb.29 Professional networking is certainly important towards my advancement. I had
male mentors who were part of a beginning national network, all in the same talented
career. They knew many people and they helped me in advancing to the positions of the
Gifted and Talented.

Sb.30 Professional networking was a key to my advancement. I was very successful in
the College of Veterinary Medicine because 1 demonstrated what I could do there. I
believed that it was because other people knew my work and what I was capable of doing

that I got to where I am now.

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QUESTION 9
Did you have a mentor? What role did mentors play in being appointed to higher
education administrative positions? What was your mentor's gender? What was your
mentor's profession?
CATEGORY A
Sb.1 I had mentors and for the most part, they have been men. There was one female
mentor who back in my counseling services, and she was actually a psychologist and also
a nun. For the most part there have been people who helped me to identify my own
strengths and weaknesses; they also helped to suggest ways to enhance my strengths and
diminish my weaknesses. They were good people for me to talk over my ethical
mistakes.

My mentors were in higher education. One of them was Vice President in
Business and the other was Vice President of Student Affairs.
Sb.2 I did have a mentor and he was a male. He was my boss and a Director of Public
Information. When he became Associate Vice President, he promoted me to Director. I
think that I learned a lot about how to be creative ﬁom him. I also learnt how to treat
subordinates employees nicely as well as how to manage ofﬁce. I know he was
speciﬁcally responsible for my promotion. He had direct impact on me.
Sb.3 I had many mentors not only just one. I have had probably more male mentors
than I have had females, but I had one outstanding female mentor because if it had not
been for her, I would not have been where I am today. My mentor had shaped my life
and shaped me and again I give her a great deal of credit for who I am today. She

encouraged me in a variety of ways to get my degrees, and encouraged me in my

214

personal life. She gave me advice even today and she calls me when I am in a troubled
sport and she helps me. The men in my life come and go but they are always there when
I need them. Some of these mentors have early inﬂuences in my life. They are there to
run in affairs for me, and all I had need to do was to raise my hand and tell them that I
need them . If I don't raise my hand, they will not know and they will not help me.

I had ﬁve mentors all together; four males and one female. My mentors are all
educators of some sort.
Sb.4 I did have a mentor and didn't formally set up a mentor and mentee relationship
with the individual. However, I learnt what to do and what not to do from him. He
taught me how to make decision which helped me to do things right. I watched and
observed him in times of decision-making processes. I had good and bad experiences
which shaped my present and future roles.

My mentor was a male in higher education. He was a top-level president.
Sb.5 I had a couple of mentors and the best advice they ever gave me was not to expect
to be right a hundred percent of the time. They advised me to learn from those
experiences that do not work out the way I wanted. They advised me to make lemonade
out lemons and not to take things too personal. They also advised me to try to deal with a
particular situation and move ahead.

My mentors were men and they were all in higher education administration.
Sb.6 I had two mentors during my training period, namely my thesis Ph.D. mentor and
a mentor for my Post Doctoral training. They guided and shaped my academics
throughout these periods. They gave wonderful advice on how I could perform well.

Without them I do not think I would have gotten to where I am today.

215

I had two male mentors and they were both professors in Biological Science-
related ﬁeld. I also would consider as a mentor, a senior faculty female who was in my
department and who held a position of interim Vice President for Research. Speaking
with this female mentor was very helpful to my making decision about accepting the
administrative role that I am now.

Sb.7 I had two people that I consider as mentors. The ﬁrst person was the director of
my ofﬁce before I was made a director, and she was someone who really recognized that
I had lots of potentials. She was the one who told me that there are things I could do to
make myself more ready to advance at the rmiversity. She helped me to identify those
things and be able to do them.

She had suggested and encouraged me to go back to school and get my Masters
degree in education. She gave me the kind of latitude that worked for me to cope with
my heavy work schedule. She gave me lots of tips and information in different ways
about work style, networking and understanding the university culture. Without this
mentor, I probably wouldn't have got any of those ﬁrst promotions that were absolutely
necessary for me to really become a university administrator. My second mentor was
when I was named a director of my ofﬁce. He was a man I reported to and he also
recognized that I had lots of talents and potential. He was someone, who helped me to
become successful as a director, and encouraged me again to go back to school and
helped me to ﬁnd ways to combine another degree with my work schedule. I think he
was really responsible for my advancement to Provost position that I hold now. He really
promoted me and made sure that people recognized my talents, and made sure that I have

done everything that is required for this position.

216

The ﬁrst mentor was a woman. She was a Director of Academic Planning and
administrator in higher education. The second mentor was a man. He was Associate
Provost in Academic Affairs as well as Economic Professor.

Sb.8 I was very fortunate over the years to have a number of people that I would put
into the mentor category throughout my career. Almost all of them have in a sense given
me advice about my strengths; and they have been very good in giving constructive
suggestions about how I could improve. They are also people who have been for me
when errors are made because people make errors of judgement now and then.

All my mentors were males. They were all involved in education by profession.
CATEGORY B
Sb.9 I had several mentors and they helped me from the point of view that thee served
as role models. They helped me in clarifying my objectives in what I wanted to do in
life. I also had family members who were also mentors and they served as role models in
helping me to continue to advance.

My mentors were mostly females but I also had male mentors as well. Some of
them were in higher education, but my family mentors were educators by profession but
not in higher education.

Sb. 10 I had several mentors, not just one mentor. I have mentors in terms of my
scientiﬁc career, and in terms of running the Center for Electronoptics and that sort of
administration. The mentors were good in giving me feedback from different

perspectives in my career.

217

I had both male and female mentors. Some of them were my former scientiﬁc
professors. The female mentors were the Dean of my graduate school and I have been
following on their footsteps ever since.

Sb.1 1 I have had two mentors in my lifetime. My ﬁrst mentor was my professor when I
was at the University of California, at San Francisco. She was the one who really got me
interested in research and helped me to learn the discipline, and the enjoyment of
discovering process in the sciences. She essentially motivated me to go back to school
to do my Doctorate work and then to continue in the program of research. The second
mentor was a woman I went to work with after I ﬁnished my Doctoral program, because
she was an expert in how one facilitates other peoples' research; as well as how one helps
other colleagues to put together their research programs. She was just exquisite in
facilitating group research program.

Both mentors were females. Both of them were nurses by profession.
Sb. 12 I had a lot of mentors and they were extremely supportive and helpﬁrl. One of my
mentors was very wonderful and too helpful towards my career as an administrator. In
fact I have no words to qualify how wonderful some of my mentors were, but I can only
say they shaped my career and my advancement.

My mentors were all males. They were all administrators in higher education.
Sb. 13 I had several mentors in the last forty years that I have been in higher education.
Probably the two most signiﬁcant ones were those that inﬂuenced me to go into
educational administration. They encouraged me; inﬂuenced me; created opportunities

for me; and promoted me to higher levels.

218

Both of my mentors were males. Both of them were Deans in higher
educational administration.
Sb.14 I had a mentor and frankly he was in my Ph.D. committee and a very well known
professor at my institution. Her inﬂuence to me and knowing me and speaking for me
was very important. She was also very helpful in guiding and keeping me abreast of
broad range of literature. She did not just guide me towards the speciﬁcs of the ﬁeld of
my study; but she kept me abreast of broad nature of citizenship of kinds of literature as
well as leadership and what is happening in the world. She helped all of her students,
including myself, in our career ﬁeld of Human Ecology to understand that individually
we can make a difference.

My mentor was a female. She was a professor of Human Ecology.

Sb. 1 5 I had people whom have been very supportive of my work. However, one person
stands clearly as my mentor, and this person was my professor in my doctoral program.
This mentor was an advocate for me as I was being accepted into my doctoral program;
and she continued to be my advocate as well as a teacher throughout my doctoral work.

My mentor was a female by gender. She was obviously a Professor of Social
Work. She had been the Director of the School of Social Work.
CATEGORY C
Sb.16 I did have a mentor before when I ﬁrst became a department head. My mentor
helped me whenever I had questions regarding my job. He taught me how to do things
easily and directed me to the right paths to go in my job.

My mentor was a male. He was an administrator in higher education.

219

Sb. 17 I didn't think I had anyone personally that I consider a mentor. However, there
were a number of people who helped me in my career over the years. The mentor I
guessed I remember fondly was a dissertation adviser at the University of Indiana. There
was another female who was in many ways a role model for those of us who came as
young professors at Indiana University.

The mentors were both male and female. Both of them were ﬁill professors at
Indiana University.
Sb. 1 8 I really had three mentors in my graduate work. I went to Pennsylvania State
University and had a committee in which the people really took personal interest in me;
and each one of them mentored me in a different way. I had one mentor who was the
chair of my committee, who really helped in terms of myself conﬁdence as an
academician. I came to Graduate School not particularly interested in research, but very
interested in applied work; but wanted to know the rationale behind research strategies.
My mentor saw in me some things that I didn't necessarily see in myself.

The second mentor was very ﬁne writer, and was a good person who was able to
obtain grants. This mentor helped me to get a $20, 000 grant to write my dissertation.
He took me to national meetings so that I could meet people and have exposure at the
national level. He actually took me to a conference and introduced me to people and was
very helpful; hence I wouldn't have gone to that conference on my own.

The third mentor was a woman in my Graduate School; and she was a very
encouraging person who I could basically approach and to about ideas I had regarding my
work and my future. All these mentors continued to have contact with me since I

ﬁnished my graduate program.

220

Two of my mentors were males and one was a female. All of them were
professors in higher education.
Sb.19 I did have a mentor and basically she helped in suggesting resource people who
solved certain problems or intervened with people to straighten out problem areas in my
career life.

My mentor was a woman. She was an administrator in higher education.
Sb.20 I have had many mentors and I must confess that they are all informal; and they
are people who have treated me equally with respect and I respect them. They treated
me with much respect and support in my life.

I have both male and female mentors. The female is a top-level administrator in

higher education, while the female is a researcher.
Sb.21 I had a mentor and he helped me to advance to this present position that I am
holding now.

He was a male by gender. He was a professor of Educational Psychology as well
as a Director of Resource Institute at Purdue University.
Sb.22 I had a couple of mentors and I think they kept me focused in what I needed to do
professionally. They advised me in terms of what kind of additional training I needed;
the questions I needed to ask myself; how to reﬁne my skills in fund-raising; and how to
network to get ahead.

I had both male and female mentors. Two of my mentors were F und-Raisers and

one was a Labor and Industrial Relations Specialist.

221

Sb.23 I have had only one mentor during my career and that was very earlier on at my
present employing institution. This mentor was very much advanced at the time than I
was in terms of his position at the university. He was most helpful in advising me not
necessarily from professional or technical basis but more from a political basis in terms
of making me aware as to the positions and personnel who hold power here at the
institution. He was not most inﬂuential by way of his title or position but he inﬂuenced
me by playing a role; so he helped me to advance.

My mentor was a white male by gender. He was a Director of the Physical Plant.
Sb.24 I didn't have any mentor; rather I had people I discuss things with, not a mentor in
a sense.
Sb.25 I do not have anyone that I considered to be a mentor per-se. Certainly I had
learned from a range of people along the way, both men and women particularly the
people I worked with in previous positions. I learned more from observations and
experience than from the point of view of a mentor who took particular interest in my
career in a very coherent way.
Sb.26 I did not have anyone I would call a mentor in my life-career.
Sb.27 I had a couple of mentors, and in each of them I had seen qualities that excites me
in terms of leadership and responsibilities. I learnt how to be a visionary and I try to pick
up on some of their characteristics. In each of them I also saw some male qualities that I
would not like to emulate as an administrator. As mentors they have also taught me
things in terms of how not to behave and how not to interact. Sometimes you can see
through a mentor all the positive ways you want to be but sometimes you can see through

a mentor things that if you had an Opportunity you would not do it that way; simply

222

because you see the results that they are getting. They have given me some of the
positives and the way not to go about business. Both of my mentors were males. Both of
them were higher education administrators.
Sb.28 I can only think of mentor at Pennsylvania State University. He helped me to be
recruited to Graduate School at Pennsylvania State University. He also helped me in a
number of capacity throughout the years, not only by giving me job leaves;
recommendations but he is just somebody I could trust and talk to about my career
aspirations.

My mentor is a male by gender. He was a professor of Agricultural Economics.
Sb.29 I had a mentor and he was my major professor when I was in Ohio State
University. He believed in me when I got my Masters degree and I went off to follow my
husband in various places. Later on, when my husband left me with two little children, I
decided I needed to go back to school in order to take care of my two little children. I
contacted my mentor and he was very supportive of me. He found money and gave me
graduate assistantship; gave me job; a place and a desk in the department to work. He
was very helpful and without him, it would have been very difﬁcult for a single parent
with two children to do without that kind of support. He didn't gender support me rather,
I needed ﬁnancial and professional support and he did it. He also helped me to
understand what I needed in order to do well in my courses.

My mentor was a male. His profession was Developmental Psychologist.

Sb.30 I had a mentor and he played a key role in terms of encouraging me. I think that

sometimes it is difﬁcult to go into new areas when you do not have prior experience

223

because you are conﬁdent that you can do the job. I had a mentor that is very
encouraging and he challenged me to take risk.

He is a male. He was a psychologist.
QUESTION 10
During the hiring process, what negative challenges were encountered? What positive
situations were experienced?
CATEGORY A
Sb.1 Most of my encounters have been positive. I think that for the most part, the
organizations with which I have made applications for the last twenty years, were higher
education institutions. I think that they are Afﬁrmative Action Processors, and their
whole way of interviewing people was very open and fairly inclusive. This has been
especially true in Student Affairs area than in some other areas of the university because
they are a more diverse population in their staff. I think that they always feel that it is
important to have more inclusive search committee.
Sb.2 I never had any negative challenges because I only applied for one job. They let
me have my leave as I desired one summer, so it was a positive experience.
Sb.3 Negative challenges are brought in as token women for an interview and then
watching people be surprised when I knew what I was talking about. Knowing that you
are not the choice of the people with whom you will be working but being chosen
because you are a woman and because the organization needs a woman in that position.
On the other side of that, while that is sometimes troubling to know that the only reason
why you got the job is because you are a woman, and again a well-qualiﬁed woman.

Another part of that is again you can roll up your sleeves and show the people that

224

women can do the job. I have done that probably in every job that I had got. I got in the
job because I am a woman and I had the appropriate credentials and the timing was right;
but when I got in and after a few months or years, I showed them that I could do the job.
The result was that other women followed me in other administrative positions and that
has been very rewarding.

Positive encounters are nice to see other men and women who can accept a
strong woman as part of the leadership team. Negative also is that I have actually in
salary negotiations, heard people say to me "but you have a husband, you don't need all
this money" and to that, I ﬂew into a rage and said that I am not married at the moment.
But I would say that my husband has nothing to with my salary at work, and for every
dime I get I am not giving one penny of it regardless of what the hiring committee think.
In this regard, I had negotiated hard and heavy and made ﬁnancial gains every time I had
moved from one position to another.

Sb.4 I ﬁrst of all had positive encounters rather than having negative challenges and
this helped me to carry on with other future jobs or interviews. I got ideas from positive
encounters that helped me to make conscious decisions. The negative challenges that I
had was just arguments for salary which was not really to argue about; rather I depended
on my performance to boost me up.

Sb.5 I had only one experience with University of Michigan, and I really had no
negative challenges that I can recall in gaining any positions. All my interactions as I

recall were positive.

225

Sb.6 I really had not been hired anywhere else for a long time or sought many jobs
over the last few years. Before I was promoted here in my present institution. 1 had a
couple of other universities who tried to recruit me for two positions. The men I had to
speak with were positive in that both institutions were hoping that I consider moving into
their area, and taking a job with them. They tried hard to convince me that it was the
right job and the right kind of institution. However, it turned out that they were deceiving
me, hence I would not have been happy there. This shows that some organizations are
not sincere with females when it comes to hiring processes. I have not had much
experience with hiring processes.

Sb.7 They have not been basically positive or negative challenges, but just challenges.
I came to this university at the good time.

Sb.8 I think that over the years, I have acquired a relative forthright style; and I am
relatively clear about my own strengths and interests that I am not as well as suited to do.
I think the positive encounters have come with people who have been willing to listen to
both of these. One has to try to seek out the degree to which there is a distinction
between the things which one does not like to do but does well from the things which one
likes to do and does well in addition to those things one likes to do and does well. The
challenges are really the ability to have the focus and attention and to the background that
would cause one to do well in a variety of interviews. Also, the challenges are always
that people have stereotypes regarding what kinds of appearances are good for what kinds
of tasks. One has to be able to overcome those stereotypes as one works with people in

the interview process and as one is able to convey one's strength and weaknesses.

226

CATEGORY B
Sb.9 I had positive encounters in two jobs I have been able to achieve in higher
education administration. I found the interviews to be very open and fair in the hiring
process. I was looking for what would contribute to my growth and development in both
situations and I was able to see that during interview process. For negative encounters, I
did not have any but, they did ask me if my experiences in the smaller institutions I
worked would help me to handle or function well in bigger institution like the present
one I am working now.
Sb. 1 0 One of the negative challenges I had was just the enormous amount of time it
takes to go through the interview process. For example, people who are very busy to
have a long interview process can really be burdensome even though I understand and
that the process is very important for people to talk to the people they are going to hire.
Positive encounters would be the wonderful people I had met through the
interview process who talked about what my interests were.
Sb.1 1 I had not nay negative challenges in the hiring processes because I have always
got the jobs I applied for and my job was always created new for me. However,
sometimes one negative challenge is that in general people would not know all the
nrismatches of a job before they apply for it. They do not know the tough competition
that they are going to face during the hiring process because they were not communicated
to, so that at the end they face disappointments and feelings of inadequacy. The hiring
process often times takes a toll out of the peoples' ego. I think that organizations should

be more open and more counseling-oriented, rather than being more business-oriented.

227

Sb. 12 I had positive encounters with people who felt that I was qualiﬁed and had the
necessary skills to do the job. However, there were always persons who felt that it was
their role to try to make the interview processes difﬁcult. For some reasons they felt that
they need to try to identify ﬂaws in my credentials or my work; but none were able to
sustain any issues that held out. It means that there may be times when some people are
negative and some people are positive.

Sb. 1 3 The only negative challenges was when I was applying or considering a position
for the National Institute and Federal Government. The Federal Government has a much
truncated process for the individuals at even high administrative positions; and one get
very little information about how you will do in the process of applying for the position.
It was the most negative challenge although I did in fact achieve that position.

Positive encounters are primarily those I had in the academic system and
particularly where people are interested in my moving ﬁom one organization or the other.
They were willing to work with me in terms of what they will do to help me make that
move. It can be very positive when they are trying to attract you to a job.

Sb.14 I remember having an interview when I ﬁrst graduated from Pennsylvania Sate
University and the University of Pittsburgh. They never even sent me a letter of rejection
or a letter of acceptance. Also, a couple of years ago, someone wrote me that I had been
nominated for a Provost position, and I applied and never heard a word. I think that
people should at least get some kind of response whether negative or positive. I think
that some search committees do not treat other candidates nice.

However, I have had some really positive encounters and good interviews with

some other institutions but I did not take the job. After I left my former position in

228

Buffalo and went to Kentucky, the Dean called me and wanted me to come back and he
gave me all kinds of promises, but I told him that I could not possibly go back. I think I
was complemented for the fact that he wanted me back.
Sb.15 I have not encountered any a lot of negative challenges because there has only
been twice I applied for positions for forty-one years in my professional life, and I was
not accepted. I probably have had more positive encounters. I have often been the ﬁrst
minority hired in many positions. My ﬁrst teaching position in Cleaveland, I was the ﬁrst
minority teacher; in my high school position and my ﬁrst college positions, I was the
ﬁrst minority. My present position in the College of Education, I was the ﬁrst minority
female to be in this position; so it has not been too much of negative challenges.
CATEGORY C
Sb.16 The most memorable one was when I was being hired as an Assistant Professor,
as I just got out of the graduate school. I remember going to interview in one institution
where they segregated male applicants from female applicants. We were interviewed by
different committees in different rooms. I was told later that I was the best female
applicant but obviously they hired a male. In general I have not sought many jobs or
positions rather, I have been sought for them. I cannot say that I have had very serious
challenges.

For positive encounters, many people have treated me in the way I expected to be
treated.
Sb.17 I have actually had all positive encounters in all the places I had put up

applications. I was appointed for some of the positions I have held.

229

Sb.18 I have had both positive encounters and negative challenges. When I was in the
hiring process, the department was in certain amount of chaos and conﬂict; and they did
not have very reasonable hiring committees. For example, they did not interview
anybody. They just asked for written statements and the person who actually made the
decision was the former dean. Basically the hiring process was positive; but the faculty
chaos which affected everyone who was applying for the position was negative in that
everything was done in a political manner.
Sb. 19 The negative challenge I had was that of the Sea-Grant hiring process, as I could
not be hired because I was a woman. The positive encounter I had was being a manager
of Kellogg Biological Stations which is small family farm projects. The hiring personnel
were very open in their dealings with me.
Sb.20 I have in not more than one organization and have not applied for very many jobs;
so I have not had various encounters and challenges.
Sb.21 I think some of the negative challenges I had in the past were in terms of trying to
understand what the search committee wanted, or what they were looking for. As I was
talking about what my goals and plans were, some of the things matched. It is always a
challenge I was looking for a job or applying for a job; especially when I did not have an
idea of what I was expected to do in the job or position. I think that one of the
challenges is seeing that what I was looking for in a job matches with what the job
requires.

In terms of positive encounters, it was positive to talk about plans, goals, visions,
and myself. It all meant that whether I got the job or not, my interview experience was

positive because it gave me a chance to even sit down and think about where I wanted to

230

be in the next three or ﬁve years. It also gave me a sense of how I might impact a
particular organizational structure.
Sb.22 I have had any negative challenges. I guess that sometimes it can be a challenge
when interviewing with groups. During the two or three major positions I have had, I hit
it off with one individual and it was not too good.
Sb.23 I had negative challenge where I was before I came to my present institution.
They asked me illegal questions and a lot of them had to do with how I would deal with
my children while I would be travelling. They also asked me what my marital status was
and a lot of perceptions hinged on how I would deal with family issues, which they did
not ask my male counterparts. Even right now people are concerned with those family
issues which is in a way, shouldn't be because I can't jungle all those things or I wouldn't
be in the position I am now.
Sb.24 This is a challenging question. I believe that during some hiring processes, the
various individuals in the committee were not honest with me. I was somehow biased
from experience such individuals in the hiring team because of their attitudes to women.
In one of these processes, one individual told me outright that I would not be hired
because I am an African American woman.

For positive encounters, the fact that I was hired for the position for which I am
holding now is positive experience for me.
Sb.25 I have not applied for many positions, obviously my experiences have been all

positive.

231

 

Sb.26 I have not had various encounters with organizations, so I have not have had
negative challenges.

Sb.27 I certainly have been aware of negative challenges and positive encounters with
individuals rather than organizations during hiring processes. I had negative challenges
in interviewing for positions for example, when there was already a candidate that is
clearly favorite and well known to the hiring committee. There was a particular job for
which I interviewed and I was not the preferred candidate, and the hiring committee was
as very discouraging as they could.

I have also met people in the process of interviewing with jobs with which I had
positive encounters and I admired them very much. I could think particularly of women
whom I met on different job interviews and I enjoyed interacting with them.

Sb.28 It is true in situations of hiring processes. I encountered a negative challenge
where men of hiring personnel played sex-role stereotypes of how I would juggle with
raising children and holding higher level position. They asked insulting questions but I
covered every thing with laughter and tried to be ﬂippant in answering such questions.
Sb.29 I have not encountered negative challenges because I have not applied for many
jobs.

Sb.30 Yes for negative challenges, I had three extensive interview processes with all
white males.

The interviews were time-consuming and stressful for three days as far as the
body is concerned.

I had driven two hundred miles to come for the interviews and another two

hundred miles back on the same day. When they asked me to come for the third time I

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said "no" if they could not hire me now, they should forget it; because I am in a job I like
and I do not have to take their job. Part of the positive encounter was that the
superintendent ﬂew to Chicago to meet me and when he came, he offered me the job.
QUESTION 11

What behaviors or actions, exhibited by individuals of employing institutions involved in
the hiring process were observed that caused you to believe that a female was
inappropriate for a higher education administrative position?

CATEGORY A

Sb.1 In fact, I had few behaviors from representatives of employing institutions back
very early in my career; and I think part of it was a perception of both gender and youth
which were double constraint. More recently I began to feel that I have been recruited by
institutions in part because of my gender, and because the institution has felt that their
upper-level management was too heavily male. It therefore means, that it was important
for them to ﬁnd some females.

Sb.2 I never had any negative interactions with my employed institution, except for the
fact that they paid me less than they paid my male counterparts who were promoted to the
same level at the same time with less experience.

Sb.3 I have had people asked inappropriate questions like how I would juggle with
taking care of my children while I was working. This was not only unethical but they are
also illegal; so if one want a job one certainly cannot jump in for this reason, I told them
that they cannot ask me illegal questions. If a woman keeps quiet, certainly she cannot
get the job. It depends on how much you wanted as to how you get in terms of your

response. But there is a lot of trying that needs to go on education; that needs to go on

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about hiring processes still. I am still saying that the issues would have been resolved but
they are not.

Sb.4 I observed that a woman's voice does not count much. When you are in the midst
of males in employed institutions, women cannot make decisions for men. This made me
draw the conclusion that women are at a disadvantage to making tough decisions. They
are not to tell men what to do or what not to do because they are not taken seriously when
they are working in male-dominated organizations. I also observed minorities and
females being sought in positions of assistant and associate directors of ﬁnancial aid;
although they have wonderful skills, the opportunities to use those skills and other more
complex or more responsible positions were not offered. For this reason I made a
conscious decision to leave the institution because; I knew that as long as I was running
the ship and it is running well I would only be allowed to run the ship and that is it.

Sb.5 I have none so far because I have not been around more than one institution.

Sb.6 I observed one Technological Institute where I do not think that they have ever
had a woman as an executive officer before. Most of their faculty, department chairs and
even the student body were put down as far as males. In that case, even though the
president and the senior recruiting personnel were interested in having me join their
administration, there were deﬁnitely instances during the day when the Department
Chairs or Vice Presidents expressed at least their hesitation as to whether a woman would
be tough enough or really understand numbers with regard to budgeting. These kinds of
gestures made me feel that it was a male institution. It also showed me that men think
that women do not have the right characteristics for top administrative positions and that

you cannot possibly recruit females for males' job. In that case, I really felt that

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institutions were conditioned to believe that men were the right order of things therefore;
you cannot put women into men's role.

Sb.7 I have never observed behaviors or actions in positions I applied for in employing
institutions that made me to believe that being a woman was a disadvantage. Rather, I
would say that the "glass-ceiling effect and the political pressure sometimes were real
pressure as well as bias.

Sb.8 I observed that one of the things that happens in any organization of institution is
that discrimination and stereotypes against women are subtle than blatant. What women
get are a lot of questions that say how would you be able to do x task? How can you
make tough decisions or whatever those words are that hide gender stereotypes. I have
attacked those questions directly in the interview process.

CATEGORY B

Sb.9 I am not sure that I have observed behaviors or actions that made to believe that
being a woman was a disadvantage when seeking high level administrative positions. I
know already from my position that there are not many women administrators; and this
really made me question commitment of the university to hiring women at my level. I
would say it is true because as a chairperson I was the only woman within the college I
was in.

Sb.10 I would say that probably nothing has happened that I observed in my present
institution. The reason was that everybody knows me so well particularly because I was
very well networked; also because I had held a position as an Associate Dean prior to this
position. I think that other female administrators that had gone to other places have

talked about how they were treated and perhaps the kind of questions they were asked;

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which may have put them to a great disadvantage. Personally I had not encountered such
behaviors here at my employing institution.

Sb.1 1 I have not really had any negative encounters about females applying for higher
positions. During my experiences, being a female has not been a disadvantage for me.
Sb. 12 I primarily worked in Nursing Institute which is primarily a profession for
females, so one would expect nurses to be females. Women would not unusually be at a
disadvantage in this ﬁeld or profession.

Sb.13 It is not easier for any woman to get to the pool because of their gender. I would
not even get to the pool because I still feel a little disadvantaged now in the job market. I
think that the reality of women getting the position is a lot different than what people
perceive is really happening. When you look at the really high positions of Provosts and
Presidents and you look at the statistics, you can see there are still more men in those
positions. This basically means that women are really at a disadvantage in getting high-
level administrative positions.

Sb. 14 The biggest behavior I observed is that I when I looked around at my employing
institution, I saw that men had previously tightly held most leadership positions. In this
regard, we have the situation where we say it looks like women are disadvantaged
because I am a woman. It does means in some instances that women do have to advocate
for themselves. We have to be super and make sure that people understand that we are
qualiﬁed for positions.

Sb.15 There were some examples from my prior positions in which I would not like to
mention names here now. There was a particular person, I would not like to mention his

name, and this man sat in all the interviews during hiring processes; and he was so

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obviously negative towards women. He treated women harshly by his way of asking
questions, and he knows he cannot ask very personal questions because it is against the
law. However, he somehow tries to ﬁnd out whether I planned to have more children; or
whether I was committed to a lifestyle husband and children that would prevent me from
being as actively involved in the job I applied.

CATEGORY C

Sb. 16 I have not observed behaviors or actions in any institution. I never had a sense
that being a woman is a problem because I happened to be in a career ﬁeld that is very
much dominated by females; so that may be part of it. It might be in the central
administration but not in my unit.

Sb. 17 I think that frequently there is an assumption that women are not in the networks
that are important. It is also assumed that women cannot act as leaders. There is often a
failure to recognize that leadership is not the same as ordering people around or
appearing to look like a male leader when you are a female leader.

Sb. 18 Negative behaviors or actions are a subtle thing that happen even though I have
only had one experience here in my institution. I feel some of the subtleness now even as
I am not in the hiring process. This is so because I am already hired but I would confess
that sitting in a room full of department chairs and associate directors in the college; and I
am the only woman in the crowd of men. There are times when male department chairs
feel awkward; in two ways they ﬁght and argue with me, as well as opposing me. There
is another part that is costly and that is, they would talk to each other more comfortably to
plan programs, to go after grants, to seek coalition to gain things from the Dean, provosts

and the upper-level administrators. Sometimes I am really included in those

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conversations, but it just does not happen often and so, I ﬁnd that must either start them
myself in order to collaborate with other departments.

Sb. 19 In my interviews for administrative positions there were no observed behaviors or
actions. However, from my observations ﬁ'om various institutions, when I look around at
women being hired for other administrative positions like mine, I do not see many
women. I think the very fact that in certain institutions, all of the higher administrators
are male, leads me to suspect that women are at disadvantage when they are being hired.
Sb.20 Being a woman has not been a disadvantage in my instance. I have been in one
institution and in my present position. Before I became the head of the department there
was a female head, and when I joined the College of Education there was still more
females than males; and I think it more of advantage than a disadvantage.

Sb.21 It is certainly important for a woman to understand what is legal because I was
asked illegal questions about my marital status and how I would juggle with family life
during hiring processes. All these lead me to believing that being a woman can be a
disadvantage when seeking high-level administrative positions.

Sb.22 I was asked in one of my interviews about if I was planning having children; and
how did I feel that I would ﬁt my plans in terms of work and where I wanted to go.
These were illegal questions that they did not asked my male counterparts. Sometimes
women are in a position to wonder if they refuse to answer these kinds of questions
would they be denied the job. This made me to believe that being a woman is a

disadvantage in seeking high-level administrative positions.

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Sb.23 I have not observed any behaviors or actions exhibited by representatives of my
employing institution. The only observations was that when I got the present position,
most of the people during meetings were just males; and I asked myself why all males.
This gives one a sense that if one aspire to be a Dean or Vice President or any higher
administrative positions, there is probably not going to many women. Also there were
more African American males who did not want to encourage me as I try to progress in
my career.

Sb.24 Yes, I did observe some negative behaviors during my hiring process. Some
representatives of institutions did talk about the fact that there is a female candidate for
the job. Most of the representatives of my employing institutions were savvy enough that
it is difﬁculty to see what they are thinking. In this regard their hatreds and actions
would not show any feeling they have about women. I really believe that women are at a
disadvantage when seeking high-level administrative positions.

Sb.25 I observed that institutions have a trend of hiring males in the highest level
positions that it sends the message to the female employees that there is a glass-ceiling
effect. Also there have been a number of times in the past where equal experience did
not mean or result to equal consideration to higher posts.

Sb.26 The most exhibited behavior that I have experienced was being in the company of
men when they made very disparaging negative remarks about other women. It was from
this that I inferred that if they could make this kind of remarks about these particular
women who I believe were as qualiﬁed if not more qualiﬁed than these male

counterparts; they sure can make the same remarks about me in absentia. I came to the

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conclusion that those top male personnel of that particular organization lack respect for
women and their qualiﬁcations as well as their contributions.

Sb.27 I suppose that at least in my employing institution, the biggest disadvantage for
women is lack of faculty appointment. This is the biggest barrier as I observed it.
(Dickerman, Dir.)

Sb.28 I can say that in the context of being a director for the Center of Education of
Women is an advantage. However, I observed in the previous position that I held was
where the people who were there before me were all males. This would not lead to say
that women are at a disadvantage at any level.

Sb.29 I had not observed any exhibited behaviors or actions by any representatives of
my employing institution that showed women at a disadvantage, at least not in my
position as a Director of Advising.

Sb.30 One thing that kind of annoyed me was that I found out I had to share an ofﬁce
while I had an ofﬁce suit, about four rooms in my former job. I also found out that I

would share a secretary and I felt that it was not fair. I was savvy enough to ﬁnd out

where I would be housed and the hiring personnel did not care to provide for that. It took

me two good years before I could get ofﬁce by myself and my own a secretary.
QUESTION 12
What roles of conﬂict were experienced between maintaining personal obligations and

higher education administrative duties?

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CATEGORY A

Sb.1 I think that every professional male and female has role conﬂicts but, perhaps
women have more because we think have more family roles to play. I always feel guilty
when I do not have dinner with my husband at night, and many nights I am not at home
for dinner. My husband would occasionally say it is his turn to get some of my attention;
and that the students have had me probably enough today. If a crisis occurs about ten
O'clock at night, or I get a call and I go to the university because it is part of job. I think
in my ﬁeld which is Vice President for Students Affairs, there is an expectation that the
university owns me twenty-four hours a day; more than some others in administration
there. I do not have small children at home now, so that is not a problem but for my
female colleagues who do have small children; it is very hard to determine when to say
not and when not to say and of course, they have to be there. It is a real challenge as I try
to reserve certain day for me and my family; and Sundays is usually my day; and it takes
a remarkable event to get me in my institution on a Sunday.

Sb.2 I have four children and a husband. I try not to miss any of my children's major
events, and I have never really missed any major events like graduation. My work load at
times cause me to miss some of my activities that I would have gone to had I not had to
work. My job caused me to be out of town at times, and I am married to a fairly
traditional man who thinks I should take care of the family. He thinks it is inappropriate
when he has to take care of the children in my absence. This is a conﬂict, but there are
times when one has to put family ﬁrst; and there are times when one has to put work ﬁrst.

I have to do both because I am required to do it.

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Sb.3 I think I cannot attribute any conﬂict to a problem of having a family. This is true
because I think that once anybody makes a career decision, you have to do your best to
balance both of them.

I try to do it all or I pay somebody else to do some things I have no time to do for
example, my house chores. I had made some conscious decision to take leave of
absence in the past when I could not do it all. It was difﬁcult to keep up with family and
sixty hours of credits for Masters degree and working ﬁrll-time job.

Sb.4 I am conﬂicted everyday of my life with my personal obligations and my
professional duties. It is ahnost impossible to balance the demands of a family life and
administrative positions in higher education, if you are at the senior level. I think that is
why you hear that most female Presidents and Vice Presidents are either single by choice,
they had never been manied, or they divorced. The reason is that it is extremely difﬁcult
to cope with conﬂicts that come from family and job demands. I had two sons, one is
eighteen years old and the other is twenty-one years old now, and they have been
neglected on a number of occasions. Although I have tried not to allow that to happen,
there is still no way out of it. I work twelve to fourteen hour days on occasion. More
likely than not I work ten hours a day and I am a single parent. I was a single parent for
seven years and have been married twice. In this case I was married and became a single
parent again, and I am back to a single parent again by divorce. It is just very difﬁcult to
keep family together. Husbands do not understand the demands of a career; the children
do not understand either. Your heart strains and just break when they do not understand
and I do not know what females are going to do about that. It is ahnost at times, not

worth the effort and I worry about the young women who will come behind us because

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the support systems are not there. There is no child-care in my institution for young
women who have children. The university does not seem to provide the kind of nurturing
atmosphere that is needed to help mothers at least go through the process. They do not
help women with spouses to ﬁnd jobs. They do not provide any kind of assistance and
until they do that, we are not going to have a lot of women in major positions. I do not
think so, since women have to give up too much.

Sb.5 Yes, I have experienced conﬂicts with time-management. One needs to complete
tasks because my position in the administration is 50% appointment and 50% on
professional role. I have a need to continually balance time between the two roles in
higher education. Also, the allocations that I have to my personal life is also time-
management.

Sb.6 I am married and I have a daughter who is now twenty-two years; and I work long
hours in my job.

Over the years I have instances where both my family and my job make demands
on me. Even with my personal efforts, I have gone back to school twice. I have
probably spent seven years as a part-time student, trying to earn degrees as well as
holding full-time job. I absolutely believe as an Associate provost in my ofﬁce that
people have real life and not just their job. I believe that both family life and job always
have to be important, and having said this I try to make every accommodation I can for
people who work for me. I am a good planner and well organized and I have been
fortunate not to have signiﬁcant traumas in my family. I am pretty able to balance both
the responsibilities of my job and those of my family life. My husband I share household

duties and he is quite supportive of my career and me. With all the support, there are still

243

some days when I have conﬂicts with choice as to what things I should do ﬁrst. I have
aged-dependent parents; and I have had a couple of occasions I had to go to take care of
my sick father. With all these responsibilities, I still feel quite fortunate enough to be in
my present position because even though I can work a hundred hours a week; yet it is not
such a big constraint on my personal life.

Sb.7 Personal obligations as I can see it is my extended family which is also the
biggest obligation.

I think that the ability to leave the university for say, a week or two to three days
to take care of extended families, is a conﬂict. I feel the internal conﬂict and again my
mentor told me once, that I have to take some time off. It is a real conﬂict to take care of
family business combined with workload. Taking the trip out of town for family business
sometimes is a real conﬂict when I know I have my administrative duties hanging around
my ofﬁce.

Sb.8 The kind of administrative positions I have been part of are extremely time-
consuming. It takes a spouse who is prepared to be a supportive and committing that
kind of time. Also, it takes a spouse who can be a very good partner in a variety of
social situations and activities that come with high-level administration. Those are role
expectations that are unusual for men and require a particularly sensitive and affective
person to do that when the gender roles are reversed.

CATEGORY B

Sb.9 I have experienced a great deal of conﬂicts because I have had increased
responsibilities in terms of my parents as they have gotten older. This has deﬁnitely been

a conﬂict that I really have had to balance as part of my personal obligations. Another

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thing I would say in terms of conﬂict is that sometimes I have a tendency to neglect me
personal needs; my job always come ﬁrst and this is not too good. I have working on
trying to maintain balance and taking care of myself as well as fulﬁlling administrative
responsibilities.

Sb.10 This is a very good question, because it is very difﬁcult if you are in
administrative position of a chair, dean or higher. The role of an administrator requires
an enormous amount of time and lots of commitment. Most of the people I knew are
working about seventy hours a week or more. It requires that your spouse or children are
going to be very supportive and very understanding of the time you spend on the job.
You also have to make personal commitment yourself to the fact that these personal
relationships are very important in your life. Trying to balance personal life with
administrative responsibilities can be very conﬂicting.

Sb.1 1 Over the years as I have two children, the only time I did not work was when my
children were newly born. After they turned two years old, I started to work so that both
work and family obligations were important to me. It did not mean that I have to give up
one for the other. I have a supportive husband who over the years did not see that a
woman, as having a traditional stay-at-home role. I do not think that I always had time
for everything I had to do, and nobody ahs time for everything they wanted to do.
However, I always set priorities because I have some deadlines but my family
understands this. I have support from my family to meet my deadline. I take off
sometimes to spend vacation together with my family, as this is important to me. All I
am trying to say is that there is conﬂict, but it is a kind of relief to have a supportive

family.

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Sb. 12 This is always really a good question because I am a mother as well as an
administrator in higher education. I have been a mother for a long time. I had two
children and I have raised them and have had a very busy career. I have been a single
parent and this is something that has made a difference in my life because I have pretty
much for both my children and my career. There is a constant sense of where are your
major obligations? I am always having decisions of where I really ought to be. I am
always experiencing guilt feelings about the fact that I was not with my children or was
not with my job. At the time I feel where I need to be, and I have to be with the other
one. These are not new issues for anyone who wishes to be a successﬁrl woman in her
career.

Sb.13 It is difﬁcult to be in high-level position if you have a family. This is because
administration takes many hours of work and energy. You can never really get your
work done. I myself never really get my work done; I just go home because I am tired. It
is really a lot of struggle for me to be with my husband, my children and my work. Of
course, I love both, but it has been a struggle. I could work all the time but it is hard to
neglect my family.

Sb. 14 One of the things that I think women have to be aware of, is that they are still the
care-givers, so they will have long days. Many times I had to get up early, leave before
my husband and children and come back later. Presently all my children are grown, so I
do not have that accommodation to make; but I really did not pursue my Ph.D. until my

youngest child was a senior in high school. That certainly had inﬂuence on my career;

246

but I must confess that there are always big conﬂicts between my personal life and my
administrative duties.

Sb.15 Work and family are the biggest conﬂict many females have as administrators in
higher education. I took on administrative role when my son was still in Elementary
School, and I did much travelling; going to national meetings; and doing some consulting
work. My husband has more stable schedule and was home most of the time I was gone,
so that my son had to stay with him. Administrative lifestyle is very difﬁcult if you do
not have a family setting that can accommodate it. Evening meetings, dinner and
breakfast meetings are just formal lifestyle for administrators and are not just
accommodating to getting children off to school or being home when the children need
you. I gave up for the obligation of the neighborhood activities for example; being part
of the school district which my child was in. I feel there is a big conﬂict between my
administrative lifestyle and being part of my family as well as my community.
CATEGORY C

Sb.16 There is a lot of conﬂicts that go along with this job. It is expected that where
there are university activities that take place on the weekends or evenings that I be in
attendance. My perceptions are that the university activities really come ﬁrst for me. It I
don't perform administrative duties during off-hours, I think it is looked on with
dissatisfaction. The challenge has been there always to be able to disassociate my
professional role with my personal role. This has been especially true when it comes to
evaluating personnel particularly my faculty colleagues. Separating personal obligations

ﬁom administrative characteristics is not always easy.

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Sb. 17 I feel that I have conﬂict at two levels. Being an administrator of a large unit it is
very hard to devote time to my own scholarship because I give a lot of time to my
administrative duties. I feel a lot of tension all the time. I have a family, I have an elderly
parent who lives in her own home; and it is a constant struggle to try to have enough time
to spend with my family and do my administrative job. I work twelve to fourteen hour
days, come to ofﬁce early and leave ofﬁce later around 6 or 7 pm. I work Saturdays and
Sundays and travel a good deal. It is hard to try to maintain a rich family life, a rich
scholarly and administrative life, even with my husband's support. I ﬁnd it a real
challenge on a day to day basis.

Sb.18 I do not experience any role conﬂicts. I am extremely busy. I have a husband
and two children and a house to maintain. My husband and I have more work than
people who have one job between them do or no children do. Although there is not
enough time to spend with my family, but I ﬁgure out what I want to do and I do it.
There is always problems and pressure in getting things done because my role is more
complex than normal life. I get very busy.

Sb.19 Yes, there is conﬂict because there is never enough time to do everything.
Although I am not married and have no children; yet I still do not have enough time to
spend with my relatives and family at home.

Sb.20 There is no time for anything else. I often think that it is because I am such a poor
time-manager and I have read several books on time-management. I have tried to
employ those rules I learnt to better divide my personal life from my professional life, but

it is a very difﬁcult thing to do.

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I think in large part, it is because I love my job and I am devoted to both the
department and the university. I spend a lot of time at work, most week-days I am there
until 8-9 p.m., so it is very easy to just be there all the time. On the other hand, I have a
home and I have a husband and I try to give a portion of my time. The part of me that is
suffering the most is personal health, as I do not have time to take exercise and take care
of mySelf. I do not even have time to enrich my own portfolios, my personal writings and
research.

Sb.21 There are role conﬂicts. Administration is time consuming, it is part of my
divorce and I have no time to do research which I would love to do.

Sb.22 Yes I have experienced role conﬂicts. I feel time is a very precious commodity
and I have to really juggle and keep priorities straight or I lose my creative edge. Also,
I always take time to spend with my son and daughter; and to this effect I do have to
work after they go to bed at night and getting up very early in the morning. I ﬁnd myself
often times working when I should be home.

Sb.23 There is exactly role conﬂict so much as it is, the fact is that there are only a
limited number of hours in the day. Virtually, everybody has obligations outside their
work schedule. In a job like this, one simply never knows when work obligations or
work demands will spill over into evenings or weekends. My administrative job
demands a certain amount of travel. In any ofﬁce, the director or administrator is usually
the one who ends up putting in extra hours and nobody else can manage to put in. As far
as what is, these are actually role or not, I am not sure because at home we have always
shared responsibilities. I do not do all the house-related things but everybody has too

many demands at a time.

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Sb.24 My job is a constant struggle and ﬁrll of role conﬂict from day to day. It is a
constant struggle to try to balance all of my obligations and it is just something that is
essential. It also meant that I have made choices that I am much happy with; but they are
the kind of choices that affect my personal situation. There are indeed role conﬂicts
between maintaining my personal obligations and my duties as an administrator in higher
education.

Sb.25 I do not experience any role conﬂicts between my personal obligations and my
administrative duties. I am married to a wonderful husband and he is very supportive of
my career and me.

Sb.26 Role conﬂict is unavoidable in my job. I work around the clock, almost twenty-
four hours, seven days a week. This seriously erases the time I would like to have for my
personal life.

Sb.27 For the most part my role conﬂicts come about as a mother of a school age child.
If there is an administrative meeting at 7:00 am. or 7: 30 am, then I get childcare issue
in terms of getting my child out before school programs. Evening school programs for
my child is always a challenge in terms of making sure that I am ready to collect my
child; getting dinner ready and helping my child to do the homework. Most of my
conﬂicts just come in terms of handling the mothering part, after school activities; and
may be the need to stay late at work or doing some evening kinds of programs. All

these are difﬁcult when you have a school-age child that you have some obligations for.

250

Sb.28 It is a challenge and conﬂict having young children. It can be a challenge as I
work around the clock. If it is a choice between what I am going to do for my family,
and what I am going to do for my professional advancement. I tend to err on the side of
doing things for my family. I have not had time between my job and my personal life.
Sb.29 Time is my worst enemy in terms of handling personal obligations and my duties
in administration. I had extended families that lived with me until they died, and I had
time problems of leaving my work to take care of them. I worked until very late at night
and very hard during the day and it was very stressful; but being a psychologist I could
take care of myself. I have not had much social life because my work and my husband
are my social life; so there is not time for other things.

Sb.30 There is role conﬂict because I work so hard to the point that I potentially let my
professional role dictate for my personal role. There was sometimes when would come
home and I would whole work out because there was something I needed to get done for
the next morning or the next day. I had no time to spend with my family. The kind of
schedule I have does not allow me to go to sleep until 12:00 or 1:00 am. in the morning.
It creates conﬂict when you totally devote your time for your job, just to do your best for
the institution you are working for, and you do not give any to your family or yourself.
QUESTION 13

What was the greatest accomplishment achieved, and satisfaction you had as a higher

education administrator? Do you aspire to an even higher level of administration? Why?

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CATEGORY A

Sb.1 I think I had multiple speciﬁc goal achievement at each job I have had. The
greatest satisfaction I have had as an administrator was being able to have positive
inﬂuence in the lives of young people. I get to do that almost daily.

I have people that keep nominating me for presidency; but I am not sure of the
life-style that I would like because it would take me away from students. In this regard I
think my answer is probably no further aspiration to an even higher level of
administration.

Sb.2 I have worked in a number of publications over the years that I thought were very
successﬁrl, and have won some awards for the most improved media relations for Internal
Communication Programs in the United States. As an Assistant Vice President for
University Relations, I am the person that gets assigned special projects, and over the
years I helped another Vice President prepare a facilities plan that provided $80 million
(eighty million dollars) worth of improvements to our institution over a ten year period. I
have worked on a lot of strategies that have been followed and all have been successful. I
have worked on a plan to provide a general student fee for athletics and made a
signiﬁcant difference. I wrote the accreditation report for the athletics department's
accreditation for the NCAA which is a major project. It is hard to think of all I have done
for the past thirty years here at my institution. The most important thing is that we have
all ﬁnancially rewarding to my institution, and I am happy and all of these gave me great
satisfaction.

I am very happy with what I do for now but I think I have been prepared be a

Vice Presidential position. I really do aspire to an even higher level administration.

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Sb.3 My greatest satisfaction has not happened yet. I think it will happen when I have
got my doctorate degree. But I have made a wonderful contribution to my present
employed institution. 1 have done what I have thought for a lot of individuals who were
here in the same, prior to my coming there in a different perspective and in a different
fresh approach. I have been open to my colleagues and motivated people to getting the
job done very well. I work well with people, but I do not think I have done great things.

Yes, I think I do have aspiration to higher level of administration, preferably a
college presidency. I am not so sure as of late.
Sb.4 I believe that the taking of idea and molding it into something that you can
implement and watching it become successful is my greatest satisfaction. The case in
point here in position is the doctoral program in my former department of Leadership and
Counseling. When I ﬁrst came there it was on a paper but really needed some
conceptualization. It was an idea that really needs to be implemented and I get such pride
over watching new graduate work across the stage. I get great pride at looking at the
faculty that we have hired and the change the Doctoral Program has made in the
institution. My making a difference in the life of an institution by the ideas that I have
and the creativity that I have and the muscle that it takes to put it in place is the greatest
fun of all for me. I think another greatest contribution is that I try to be a good role
model for women because I know that if I do not succeed there will not be any more and
I am very serious about statement. I glory in watching my female doctoral students
succeed and make more than I do and get into higher positions. It thrills me greatly.

I do not know if I want to aspire to higher level, but there are days when I think I

want to be a small college president. There are days when I want to quit and go home

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and be a housewife but I know I cannot do that. I could not do this ﬁnancially or
emotionally but there are also days when I think that my greatest contribution is being a
faculty member. At the moment, I conﬂicted about what I want to do. I am thinking so
much about the notion of being a college president. I might have to try it once but I just
do not know I got people are asking when I would do it; but I have not jumped into that
yet.
Sb.5 The major satisfaction and accomplishments are that I have had is learning more
about the University of Michigan and how it functions at the level of Provost ofﬁce. My
primary satisfaction has been the opportunity to work with our Provost.

As for the question about aspiring to higher level, I have not decision on that.
Sb.6 I made a success of a former ofﬁce that did not have good reputation of doing the
job it was supposed to do. It was seen as unresponsive and I had been under review for
possible elimination. I feel that I made it a very successful ofﬁce, with the help of my
mentor; I was able to pick up how it should be and how it needed to serve the university.
I was an able manager and I was quick to accomplish that so I think that success is the
greatest satisfaction so far. The other kind of accomplishment I have had through that
ofﬁce is that I have had lots of very good people work for me and I served as mentors to
them; and they have all been women. I have seen that at least half a dozen women in the
university are in higher-level management positions now who came through my ofﬁce
and I appraised them. I consider that, great accomplishment as well as satisfaction.

I do not aspire to any other higher level of administration. I want to have a
balanced life. I work very hard, I really give a lot to the university; but I want to have

choice of having balance of and things outside of work.

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Sb.7 I would say that I gain my greatest satisfactions ﬁom talking and listening and
getting other people's ideas. I also studying abroad provided value added idea for
example, Bailey Scholars Program that is turning into a superb program. I am even more
satisﬁed to see that the people I am working with and the fact that the institution is happy
with what I am doing.

I have really the opportunities to be president higher institution with the number
of phone calls I get for nominations. I began as an executive level administrator when I
was thirty years old so; I have done it for twenty years. In varieties of ways what I really
look at now is not the title per-se, but whether I can do the things that really interest me.
Sb.8 I get satisfaction in helping students and making a difference in their lives. I give
people advice as a mentor and make a difference in their lives and this is a great
satisfaction to me. The other accomplishment and satisfaction I would say is making a
difference in the lives of the staff that I work with.
I do not aspire to any other higher levels of administration. I do not want a

headache of higher education any more.

CATEGORY B

Sb.9 For me the greatest accomplishments and satisfaction is working in the Graduate
School; and working with the graduate students. I organized programs that will beneﬁt
the education of graduate students. Other pieces are working with faculty on programs
that they can jointly deliver to graduate students in order to improve graduate education.

All these give me the satisfaction as an administrator of higher education.

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At this point I do not aspire to another level of administration because I am very
contented with the Dean of the Graduate School role. I would worry that higher levels of
administration would take one further and further away from dealing with faculty and
dealing with graduate students. These are the two populations I like dealing with very
much.

Sb.10 My greatest feeling of accomplishment has been seeing the growth and
development of students. When I see what students achieve and accomplish overtime,
and they tell me how valuable my services to them as a role model is to them; I feel very
satisﬁed. Another satisfaction is to look at the difference we made in terms of positive
outcomes within the institution and the progress of the programs.

Yes, I would like to aspire to higher level positions, and this is something that I am
sort of trying back and forth. I am looking at positions as provosts or university
presidency, but I truly believe in people going through the ranks. In this regard before I
would become a university president, I would like to have the experience as a provost
because I have moved from faculty member to chairperson and then dean. Everyone
does not have to look for that perspective, but I have to look for what makes me feel
comfortable.

Sb.1 1 I am proud of my two achievements, and that is program development efforts and
faculty development efforts. When I ﬁrst became Dean we had only one Department of
Graduate Program and it was rather small. But now, we have programs in all four
departments and the new Masters of Science and Social Work is one the largest best and
fastest growing graduate programs of the university. It takes twenty-ﬁve students a year.

Again when I came, we had faculty that was only about 20% doctors, but now we

256

ahnost 70% and we are into writing more books than journal articles. All these give me
great satisfaction than ever.

I always thought I would like to end my career as a provost, but I do not know if
that is really what is going to happen, as I am not actively searching for it. We are
getting into a new building and I would like to see that ﬁnished and everyone moved in.
Another thing is that every time one leaves, one has to give up something one loves and
do something different. It is always that struggle between choices. I previously reported
that I had been offered a provost position but I was comfortable with the present
institution and I thought it was not the best for me now, so I did not go.

Sb. 12 The greatest satisfaction are really being able to provide the vision and the
leadership to live a shared vision with a group of challenges; in order to establish a very
important direction for our program discipline. At the National Institute for Nursing
Research, we were able to bring the strongest most experienced nursing researchers in the
country together. With these individuals, evolved a national nursing researcher priority
set. We have guided the country for ten years and that was a very exciting thing to see
challenges being able to come and put together as a group. In something like the School
of Nursing, it is just as exciting because we are trying to put together a shared vision with
the faculty; and were trying to think through the best way to do it. We are trying to see
how we can facilitate our work and this is really the most exciting part of being an
administrator.

My identity is nursing and so, I do not want to aspire to any other higher level of

administration.

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Sb. 13 I found that the greatest satisfaction and accomplishments are getting programs
through and getting funding for people who wanted to do things; and encouraging new
people to get involve in different ways. These achievements are what I got my
satisfactions from especially my day to day activities as an administrator.

No, I do not want any even busier lifestyle. I think as an Associate Dean I can
protect myself a little bit from the public relations role that a dean has to play. But once I
get into those other higher levels, I really have to be at the mercy every day, every hour
of my position; I have no freedom of choice. At least now I have a little choice, because
I have peers who can substitute for me and I have an administrative team around that can
handle some of the public relations activities. I think I am just satisﬁed where I am at
this point.

Sb. 14 When I look at my present job, one of the best sources of satisfaction is being able
to see that students are supported in moving towards receiving their level of education
that they desire. This means being available to talk to them; and being a counselor or
may be, helping them to ﬁnd resources. During graduation then I watch students walk
through the commencement, I cry for joy that I am part of their success and growth.

I would say that I do not want to aspire to any even higher level of administration.
I think I have done enough.

Sb.15 I have had the opportunity to mentor many women as well as men but more
women. I have had the opportunity to see many women achieve Ph.D.s, higher degrees
or ﬁnish college programs; and I think these are great satisfaction to me. The last several
years, my passion has been the recruitment of minority teachers, especially those who

have already had their degree and want to teach in urban areas. It is a great satisfaction to

258

see students who work very hard to achieve their goal of a certiﬁed teacher and get
gainful employment. I would say that if I were really looking at what satisfactions it
would be to see the achievement of others.

I would have enjoyed being a Dean, but after forty-one years, this is my last year.
Being in higher education all these years, I am going to retire this year.

CATEGORY C

Sb. 16 I think that in my position, my greatest satisfaction has been in hiring a great
number of excellent young faculty; and in helping individuals in the department achieve
their researches and their teaching goals. I have helped the department as a whole to
become stronger than they were when I ﬁrst came here eleven years ago.

No further aspiration to even higher level of administration. I have been invited
to apply for dean's position and I turned it down. May be a few years ago I would have
aspired but not enough time to leave this particular location so, I am happy where I am.
Sb. 1 7 The greatest accomplishment is really being capable of developing leadership in
other people. In the past we did not have a big outreach and training program and now
we have a director of that who handles that piece. We have a lot of more facilities now
than we had in the past and we have started to come through ranks and get tenure. In the
whole the department has become more resource-rich in terms of human resources. A lot
of people have developed their own leadership.

I do not spire to an even higher level of administration. In fact very deﬁnite plans
after four years, my second term of chairperson will be up and I am going to return to a

heavier emphasis on my research.

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Sb.18 My greatest satisfaction as an administrator has been, working in this department,
working with a number of colleagues about twenty-eight full-time members. My greatest
accomplishment was bringing them all together ten years ago I began series of retreat for
professional development. Now I am doing fourteen development days, that covers a
wide range of topics and this has been very successﬁrl in bringing the faculty and the
department together. Over the past ten years we have been working together to look at
our beliefs; the department statements and determine a course of action. I am very
pleased with the progress we have made; and the course of action we have taken as well
as the growth and the change over these past ten years.

I do not aspire to an even higher level of administration because I am closer to
retirement. I would like to go for the vice presidency if I were ten years younger than I
am now.

Sb. 19 I have had several accomplishments and the ﬁrst is that the professional invasion
of the staff I put was a real sense of importance of that professional piece in terms of
being a teacher educator and service provider to student’s families. We really worked as
team and published materials together and developed standardized tools foe assessing
students. We have developed a standardized syllabus for training students and I feel that
other laboratory schools across the country use them as a benchmark. Other institutions
see them as a standard of excellence and would like to emulate what we do. The second
accomplishment is that my staff and I have developed a curriculum that was adopted by
schools nationwide. It has even been adopted by our own state department of education
as a standard for programs for young children across the state; and for me these are big

accomplishments. As a department chairperson, I feel proud of the fact that our

260

department has really developed a philosophy of how we are going to ﬁmction; that is in
keeping with the 21St century. We have adopted a collaborative mode of working
together that has yielded greater productivity in terms of publications, student’s credit
hours, and grantsmanship. I think we a positive climate in our department hence; we are
not divided into camps and we are not counter productive and not lead away from the
mission of the unit. I can only mention a few of my accomplishments and satisfaction
here as they are many.

It is hard to say because I know that the further you get into central
administration, the further you get away from the students and the faculty. I really like
team building and working with people. I like the satisfaction that comes from seeing
students and faculty achieve, so I am not sure of what satisfaction might come from
moving into central administration.

Sb.20 There are so many accomplishments and satisfactions. I guess especially my
greatest satisfaction and accomplishment was bringing several of the faculty through
promotion and tenure procedures. Being able to tell them that they have been successful
in the department gives me great satisfaction. It is satisfaction for me when a class goes
very well for professors and I read the evaluation and see that they got a 100% superior.
When it does not go well, then I arrange for a little teaching workshop for them to learn
some teaching techniques that could help them and sure enough it is better most of the
time. I really think that I get an enormous satisfactory feeling when it works and I have
something to do with it working well.

Absolutely no ﬁrrther aspiration to even higher level of administration. I am not

very far from retirement and my plan is to complete the ﬁve years of the chair position

261

role. For over twenty years I have never had a sabbatical leave and at this point in time
of my retirement, I would like to take a leave. I have a project in Costa Rica which I
would like to work on my two years, and then retire. Someone would have to make an
attractive offer for me to go one step beyond this present position.

Sb.21 My greatest accomplishments are the various things that I can measure in terms of
economic basis. I think I can demonstrate how much I have done and how effective I
have been in terms of discharging my duties. The fact that over the years I have had
students who were employed at my ofﬁce, and on various occasions, these students have
telephoned me or stopped by my ofﬁce to tell me how well they have done on their jobs.
All these give me great satisfaction.

At this particular point of my life, I do not assertively aspire to any other higher
levels of administration. As for being qualiﬁed for higher, I very much think that I am
qualiﬁed but, I do not want to give any more of my personal life than I am giving now;
because the higher one go in any organization, the more one has to give of herself.
Sb.22 My accomplishments and satisfaction have been seeing that gifted and talented
children excel more. Working with them has been a great joy.

I do not have further aspiration to an even higher administration because I am
retiring at the end of this year.

Sb.23 My greatest accomplishment and satisfactions is seeing a lot of growth in the
programs that I have been stewarding or director of. When I can engage a lot of people
in fund-raising process for the college, I think that is a lot of accomplishments. To see

the Alumni and friends of the college are engaged as well as I am translating the work

262

that the faculty is doing; and to the external constituencies, all these are my greatest
accomplishments and satisfaction.

Yes, I would like to be the Vice President of Development in the future, because
it seems possible.
Sb.24 I think that some of the greatest accomplishments and satisfactions from my job
are being able to help other young professionals to grow, be they male or female. It is
satisfying to be able to be a positive force for somebody else's growth. Also in terms of
moving a unit forward, keeping up with the technological trends and the demands of the
university, is another accomplishment and satisfaction. I make sure that things stay the
same and that things change in terms of meeting students needs and this give me great
sense of satisfaction. It is always a satisfaction when I feel that I am doing the right
things for my students as well as my staff.

Yes, I do aspire to an even higher level of administrative position, but not a
presidency position. I would like to have inﬂuence and to work with people.
Sb.25 One area of some of the greatest accomplishments is the recognition I received on
a national Counsel for Alcohol and Drug Prevention ﬁeld. I feel very proud of the work I
have done and the recognition I received and the call to serve on various national
committees. I think that some other satisfactions come from some of the work I have
done with the staff that I had trained and worked with, do get better paid positions and I
feel very proud of that. My friendly atmosphere give me joy that people relate to me and
I try to empower my staff, so that they can be good decision-makers; and take
responsibilities and experience growth and feel invested in what they are doing in the

department.

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Yes, I do aspire to an even higher level of administration, but it all depend on the
days. Some days I feel positively sure that I would like to aspire and some other days, I
feel I would like to go back to school and pick up more intellectual course work and go
back to teach. I think I am skilled enough to be at next level, but the problem is whether
I can make the choice to work at it.

Sb.26 My greatest accomplishments and satisfaction has been working with students.
Sometirrres there is students assistance or intervention, would not have completed
college. I think some of my greatest accomplishments are those students that have been
able to help achieve their goals. I have written some grant proposals and they were
successful.

I do not know yet whether I would like to aspire to an even higher level
administrative position, because the higher I get into administration, the less connected I
get to students and myself. I think I have to be political and I am not interested in being
political. From what I have seen, I would rather be a lowly administrator or a lowly
professor, rather than being a provost.

Sb.27 I have made a difference in the program as a director, and the program has made a
difference in my life. We have been able to provide to poor people who did not have
enough to eat. I have helped students who were in ﬁnancial needs to succeed. Some of
the students I helped have done very well and moved to higher levels than mine. The
graduate students are the greatest accomplishments and satisfactions.

I do not aspire to an even higher level of administration because I do not see much

opportunities.

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Sb.28 I suppose the greatest satisfaction that I have had in this job is knowing that we
are getting more students in my institution to study abroad. Our ofﬁce has been
ﬁnancially solid which it has not been and the students participate in. From this, I take a
great deal of satisfaction.

I say "no" as far as whether I aspire to a higher level position. At this point, I am
not just sure of what I would like to do. I think I would miss a job in which I would no
longer work directly with students and in which I would not have the opportunity to do
any travelling.

Sb.29 I would say that my greatest accomplishment and the thing I get satisfaction ﬁom
is to feel that the center that I direct has grown to a much ﬁrmer foundation since I came.
I get satisfaction from making the institution stronger and for making me to serve more
women and to contribute to advocacy and research that we feel is important.

I do not at this time aspire to other higher level of administration. I am just happy
with what I am doing now.

Sb.30 I feel a sense of satisfaction from dealing with students who want to be admitted
into the university. Serving the local and foreign students to the best of my ability as a
director of admissions is an accomplishment and satisfaction.

I do not aspire to an even higher level of administration, because I feel happy to
deal with students at this level.

QUESTION 14
What advice or council would you give to women aspiring to administrative positions in

higher education?

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CATEGORY A

Sb.1 The number one advice I give to aspiring women is that they go for it, but must be
sure that they are applying for the right position they want. Just because it looks good
does not mean that it is the right job for anybody. They should do professional
development kinds of activities. They need to select role models and particularly one in
the area that they aspire to; and do not look for only the positives but take a constructive
look at what that individual do or does not do that they can learn from in terms of their
next experience. Finally I reiterate and encourage aspiring women to apply for higher
level positions in educational administration.

Sb.2 My advice would be that aspiring women try to get as much early education as
they can. They should keep learning and be comfortable with ambiguity because there
would be a lot in life. They should review their own values very quick and continue to
act in their own values. They should keep a balance in their lives; have for spiritual
needs; physical as well as intellectual needs because they will dry and burn out if they
don't. I advice them to go for it!

Sb.3 The advice I am giving to women who are aspiring to positions as administrators
in higher education is that they have to have the necessary educational background, earn
a Masters degree or Doctorate. They have to ﬁnd an area that they enjoy working in and
need to work hard; putting in whatever hours it takes to get the job done to the best of
their ability. They have to develop strong relationships at the employing institution
because that helps to be successful. They should have successﬁrl role models in the
aspiring positions. I certainly think that reading and opportunities for professional

meetings are very important for professional development. Overall main advice is to

266

work hard and always do their best and not to be limited by the number of hours they are
supposed to work as opposed to the number of hours it takes to get the job done. Finally,
I advice aspiring women to go for positions on educational administration.

Sb.4 Women aspiring to positions as administrators in higher education got to be
academically prepared than anybody else; and they need to ﬁgure out what kind of
positions they want in higher education. They must see what the maximum credentials
are; what are the things that they have to get in the running of the jobs and then get those
credentials. They have to have the terminal degree; have lots of publications; have
conducted research and professional experience. They have to be ready to work
tirelessly, putting in many hours to work. They have to able to balance multiple things in
their lives with ease; and try to have their personal lives because if they don't have any
then, what is life. I strongly advice them to try have only one child if they aspire to a vice
presidency or from the deans level up because if they have many children they have to
have unlimited resources to have a nanny. Most of all they must get along with the
people they work with and go for positions in higher education.

Sb.5 My counsel to women who are aspiring to positions as administrators in higher
education, it is very important for them to gain as much experience as they can get and
get it in many different roles as possible. I also believe that networking is very important
aspect because it allows them to not only understand the advantages of these top
positions; but help them to understand the opportunities available. They should go for

positions in higher education!

267

Sb.6 I encouraged aspiring women to go for positions in administration of higher
education. They need to get variety of experiences on campus; clearly working with the
faculty. It is important to know what it means to be a faculty member in the university.
It is very important for them to have an idea of a governance structure; to work on
committees; and to extend themselves to people so that when they get to administrative
positions, they are known as persons of honor and honesty. In this regard networking is
what is necessary for one to be connected to available positions in administration. Again
I encourage women to spire to higher positions and struggle to break through the "glass-
ceiling". They should take the courses that lead towards the career they are interested in
and be willing to learn and read in all areas.

Sb.7 I think that women who are looking for academic administrative positions in
higher education, should initially acquire a strong academic base with professors who are
prepared to recommend that you are good academician. This is how you short circuit
these days in terms of any higher positions for men and women. It is also important to
try to take time to think about complex systems because universities are complex
systems. Just being good in their own area, discipline or profession does not make them
good at dealing with complex systems of people and ideas.

It is extremely important to have role models with who they are prepared to listen
to; who will help them to understand how organizations work and who can give you
advice and counsel. They should try to understand the area or positions that will make
them happy. It is important to have values and be consistent with those values and what
they think is important. Finally, I encourage them to go for administrative positions in

higher education.

268

Sb.8 Aspiring women to positions as administrators of higher education should have
faculty credentials that are very important. They should have experience in the academic
unit and this is very essential regardless of the position in higher education. They should
for competition in administrative positions in higher education because I believe that
women can do it.
CATEGORY B
Sb.9 I recommended that a woman administrator be truly to her own values and beliefs.
She should be committed to servant leadership, and ﬁnd satisfaction in the success of
others rather than her own success. I encourage aspiring women to position of
administration of higher education to go for it!
Sb. 10 Women who are aspiring for positions as administrators in higher education
should really go for it. They should be focused and have a vision. They should know
that it takes lots of energy. They should ﬁnd a good mentor, in fact probably a set of
mentors that will help them.
Sb.1 1 One very important piece of advice to aspiring women would be to take
advantage of networking

Opportunities. They should make sure that there are programs that they can enroll
in for example, leadership programs or other things they can participate fully so that
people have understanding of who they are. They need to volunteer for something so that
they become more visible also that people have the chance to watch them and how they
work. If women are stereotyped that they cannot handle work, but if women demonstrate

that they can do things, it helps a lot if they prove that they are interested in the

269

administrative roles. It is also important to prove that they can do it. I, therefore,
recommend that they should go for higher positions of higher education.

Sb. 12 I think that the greatest advice that I would have for aspiring women is to make
sure that their objectives are very clear; in terms of what they want to do, and to remain
focused on it. They should most deﬁnitely go for higher levels of administration. They
should have a lot of positive thinking and have a very strong sense of spirituality, not
spirituality only from the perspective of religion; but spirituality in knowing and
understanding how much they cannot control.

Sb.13 I would advise aspiring women to get good mentors, to be ﬂexible, persistent and
to be collaborative. They should have as many varied experiences as they can. I do not
think that women should have all qualiﬁcations to apply for a position; but they should
the necessary qualiﬁcations to get them in. Just because they have not done something
before certainly does not mean that they cannot do it; rather they should take risk and be
willing to accept a position that is challenging. Anywhere possible, they should go where
the positions are.

Sb.14 There are couple of advice I would like to give to aspiring women for positions of
higher education. They should build up their experiential base and networking base.
They should take advantage of opportunities to take leadership positions in leadership
committees and projects and many different ways so that they would have done things
they would be administering in the ﬁrture. A few examples of those are grants projects,
and public relations, so that they have a little bit of familiarity with all these things. Both
personal and expertise networks are extremely important because it is from it that they

can call upon for assistance. It is from networks that they can start building their support

270

base, long before they apply for any administrative positions. I encourage them to go for
it!

Sb. 15 I have a couple of pieces of advice that are important for aspiring women to
positions as administrators in higher education. If women want to have a position as
administrators in higher education, they should look at what the position requires. They
do not go and seek a position in which they do not have the basic elements of training
that would enable them to do a good job. They should go into that interview process
feeling that you have the best qualiﬁcation of anyone who is coming in. Another advice
is that they do networking and have people who they will go to and talk about something
they are interested in. Women should not do it all by themselves, there has to be persons
who see their credentials and are willing to support them. They should be realistic and
have to be qualiﬁed and be ready to move up the ladder.

CATEGORY C

Sb.16 My advice to aspiring women to positions as administrators of higher education is
that they go for it. From my personal experiences there are women who look for
differences; so I advise women to take things for face value. Higher education is stressful
quite all right, so I would advise other women to do better job than I have of balancing
their personal lives with their jobs. Perhaps, they should not attend all those extra
curricular activities that are expected of my job.

Sb. 1 7 I would advise aspiring women to go for higher education administration because
I think they can do better than men do. They should prepare themselves to take on tasks
that will improve their skills, and to do those tasks very well. This is true because I think

women still have to do better than me to be given the same kind of credit as men are

271

given. I would also advise women to talk to other role models and gain something of
their experiences and advice. I suggest that they make themselves cognizant of national
issues in education and do intellect and professional work outside their own universities
and departments; so that they know what is going on in the world of higher education.
They should go for advanced degrees in areas of their interest, and encourage other
women.

Sb. 18 Probably the most important advice to aspiring women to positions as
administrators in higher education is to have support networks that are not at their place
of work. I encourage them to take care of their health in terms of eating well and
exercise, and balancing their time between work and their lives. They should take
courses in degrees that lead to their future career aspirations. They should go for higher
levels of administration if they are qualiﬁed because the positions are for men and
women.

Sb.19 There are three pieces of advice I would like to give to aspiring women to
positions as administrators of higher education. I would tell them that it takes more to be
good administrators, rather than just a charming personality; also I think that the
charismatic approach to administration is not enough. It is important that people develop
some skills and understand how to work with other people. Women should develop skills
related to budgeting and organizational designs. It is important for aspiring women to
look at the big picture in terms of higher education because we are not simply family
theorists or educators or community service personnel; we are higher education
professionals. In this regard, we need to know about that context; we need to get

education both formal and informal, but it needs to be deliberate and systematic. Women

272

have to be true to themselves and try to play the political game sometimes, but try to stay
clear to unnecessary politics.

Sb.20 Probably the most profound advice I can give is that they believe in themselves,
that the administrative positions they are taking can really take their ego apart. They got
to have a strong feeling that they can do it and do not ever waiver from that. Another
strong advice is that they do not ever stop learning because I think that the learning
approach to administration is only one.

Most of the time they would ﬁnd themselves learning from their role models;
about all kinds of challenges that they have had and those role models would help them
with solutions to problems.

They should operate from a clear understanding of their core values, for example;
fairness, ﬁ'ugality, respect and those kinds of things. Another piece of advice is that
administrators can make mistakes and there is just no way to avoid that but, they simply
have to learn from their mistakes and get their self conﬁdence back in place. Sometimes,
they can make apologies or extend the hands that they would have extended days past
and keep on going. They should go for it!

Sb.21 I would encourage aspiring women to go for positions in administration of higher
education. They should get appropriate academic qualiﬁcations at any level they are
capable of reaching.

Sb.22 I would encourage aspiring women to go for it because I love higher education.
They should do networking which is very important for job connections. They should
develop management skills and put everything to practice. Above all they should try to

be a team and encourage and facilitate other females.

273

Sb.23 I would like to advise aspiring women to take courses that relate to budgets and
ﬁnance. I think that women today need to be prepared to understand budgets and to be
able to manage and not to be afraid to work with numbers because I think women have
never been trained to be crunchers and be comfortable doing that. I think that aspiring
women cannot wait for someone to come knocking at their door; rather they need to seek
out mentors. They need to seek out just a small niche of supporters and start with people
that are inﬂuential that will support them to achieve their goals. They need people who
will help them to network. I think aspiring women need to be able to play the game of
politics whether or not they are comfortable and whether or not it is in the university
setting or elsewhere. They should try to ﬁnd mentors that will support their cause as
well; all these are very important if they want to move up. They should struggle to get
ahead in the positions of higher education administration.

Sb.24 I would advise aspiring women to identify what their skills and talents are and be
competent in those things; and not think back from them. I think women need to be
better networkers; they need to look to other women to help pull them up into higher
levels of administration. I think that as we go to higher levels of administration that
women need to reach to other women as well because we tend not to think of others of
our sex. Aspiring women should seek out mentors and hopefully ﬁnd them; they need to
be smart to the extent that they have to understand politics. They should try to maintain a
sense of compassion, ideals and values as they move up. Lastly, I advise competent

women to go for higher levels of administration in education.

274

Sb.25 I advise women who aspire to positions in higher education to get good education
and go for it! They should be themselves and do their absolute best job they can.

Sb.26 The two cautious advice I would have to give to aspiring women partly what I
would hope I could manage not to do. I advise them "never to lose their temper” The
other piece of advice I would give is that they need to be straight forward and open as
possible in dealing with people; because it would be much simpler in the long run. I
advise them to get ahead for positions of higher educational administration.

Sb.27 I would advise them to seek out opportunities to learn to grow; whether it is
serving on a committee, taking responsibility for new projects. They should look for
variety of mentorship experiences, not necessarily only one mentor, but one can learn
different things from different people. They should go for terminal degrees; get a range
of experiences. They should be careful about their choices; analyze the environments
because they may seem wonderful positions, but they are not the right ones. Finally I
encourage them to go for higher levels of administration!

Sb.28 I encourage aspiring women to go for higher level positions because I believe
they can do it.

Sb.29 I highly recommend that women go for positions in administration of higher
education. They should have a balanced life. They should take care of themselves from
a personal perspective, in terms of their health, physically and mentally. They should
take of themselves in terms of their family lives as they work diligently. I recommend
women to have control of their destiny and not letting anyone else to run it for them; and

that they set the course of their lives and their lifestyles.

275

Sb.30 My advice is that aspiring women to positions in administration of higher
education, is to try to apply and get the ﬁrst hand experience in all levels of the higher
education. They should get involve in the governance, getting involve in organizations
on campus that deal with issues. These give the comprehensive view of how universities
work hence; it is really important to understand the structure of the universities. Another
piece of advice is to really tone the organizational skills, and the ability to organize is
very important. They should be able to understand clearly what their mission is and how
to articulate that to others they work with. They need to get the appropriate credentials in
order to qualify for positions they would be applying for. Above all, they should go for

higher levels of administration in higher education.

276

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