Women have earned at least half of all associate degrees since 1978. The same has been true when it comes to bachelor’s degrees since 1981, master’s degrees since 1991, and doctoral degrees since 2006, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. In a new report on the status of women in higher education, the American Council on Education highlights this data to emphasize how plentiful the talent pipeline is — even though women are far from parity in the top jobs in higher education
“I think there’s a presumption that women have quote-unquote made it,” said Lynn M. Gangone, vice president for leadership programs at ACE, “but when you look at any sector, what you see are pretty sobering statistics — particularly when you get to the top.”
Data from the "Pipelines, Pathways, and Institutional Leadership" report shows a steady increase in the portion of presidencies held by women from 1986 to 2011, but in the latest year, the portion was still just 27%. Gangone acknowledges that is better than the portion of women CEOs in the corporate sector, but ACE recently announced its "Moving the Needle" campaign to make clear that is not good enough.
The campaign, which has the support of nearly 250 sitting presidents and chancellors so far, aims to increase the amount of women executives in higher education and achieve parity by 2030. The hundreds of presidents that have added their names to the campaign’s call have committed to doing their part to nominate qualified women to top positions, provide opportunities for women in the pipeline, educate others about the benefits of gender diversity, and empower their leadership teams to sponsor women leaders.
Getting more women into presidential positions in higher education is complicated. While women hold half or more of all degrees, there are fewer of them at higher ranks within academia. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, women held just 31% of full professor positions at degree-granting postsecondary institutions in 2014. That year, at every type of institution, men held a greater portion of tenure positions, even though they didn’t outnumber women at every rank.
While the percentage of female chief academic officers has increased slightly across institution types overall, that was not the case between 2008 and 2013 at public, doctorate-granting institutions, where the percentage declined from 40% to 25.3%.
Gangone said women tend to need traditional credentials to ascend to the highest ranks, while institutions tend to take more risks with men. The data about chief academic officers is troubling, then, for its consequences.
“If we’re starting to see some unraveling of women in the CAO position, that may signal some reasons why we haven’t made much progress in accelerating our numbers toward the presidency,” Gangone said.
The paucity of women on college and university governing boards helps explain the persistent lags. ACE refers to preliminary data indicating men outnumber women on both public and private college and university governing boards by more than two to one. As these boards choose the president and the president chooses the cabinet, the tone set by the boards echoes through the institution.
And where women have trouble getting to the top, women of color, as a subset, are at an even greater disadvantage.
In its Moving the Needle campaign, ACE plans to collect data and best practices from campuses and higher education associations making progress toward gender equity nationwide. Just as work to broaden the racial/ethnic diversity on campus takes systemic change in addition to individual appointments, the same is true for gender diversity. And, as ACE points out, the work must begin now.
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