Lonely at the Top?

Women Presidents and their Distinct Leadership

Article Review: Lonely at the Top?

            Becoming a college or university president is challenging, and can be even more challenging for women and/or minority women. The field of education stereotypically is assumed to be female-dominated at the bottom when associated with primary school teaching however at the administration level, in special regard to higher education, it continues to be male-dominated. In 2006, 27 percent of women were presidents at community colleges and 18 percent were presidents at four=year institutions (Valdata, p. 1). As an example, “Dr. Ding-Jo Hsia Currie was only one of 13 Asian-American college presidents”, making it difficult to fit in in an already male-dominated field (Valdata, 2006, p.2).

            Women are encouraged to build relationships with other women and to have mentors. Female or male mentors can be beneficial to advancement. It is an important factor to be familiar with negotiating or working with the other sex. A support system is crucial for personal and professional well-being up the career ladder. Dr. Karen Gayton Swisher of Haskell Indian Nation University had a unique perspective in her advancement expressing that having female role models is significant but for her observing strong individualism among her Native-American role models made her see leadership in a different manner, when compared to the while male method Americans are traditionally accustomed to.

A common trend among university and college presidents is the ability to take risks. Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum of Spelman College took a large risk when accepting her position as the third black women president of Spelman College. She had both son and husband in Massachusetts while beginning her position as her son finished high school and husband, faculty member of a Massachusetts institution awaited early retirement. Dr.Patricia Granados of Triton College knew she was taking a risk when her predecessor came from faculty and had a very different leadership style than she did.     

For minority presidents the statistics show an alarming picture in 2006 demonstrating that there were only 6.3 percent of Black presidents, 3.7 percent Hispanic presidents,1.2 percent Asian-American presidents, and 1.1 American Indians presidents (Valdata, p. 1-2). Desiring to go against the odds, “Dr. Juliet Garcia was the first Mexican-American woman to become president of an American college or university.”(Valdata, 2006, p. 3). Among the majority of women minority presidents of higher education settings have an open-minded perspective of various backgrounds and concepts to diversity. They strive to understand the people in their organization of different levels and be a voice for their passion and the passion of others.

Valdata, P. (2006). Lonely at the top? Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 23(20), 28-33. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.fiu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/194229279?accountid=10901