Educational Administrators, College and University

Gender Gap

The gender gap in higher education administration is lowest in entry-level administrative positions and at small, public, and two-year colleges, and increases at the higher administrative levels and at doctoral degree-granting and research universities. There are more qualified women than female higher education administrators, and those stuck in administrative positions often have equivalent education and greater experience than their male counterparts. Researchers have posited a variety of reasons for the gender gap in higher education administration, reaching little consensus as to the causes.

Women in higher education are disproportionately represented in entry-level administrative staff positions, while in 2003 they held only 27 percent of deanships and 15 percent of provost positions. An American Council on Education study found that 45 percent of senior administrators and 38 percent of chief academic officers were women. Figures (2010) from the Chronicle of Higher Education place the percentage of female college and university presidents at 23 percent. The percentages are much lower for minority men and women.

Women are also disproportionately represented in positions that some researchers feel are earmarked for women, such as positions that were previously held by a woman, work with women or minority students, or were specifically created to meet equal opportunity or affirmative action legislation, such as those that passed in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Such legislation has had both positive and potentially negative impacts. While these placements have increased women's employment and advancement opportunities within higher education administration, many of these positions do not have the advancement potential to the highest administrative levels. Similar figures hold for women college and university faculty, where they are clustered in adjunct and other nontenure-track positions with little chance of advancing into the administrative ranks through department chairmanships or other avenues.

Perceptions of Female Administrators

Women in higher education administration also face challenges to their achievement of further career success through promotions and increased responsibilities. When women began entering the workforce in greater numbers in the second half of the 20th century, it was common to speak of a “glass ceiling” in higher education administration as well as other fields that prevented women from advancing to the highest levels of the field. Women's overrepresentation in lower level and peripheral jobs not viewed as part of the career ladder to the highest administrative positions often results in lower salaries, responsibilities, visibility, and expectations than their male counterparts.

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