Every year, American universities publish glowing reports stating their commitment to diversity, often showing statistics of female hires as proof of success. Yet, although women make up increasing numbers of graduate students, graduate degree recipients, and even new hires, academic life remains overwhelming a man's world. The reality that the statistics fail to highlight is that the presence of women, specifically those with children, in the ranks of tenured faculty has not increased in a generation. Further, those women who do achieve tenure track placement tend to report slow advancement, income disparity, and lack of job satisfaction compared to their male colleagues. Amid these disadvantages, what is a Mama, PhD to do? This literary anthology brings together a selection of deeply felt personal narratives by smart, interesting women who explore the continued inequality of the sexes in higher education and suggest changes that could make universities more family-friendly workplaces. The contributors hail from a wide array of disciplines and bring with them a variety of perspectives, including those of single and adoptive parents. They address topics that range from the level of policy to practical day-to-day concerns, including caring for a child with special needs, breastfeeding on campus, negotiating viable maternity and family leave policies, job-sharing and telecommuting options, and fitting into desk/chair combinations while eight months pregnant. Candid, provocative, and sometimes with a wry sense of humor, the thirty-five essays in this anthology speak to and offer support for any woman attempting to combine work and family, as well as anyone who is interested in improving the university's ability to live up to its reputation to be among the most progressive of American institutions.

Colleges and universities benefit from diversity in their leadership roles and profess to value diversity--of thought, of experience, of person. Yet why do women remain under-represented in top academic leadership positions and in key positions along the academic career ladder?Why don’t they advance at a rate proportional to that of their male peers? How do internal and external environmental contexts still influence who enters academic leadership and who survives and thrives in those roles? Women in Academic Leadership complements its companion volumes in the Women in Academe series, provoking readers to think critically about the gendered nature of academic leadership across the spectrum of institutional types. It argues that leadership, the academy, and the nexus of academic leadership, remain gendered structures steeped in male-oriented norms and mores. Blending research and reflection, it explores the barriers and dilemmas that these structures present and the professional strategies and the personal choices women make in order to successfully surmount them. The authors pose questions about how women leaders negotiate between their public and private selves. They consider how women develop a vital sense of self-efficacy along with the essential skills and knowledge they need in order to lead effectively; how they cultivate opportunity; and how they gain legitimacy and maintain authenticity in a male-gendered arena. For those who seek to create an institutional environment conducive to equity and opportunity, this book offers insight into the pervasive barriers facing women of all colors and evidence of the need for a more complex, multi-dimensional view of leadership. For women in academe who seek to reach their professional potential and maintain authenticity, it offers encouragement and a myriad of strategies for their growth and development.

Continuing to challenge American colleges and universities is the underrepresentation of women faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, particularly Latinas and other underrepresented women of color. Advancing Women in Academic STEM Fields through Dual Career Policies and Practices, comprised of scholarly essays, case studies, and interviews, argues that to address equity issues related to women faculty, academic institutions should consider work-life perspectives, including dual careers, when designing faculty recruitment, retention, and advancement strategies. By connecting the topic of dual career hiring to gender and ethnicity, the volume extends the current research on work-life integration by sharing best practices and approaches that have worked among institutions of higher education while incorporating issues related to intersectionality.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Presumed Incompetent is a pathbreaking account of the intersecting roles of race, gender, and class in the working lives of women faculty of color. Through personal narratives and qualitative empirical studies, more than 40 authors expose the daunting challenges faced by academic women of color as they navigate the often hostile terrain of higher education, including hiring, promotion, tenure, and relations with students, colleagues, and administrators. The narratives are filled with wit, wisdom, and concrete recommendations, and provide a window into the struggles of professional women in a racially stratified but increasingly multicultural America.

In this collection, both individually and collectively, the authors explore the gendering of women's experiences in academia through the lens of narratives of lived experience. This is a cogent theme throughout the book, reflecting on women's experiences as intersectional-always raced, classed, gendered, nuanced and complex. Jointly, the chapters provide important insights into individual and collective contemporary women's experiences in academia from international perspectives, such as gender equity, barriers to success, and achievement. This comprehensive volume provides a reference point for all women and their colleagues working in universities and colleges across the world.

This unique book provides important guidelines and examples of ways STEM (e. g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) faculty and administration can collaborate towards goals of recruiting, mentoring, and promoting leadership to academic women faculty. Based on the experiences of faculty across five Florida universities, including one national laboratory, each chapter highlights one aspect of a multi-institutional collaboration on an NSF ADVANCE-PAID grant dedicated to achieving these three goals.