Women Educational Leaders and Administrators in Education
Across the globe, we find that women hold less than fifty percent of academic and administrative posts in higher education institutions. Women are best represented in lower level academic, middle management positions, and their participation relative to men decreases at successively higher levels. Representation varies between about ten and twenty percent at middle management level and from nought to ten percent at senior management level. Representation in the committee system follows a similar pattern with women more likely to be members of departmental and faculty committees than on governing boards or councils. A consequence of this pattern of decreasing representation at successively higher levels is that senior women frequently find themselves isolated in hierarchies which are predominantly male.
Key Words: Gender roles. Gender discrimination, barriers, leaders, aspirations, role models.
