A roundtable discussion featuring over 50 representatives from associations and organizations with active women’s leadership agendas was held in the summer of 2014. The following 4 goals were introduced. The convening gathered signatures from individuals committed to working to advance one of the specific goals.
Goal 1
Generate a national sense of urgency elevating the need for advancing women in higher education leadership positions.
Today, 26% of college and university presidencies are held by women. To date, progress has been incremental at best: It has taken a decade to move the needle just three percentage points toward reaching parity. We will need a national imperative to advance women leaders and a carefully crafted agenda to guide its implementation. No single organization can accomplish this alone. Working in collaboration with like-minded associations and organizations and other leadership agendas will allow us to leverage our individual efforts more effectively.
Goal Group 1 is charged to generate a national sense of urgency to elevate the need for advancing women in leadership positions. To date, our work has focused on five immediate objectives:
To develop a must-read list of critical research findings from social science and corporate research sources that support the imperative for women serving increasingly senior roles and on policymaking groups.
To develop concise messages that frame the argument.
To identify and customize messages in order to target audiences and disseminate information on the benefits and imperative of advancing women to the presidency and seats on governing boards.
To identify key individuals of national renown to disseminate/advocate the imperative and deliver key messages.
To identify various venues and platforms for disseminating the imperative.
Question for the state network: What key audiences can your state network reach to disseminate the benefits and imperative of advancing women in higher education and increasing their involvement on governing boards and in other policymaking groups? Alternative question: How can the activities of your state network facilitate and advance the conversation and raise a sense of urgency for advancing women to higher positions in higher education, including seats on governing boards?
Goal 2
Encourage governing boards and other higher education institutional decision-making and policymaking bodies to consider recommended practices for recruiting and hiring women to chief executive offices.
We have started to compile a list of must-read publications regarding advancing women on boards.
We discussed having guest speakers on the calls to help us get a more granular view on how diversity on boards is factored into board success.
We have held or are setting up telephone interviews with leaders of organizations such as the Association of Community College Trustees, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, the National Governors Association, and others to raise awareness of our goal and get their input on how they may help lift up this critical issue.
Goal 3
Achieve women’s advancement to mid-level and senior-level positions in higher education administration by building capacities in women and in institutions.
After extensive discussion throughout fall 2014 of possible action areas for priority focus, the group identified the following three for initial response during spring 2015, with others to be added as we reach milestones:
Offer capacity-building training sessions, in particular on those skill sets/knowledge bases that women often (1) aren’t given opportunities to obtain experience in, (2) don’t feel confident about with regard to their abilities, or (3) are perceived by others to not have competency in, e.g., intercollegiate athletics, financial acumen/budgeting, and fundraising/development.
Describe and catalogue various pathways/trajectories to key senior/executive positions, including key decision points on these pathways as well as (1) how milestone decisions can impact the journey further down the pathway/trajectory, and (2) how one can shift/adjust after this has happened.
Develop and distribute a white paper that includes a self-assessment toolkit to assist institutions with examining institutional policies, executive practices, and cultural norms that either directly or indirectly reinforce limiting gender and/or sex-role stereotypes or promote/foster gender inequity (e.g., discussing business matters informally while playing golf ).
Members of Goal Group 3 have indicated their interest in which action area they would like to be assigned, and we have conveners for Action Areas 1 and 3; we are still seeking a convener for Action Area 2.
Goal 4
Suggest recommended practices and models and recognize success in advancing women in higher education.
Establishing criteria for the Moving the Needle: Advancing Women Leaders in Higher Education Institutional Award. We have the first draft of the criteria completed and it is now scheduled to move forward to ACE leadership review.
One member of Goal Group 4 has volunteered to serve on the Moving the Needle marketing committee.