Chapter 58: Overview: Women as Leaders in Academia

Jana Nidiffer

Overview: Women as leaders in academia In 2007 Drew Gilpin Faust was appointed president of Harvard University, the nation's oldest and one of its most prestigious institutions. To many, her appointment was a deeply symbolic victory of the 200-year-old struggle for women to be viewed as leaders and professionals within higher education on a par with their male colleagues. Equally important to others was that President Faust was not alone. One of her colleagues, Ruth Simmons (who preceded Faust to the presidency), was the first African American woman to head an Ivy League institution. In fact women are now presidents of half the Ivy League as they lead Harvard (Faust), Brown (Simmons), and Princeton (Shirley M. Tilghmann) Universities, as well as the University of Pennsylvania (Amy Gutmann). Some observers celebrated cautiously, fearing that such conspicuous achievements might lull policymakers and institutional leaders into assuming that gender is no longer an ...

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