A New Majority

By Kevin Kiley

While women’s presence in academic administration has been growing for decades, it is still uncommon to see them constitute a majority of a university’s academic leadership. That turnaround is notable, said Judy Touchton, a consultant who advises female academics on how to advance and who formerly served as deputy director of the American Council on Education’s Office of Women in Higher Education. She said situations where women constitute a majority of academic leadership, as they do at Richmond, are rare. While significant research has explored how the leadership styles of men and women differ, these studies have tended to focus on individual leaders. Richmond and other colleges and universities that are beginning to see the percentage of women in administrative ranks swell will be the first to explore how a large cohort of female administrators changes an institution’s culture.

Continued at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/15/at_university_of_richmond_women_hold_majority_of_academic_dean_jobs