The just-released American Council on Education report, The
American College President, found that there were no gains in the
number of presidencies for African Americans. Research that I conducted
in the spring of 1996 on data collected from African American and White
women who were college presidents demonstrate, to some degree, why this
is particularly true for African American women while women in general
— clearly, White women — are experiencing progress.
I specifically looked at the kinds of jobs women had on the way to
the presidency to see if I could tell African American women exactly
what jobs were needed to gain access to the highest rank in higher
education administration. My findings suggest that the situation we are
dealing with is very complicated and not achievable merely by getting
the right jobs. There are some answers, but still more questions.
In examining the careers of African American and White women
college presidents, the good news is that I found that they had similar
jobs on the way to the presidency. Both groups followed not one career
track, but several. Actually the tracks were too diverse and complex to
enumerate. However, most women came to the presidency directly from an
appointment in academic affairs — including chief academic officer,
school dean, dean of instruction, and related positions.
Women can come to the presidency from just about any series of
positions — including various positions in student, business, and
development affairs. There are even instances where a woman can become
a college president without ever having held a position in higher
education. While this usually happened with women who were members of
religious orders, none of them were African American. No African.
American women became president directly from the faculty while several
White women were able to do so.
However, it sometimes depends on where women have these positions
whether or not women can leave them to become president. For example, a
woman can go from the position of dean of students to a presidency if
she is employed at a two-year institution. But no woman with that
position at a four-year school rose immediately to the presidency.
I found that African American women had more jobs before becoming
president than White women. This was particularly true for African
American women in the private sector, even though the amount of time
all the women presidents spent in higher education was about the same.
It is apparent that African American women have had to risk taking on
more jobs to showcase their talents, make connections, and get ready
for when the opportunity presented itself.
African American women shared more than similar career lines with
White women. They also shared similar experiences with tenure, rank,
age, number of children, and marital status. Although a majority of the
women had held rank or tenure at some time during their careers, there
are enough women who had not held rank or tenure who became college
presidents to suggest that neither is a necessary condition to becoming
president.
