Women of Color in Higher Education Administration: Rethinking Leadership Paradigms

• In Event: Overlooked No More: Postsecondary Educational Research Informed by Wisdom, Race, and Gender for the Greater Good

Abstract

Women of color are conspicuously underrepresented in senior-level administrative and leadership positions at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the United States. Although they represent 10.6% of professors who are full-time administrators (Jackson & O’Callaghan, 2009), there are even fewer women of color at the highest levels of higher education administration. Women in the United States have more access to leadership positions than during any other period in history (Eagly & Chin, 2010; Jean-Marie & Lloyd-Jones, 2011), however, women of color often face the double jeopardy associated with the intersection of their race/ethnicity and gender, which leaves them vulnerable to effects of racism and sexism (Grant & Simmons, 2008; Sanchez-Hules & Davis, 2010; Santamaría & Santamaría, 2012; Turner, 2002). This analysis is particularly pertinent to women of color administrative executives at PWIs who experience multiple systems of bias associated with gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation (Jean-Marie & Lloyd-Jones, 2011; Lloyd-Jones, 2009; Turner, 2002). Taking into account social prejudices and inequities, administrators who are women of color may suffer from many negative stereotypes including tokenism and the belief that their positions are secondary to the central work of the academy (Mosely, 1980). Biases about women of color as leaders are often rooted in leadership theories (e.g., great-man theory, trait theory, or behavioral theory). Such stereotypes have frequently been shown to be fallacious, and they can negatively influence access to leadership positions by women of color (Sanchez & Davis, 2009).

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore leadership paradigms and ways leadership theories serve as guiding frameworks for identifying and selecting individuals to occupy leadership positions, thereby making such roles more accessible for some people and less accessible for others.

Critical theory and representative bureaucracy theory provide a conceptual framework for this exploratory paper. Critical theory questions ways social processes provide advantages and privileges for certain groups of people and describes how they marginalize or disadvantage other groups (Kezar, Carducci, & Contreras-McGavin, 2006). The theory of representative bureaucracy contends that institutions and organizations function better and more effectively if characteristics of decision-makers reflect those of their constituents (Flowers, 2003; Jackson, 2004).

Leadership paradigms shape public perception about how leaders should look and perform and the kind of qualities, knowledge, and skills they should possess. Thus, members of an institution, such as higher education, adopt (consciously or unconsciously) leadership theories as frameworks for choosing individuals to serve in leadership roles. In the United States leadership is still identified with White men, since historically they have dominated positions of greatest authority and power (Rhode, 2003). This paper elucidates how a lack of inclusive and collective approaches to understanding, researching, and practicing leadership limits the access of women of color to senior-level positions.

The significance of this paper lies in its interrogation of leadership theories as an explanation for the underrepresentation of women of color in leadership positions at PWIs and its call for rethinking leadership approaches, and considering paradigms supporting diverse leadership in the contexts of gender and race/ethnicity.

Author

• Brenda Lloyd Jones, University of Oklahoma