Counter-storying Gendered Leadership in Higher Education: An Institutional Autoethnographic Analysis of Leading as Transgender

• In Event: Trans Students, Teachers, and Leaders

Abstract

Much of the research on gendered leadership in higher education is binary. It often compares the experiences of cisgender males and cisgender females in leadership; investigates the leadership styles of cisgender women; or interrogates the glass ceiling and discrimination that cisgender women leaders face. The lack of research with and on transgender and non-binary leaders in higher education is, in part, because there are so few (Makinster, 2023; Crossman, 2022); the glass ceiling is ostensibly much higher for transgender and non-binary leaders because of the systemic and institutional oppression they face in society. A purpose of this presentation is to provide a counterstory to the pervasive binary gendered leadership narrative in higher education through sharing the experience of the presenter, a transgender leader at a medium-sized university in the Southeastern United States. The presenter will also provide a guide for institutions to increase and support gender-diverse representation in leadership.

Author

• Dana M. Stachowiak, University of North Carolina Wilmington