Bringing More Women to the Table: A Case Study of a Relational Self-Mentoring Group

• In Event: Interactive Roundtable Discussion Session

Short Description

Lesley University’s women’s leadership development model resulted in 15 of its original 19 members moving into leadership roles within the university. We will discuss the dramatic impact that participation in a feminist self-mentoring group has had on the individual leadership trajectories for women faculty. Themes from the individuals’ leadership growth and the group’s development will serve as key discussion points.

Detailed Abstract

This roundtable discussion will present a case study of LEAD (Leadership Enrichment and Development), a self-mentoring group developed at Lesley University for women faculty. LEAD is a co-constructed women’s leadership development group, developed through the Lesley University Women’s Center and supported by the Office of the Provost. We privilege a feminist, relational, intersectional approach and, through discussion, shared readings and trainings, the group provides focused peer leadership development for women faculty, regardless of our formal academic responsibilities or roles.

LEAD’s inception came from a recognized need for leadership development opportunities for core women faculty at Lesley University. Pursuing established programs was both financially prohibitive and impractical for the number of faculty for whom we wanted to provide opportunities. All aspects of LEAD, now in its 5th year, are steeped in feminist group praxis, including the co-construction of agendas, collaborative exploration of ideas and materials and a focus on both individual and group growth and objectives. The focus of the group has moved from not just individual leadership development but also a development model to shift the perspective of an organization (van Esch, Assylkhan, & Bilimoria, 2018).

The mission of the group is to engage women faculty in collaborative leadership that guides constructive dialogue so that groups are learning with and from one another as we move toward a common vision with a sense of contentment and accomplishments that nurtures and nourishes each of us. The group has worked to understand the varied contexts of leadership development for women faculty to create their own plans for leadership development and to utilize the one another to facilitate those plans.

The core group has worked to strategically support the advancement of each other, especially in the arena of institutional leadership. Since the group’s establishment in 2014, 14 of its original 19 members have taken leadership positions within the faculty and administration of Lesley University or other higher education institutions, while others have sought leadership roles in their communities.

Additionally, LEAD members have produced multiple successful grant applications, presented at national and international conferences and a core group of its members are currently writing a book examining the LEAD model and the impact that participation in this feminist relational leadership development group has had on our individual professional trajectories.

Through the stories of individual members moving into Associate Dean, Dean, Faculty Chair, and Department Chair roles, we will examine the following themes related to leadership development: 1.) Development of an understanding of systems in higher education settings that support and prohibit women moving into leadership roles (Hoyt & Simon, 2018; Ngunjiri & Gardiner, 2018); 2.) Collective problem solving for situations that members were in to support their moving beyond barriers within those systems (Longman and Madsen, 2013); 3.) Articulation of individual leadership identity based on the intersectionality of their lives (Ngunjiri & Gardiner, 2018) and professional identities; and 4.) Moving from a skills focus/or lack of fit model (Hoyt & Simon, 2018;) to one that emphasized the shared strengths of women to support its members in new roles (DeWelde and Stepnick, 2015). The roundtable will also engage participants in a discussion of how a self-mentoring model can be implemented in other settings to further generate questions for future research.

Presenters

• Stephanie Spadorcia, Lesley University

• Diana Direiter, Lesley University

• Amy E Rutstein-Riley, Lesley University