Leadership that Transforms Learning
For much of the history of higher education, women have been on the outside of the room in which educational policy has been formulated. But all that is in the past. Universities, research organizations, and school systems around the world look to women academic visionaries for some of their most important leadership, and its effects extend far beyond enrollment figures.
This type of leader defines the role of a university president, dean, or department head. They do not run the budget and the facilities. They decide what is researched, change what is taught, and welcome into institutions of higher learning those who were formerly kept out.
Breaking Structural Barriers
Women academic visionaries have hurdles that their male peers never need to overcome. These include hiring boards doubtful of their ability, a tenure process rooted in unbroken professional life spans, and fund-raising systems that had always favored men. In spite of all the challenges, they rise, and they rise by forming alliances, mentoring junior academics, and showing themselves to be scholars through prolific productivity.
This rise is transformational not only for their personal professional lives but also for the institutions at which they work. A woman in charge of a research university sends a message to young academics and students that leadership is not a gendered role. This matters. Research about higher education invariably shows that visible female leadership correlates with greater recruitment of women in STEM disciplines and better retention of female faculty.
A Real-World Example
The case of Drew Gilpin Faust is a good example of this change. The president of Harvard University in 2007 was chosen as the 28th President of Harvard University, becoming the first female president in the history of the establishment. An American historian, Faust was a specialist in the history of the southern part of America and the Civil War; previously, Faust was the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In her tenure as President of Harvard, until 2018, she increased financial aid opportunities, reaffirmed the importance of the arts and sciences at the university and encouraged Harvard to become more open concerning diversity and inclusion.
Reshaping Research Priorities
In addition to administration, women academic visionaries restructure what a university studies and the reason for its study. They channel funds into underrepresented areas such as maternal well-being and caregiving economics. They also critique research methods that have historically left women out of the loop, from drugs testing to work productivity. Their impact is reflected in the questions universities ask themselves.
These results do not occur without effort. They occur due to the involvement of these women in grant allocation panels, in interviews with job applicants and in advising governments on education policies. Their presence makes a difference, and the importance of their opinion stems from their academic achievements.
Mentorship as a Multiplier
When asked about their greatest accomplishments, most women academic visionaries would put mentorship at the top of the list. This is because these leaders know that institutional change will continue long after the end of a presidency or a deanship, if there is a pipeline of future leaders who can carry on the torch.
These mentoring efforts span beyond national boundaries. In India, Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States, academic leaders have begun collaborating through global fellowship programs to share strategies of increasing the accessibility of higher education in regions where women struggle to gain access to higher education.
Challenges That Remain
Progress has not eliminated the barriers. Women continue to head a small percentage of leading research institutions around the globe, and salary inequities exist even among the top levels of university administration. Innovative leaders recognize these issues without pretending that their successes indicate how problems have been solved in the system. They continue to advocate for transparency in recruitment, equal salary evaluations, and child-care services that will keep good researchers in academia instead of chasing them away.
Looking Forward
The upcoming generation of women academic visionaries is born to an environment that has been created by decades of effort on the part of the former generation. These academic visionaries will face a whole lot of new challenges, such as the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, declining financial support from the public sector, and competition with the world in acquiring talented people.
