Beyond Equality: Women Leaders in Higher Education

by Savanah N. Landerholm

Overview

This phenomenological study of the experiences of women leaders in higher education emphasizes that the pursuit of gender equity has not delivered the anticipated cultural shifts for women. The lenses of structure, culture, and nurture serve as a conceptual framework to better understand the expectations and experiences of women leaders. Women in this study face intersectional identities (like race and gender but also as a working woman and a mother). Three archetypes of women's leadership orientation emerged from the study of women academic leaders' experiences: Passers, Pushers, and Peacekeepers. The three archetypes provide helpful distinction to the leadership orientations of women. Yet across all three archetypes, women endure and ultimately succeed by exercising responsive agency—rejecting structural and relational passivity, embracing the nuances of the environment, and capitalizing on the leader's strengths. As an alternative to equality, this book proposes responsive agency—an embodied theological response to gender oppression—as a way forward for women looking to advance in the workplace. The analysis into the three profiles reveals that equality is simply not enough. Each of the chapters shows equality to be necessary but insufficient, and invites women academics pursuing leadership to embrace responsive agency.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798889831754
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	11/12/2024
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Savanah N. Landerholm teaches at Baylor University. She holds a PhD in Higher Education Studies and Leadership, as well as a master's degree in International Journalism. She has also worked in academic book publishing for more than ten years.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The Insanity of Equality

2. Passers: How Fitting In is Not Enough

3. Pushers: How Sheer Determination is Not Enough

4. Peacekeepers: How Playing by the Rules is Not Enough

5. Beyond Equality through Responsive Agency

Appendix 1: Rubric for Classifying Institutions

Appendix 2: Participant Information

Appendix 3: Researcher Positionality Statement

Editorial Reviews

Beyond Equality is a thought-provoking exploration of agency, identity, and empowerment in the lives of women leaders. Through philosophical ponderings, personal narratives, and sociological analysis, this book delves into the profound significance of agency in shaping the trajectories of women's lives. Advancing a concept of responsive agency, Landerholm makes a compelling argument that women need to set their sights far beyond equality to a whole new realm. This book serves as a rallying cry for women to reclaim their narratives, redefine success on their own terms, and catalyze meaningful change in their communities and institutions. In Landerholm's world, women find agency not in spite of, but because of, the barriers and constraints they encounter. —Dianna Shandy, provost and vice president of academic affairs, Augustana College, and coauthor of Glass Ceilings and 100-Hour Couples: What the Opt-Out Phenomenon Can Teach Us about Work and Family

A fresh look at the gendered realities of institutions, Beyond Equality illuminates the lives and careers of the exceptional women of higher education. Empirically grounded and accessibly written, the book will be a helpful addition to conversations among both scholars and practitioners. —Lisa Weaver Swartz, sociologist and author of Stained Glass Ceilings: How Evangelicals Do Gender and Practice Power

Landerholm's book uses the term "insanity" in a way that makes me feel sane. So often as a woman who is a leader in educational administration and Christian ministry, I find maddening the ways in which both sorts of institutions minimize the differing experiences of female- and male-bodied persons. Even worse, I find that pointing out obvious differences causes me and other women to be less trusted and less professionally marketable. Truth-telling about lived experience results in charges of oversensitivity from the right. From the left, women who speak up are scolded for not prefacing their remarks with how much worse the discrimination queer-bodied people experience is. Landerholm presents what I would consider a realistic interpretation of what is difficult about the man's world that the academy remains. She also provides hope that, when we get past competitive mindsets, we might be able to work across differences to improve higher education as a whole. —The Rev. Dr. Sarah B. Drummond, founding dean, Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School

Beyond Equality offers useful blueprints for any woman seeking to reshape the landscape of leadership so top jobs can offer the kind of power women really need: the power to redefine success on their own terms. —Marcia Alesan Dawkins, senior research scientist, Center for Creative Leadership

From the Publisher