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Through case studies and personal reflections, this volume illuminates the challenges, relationships, and authentic practices that exemplify women's leadership in higher education.
This edited volume brings together a collective exploration of women's leadership in contemporary academic institutions. Through case studies and autoethnographic narratives, contributors examine the complexities, contradictions, and courage required to lead in environments shaped by hierarchy, exclusion, and institutional transformation. Based on deep engagement with women leaders across diverse institutional contexts-including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, liberal arts colleges, research universities, and international settings-the book highlights how leadership is enacted, negotiated, and reimagined in practice.
The volume also reflects on vocation, purpose, and the lived realities of leading in systems not originally designed for women's success. Rather than offering a singular definition, leadership is presented as relational, contextual, and evolving, shaped by identity, community, and calling.
Across the chapters, intersectional experiences of race, gender, class, and institutional power are foregrounded, revealing how women leaders navigate visibility, vulnerability, and authority. The narratives illuminate both structural barriers and transformative possibilities, showing how women lead through collaboration, mentorship, and ethical engagement.
In conversation with the latest scholarship, this volume amplifies marginalized voices and challenges dominant models of academic leadership. It offers a powerful resource for scholars, practitioners, and students seeking to understand leadership as a dynamic process of becoming-one that is both deeply personal and profoundly institutional.
This edited volume brings together a collective exploration of women's leadership in contemporary academic institutions. Through case studies and autoethnographic narratives, contributors examine the complexities, contradictions, and courage required to lead in environments shaped by hierarchy, exclusion, and institutional transformation. Based on deep engagement with women leaders across diverse institutional contexts-including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, liberal arts colleges, research universities, and international settings-the book highlights how leadership is enacted, negotiated, and reimagined in practice.
The volume also reflects on vocation, purpose, and the lived realities of leading in systems not originally designed for women's success. Rather than offering a singular definition, leadership is presented as relational, contextual, and evolving, shaped by identity, community, and calling.
Across the chapters, intersectional experiences of race, gender, class, and institutional power are foregrounded, revealing how women leaders navigate visibility, vulnerability, and authority. The narratives illuminate both structural barriers and transformative possibilities, showing how women lead through collaboration, mentorship, and ethical engagement.
In conversation with the latest scholarship, this volume amplifies marginalized voices and challenges dominant models of academic leadership. It offers a powerful resource for scholars, practitioners, and students seeking to understand leadership as a dynamic process of becoming-one that is both deeply personal and profoundly institutional.
Price: $120.00
Pages: 160
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Publication Date:
12 January 2027
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781648252082
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, Gender studies: women and girls, EDUCATION / Leadership, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Affairs & Administration, Higher education, tertiary education, Educational administration and organization, History of education
Preface: The Role of Authenticity in Women's Leadership
Carolyn J. Stefanco
Introduction: Stories of Becoming: Women Leading Across Higher Education
Courtney Kealy, Dawn McQuiston, Jocelyn Boulware Bruce, and Petek Onur
Chapter 1: Vision and Grit: Lee Zak's Courage of Persistence
Leah Owenby and Kelsey Jones Bassett
Chapter 2: Leadership and Mentorship at Women's Colleges: Connecting Past, Present, and Future
Emily Harbin
Chapter 3: Building an Inclusive Community of Learners: Consciously Complementary Leadership at Macalester College
Rebecca Ropers
Chapter 4: Leading from Two Sides of the Brain: Cynthia Briggs Kittredge and Seminary of the Southwest
Gena St. David
Chapter 5: "I'm not a Leader": Meanings of Leadership and Dynamics of Gender and Other Inequalities in Danish Academia
Petek Onur
Chapter 6: Unstoppable: The Tale of Two Deans
Jeanan Yasiri Moe
Chapter 7: Educating for Posterity: Advancing the Legacy of Elizabeth Evelyn Wright Menafee at Voorhees University
Damara Hightower Mitchell
Conclusion: We all Lead, Together: How-and Why-to Start a Women's Leadership Group for Faculty and Staff
Colleen Ballance, Kara Bopp, Karen Goodchild
Epilogue: Returning to the Risk: The Power of Authentic Leadership
Courtney Kealy
Selected Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
Carolyn J. Stefanco
Introduction: Stories of Becoming: Women Leading Across Higher Education
Courtney Kealy, Dawn McQuiston, Jocelyn Boulware Bruce, and Petek Onur
Chapter 1: Vision and Grit: Lee Zak's Courage of Persistence
Leah Owenby and Kelsey Jones Bassett
Chapter 2: Leadership and Mentorship at Women's Colleges: Connecting Past, Present, and Future
Emily Harbin
Chapter 3: Building an Inclusive Community of Learners: Consciously Complementary Leadership at Macalester College
Rebecca Ropers
Chapter 4: Leading from Two Sides of the Brain: Cynthia Briggs Kittredge and Seminary of the Southwest
Gena St. David
Chapter 5: "I'm not a Leader": Meanings of Leadership and Dynamics of Gender and Other Inequalities in Danish Academia
Petek Onur
Chapter 6: Unstoppable: The Tale of Two Deans
Jeanan Yasiri Moe
Chapter 7: Educating for Posterity: Advancing the Legacy of Elizabeth Evelyn Wright Menafee at Voorhees University
Damara Hightower Mitchell
Conclusion: We all Lead, Together: How-and Why-to Start a Women's Leadership Group for Faculty and Staff
Colleen Ballance, Kara Bopp, Karen Goodchild
Epilogue: Returning to the Risk: The Power of Authentic Leadership
Courtney Kealy
Selected Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index