Women of Color Advancing to Senior Leadership in U.S. Academe

Abstract

Drawn from a larger research study which investigated how women of color navigate power and politics to arrive at senior levels of U.S. academe, this chapter focuses on the research question: what factors do they (women of color senior leaders) perceive as contributing to their advancement to senior level positions? Senior level administrators include women at the cabinet level (i.e. chief of staff, executive vice president, chief academic officer/provost, dean of academic college, chief student affairs officer). Women of color senior leaders, who served at doctoral granting and baccalaureate granting universities, were selected because of the complexity of governance and organizational systems at these type of institutions, and because few women of color hold senior level administrative positions at these institutions.