Being a Role Model
Over the past several weeks I have had the opportunity to interview several women college presidents for a class I will be teaching about Women in Higher Education. It is part of an ongoing series on Contemporary Gender Roles offered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Berkshire Community College. When I was asked to do the session, I decided to focus on what I know best, women leaders.
To find out what has and hasn’t changed since I assumed my first presidency in 1994, I interviewed Dr. Judith McLaughlin, who coordinates the Harvard Seminar for New Presidents. I also spoke to Angela Provart, President of the search firm The Pauly Group, to follow up on issues of board receptivity and women’s readiness. Both of them spoke of great strides, but major barriers that still remain.
Two of the amazing women presidents I spoke to were Dr. Maud Mandel, the first woman President of Williams College, and Dr. Ruth Simmons, who has served as the President of Smith College, Brown University and now Prairie View A&M University. Each of them spoke about being visible role models for young women who would be inspired by their presence in the role to become leaders themselves.
After responding to my questions about how her leadership was or wasn’t shaped by gender, Dr. Mandel said she would answer the question I hadn’t asked. She said that being the first woman president means that young women, and members of all under-represented or marginalized groups, could now say “this is possible.”
When I became the first woman president of Chesapeake College on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, women stopped me in the streets. They were happy and proud to welcome me to the community. What they saw were possibilities for leadership not just in higher education, but in all aspects of business and civic life.
Dr. Simmons was the first African American president at Smith and the first woman and African American president at Brown. She was the first African American president of an Ivy League University. When Dr. Simmons talked about being a role model, she said that when approached by young people who say, “I want to be a leader just like you,” she tells them that is the wrong lesson from her achievements. They need to cultivate leadership that is authentic to themselves.
What I discovered from my interviews is that despite all the “firsts,” there is still significant gender inequity in higher education. However, as the diversity of role models increases, paths are opening, and I can only hope that a new generation of leaders will help that discrimination disappear.