On March 20, in Washington, DC, the 31st ACE Women’s Leadership Conference convened nearly 150 women representing some of the 40 active ACE state women’s networks and others who champion and promote the advancement of women in higher education.
The one-day event, “Empowering Momentum for Gender Parity in Higher Education Leadership,” sponsored by TIAA, served as a dynamic platform uniting women across diverse areas of the higher education landscape. Participants explored the evolution of the women’s network, how to make employment leadership positions more sustainable for women, and programs and strategies to cultivate the pipeline of authentic leadership.
In the opening session, Anne Ollen, managing director of the TIAA Institute, presented data that showed of the 10 highest-paid positions in higher ed, only 32 percent are held by women, while of the 10 lowest-paid positions, 57 percent are held by women. While 32 percent of college presidents are women, those presidents on average are making $0.91 on the dollar compared to male presidents.
Ollen also highlighted other issues that may cause women to avoid seeking top leadership roles, while panelists and attendees discussed how to create more positive environments around pay and work-life balance that could lead to more women choosing to advance in higher education leadership roles.
Left to right: Luoluo Hong, vice president of student engagement and well-being, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jann Joseph, president, Georgia Gwinnett College; Ardis Eschenberg, chancellor, Windward Community College; Mary Churchill, associate dean of strategic initiatives and community engagement, Boston University.
Attendees and panelists acknowledged that in an environment where scrutiny on the college presidency has been heightened, recruiting and retaining women presidents has been challenging. But Ardis Eschenberg, chancellor of Windward Community College in Hawaii, said those who are choosing the next generation of leaders must take it on themselves to think outside the box.
“If you choose people who are less likely to apply for those roles, they might have barriers, but they are going to bring things into those positions that you would never guess possible,” she said.
At the Women’s Leadership Dinner later that evening, the
2024 ACE Donna Shavlik Award was presented to Marjorie Hass, president of The Council of Independent Colleges and the 2024 ACE State Network Leadership Award was given to the University of Maryland, Baltimore Roundtable on Empowerment in Leadership and Leveraging Aspirations (UMBrella).
To wrap up the day ACE President Ted Mitchell sat down with Ruth V. Watkins, president of postsecondary education for the Strada Education Foundation, for a discussion on what the nonprofit sector can do to support efforts to advance women in higher education.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we are going into a different season of battles in the work we all do, particularly for those of us who care deeply about diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said Gailda Pitre Davis, assistant vice president and executive director, ACE Connect, at the close of the conference. “And frankly, I too find myself tired of fighting the same battles from different angles. I still feel compelled to keep going, to keep pushing, and to trust that the good that I, that we are doing is making a difference.”
The Women’s Network Leadership Conference is part of ACE’s commitment to “Moving the Needle: Advancing Women in Higher Education Leadership,” an initiative with the goal of achieving gender and racial parity in the percentage of higher education chief executives by 2030. ACE’s recent
American College President Study showed women remain outnumbered by men in the college presidency by a ratio of 2:1, with about 33 percent of presidencies currently held by women.
As Kim Lee, ACE’s director of community engagement, said at the close of the conference, “ACE’s commitment to this work spans an entire century. In addition to launching the Office of Women in the 1970s that later became the Women’s Network, ACE’s leadership and its organizational culture remain relentless in advancing and supporting women in higher education leadership.”
To learn more and get involved with the
ACE Women’s Network, contact Kim Lee at
kilee@acenet.edu.