As Hillary Clinton campaigns for the coming election and Drew Gilpin Faust steps into her newly-appointed post at Harvard, 2007 may be remembered as the year of "Madame President."
But though female leaders have experienced a significant amount of coverage, a recent study conducted by the American Council of Education reveals that a vast majority of university presidents still possess a Y-chromosome.
According to the study, 77 percent of university presidents in 2006 were male, though that number may shift within the next few years. The study found that 49 percent of current university presidents are older than 60, up from 14 percent in 1986, which means that a significant number of presidential positions will likely turn over in the near future.
According to sociology professor Susan Ostrander, it is no accident that women are currently underrepresented in the higher leadership positions of universities.
"Women who achieve top positions like university president or corporate CEO are women who, for whatever reason, are willing and able to adjust their lives to the rigid demands of jobs defined by men of an earlier generation who had wives at home to manage children and home work," she said.
Ostrander added, "Women in top positions in academe or in the corporate world are more likely than their male counterparts to be single and childless, to be older with grown children, or otherwise without families and other personal obligations."
Results from the study supported Ostrander's statement. In 2006, 63 percent of women presidents were married, as opposed to 89 percent of men.
Ostrander also speculated that there are occupational reasons why men dominate the university presidential field.
"University presidents are typically individuals who are also tenured professors, so removing barriers to women becoming senior professors will be important to having more women as university president," she said. "It is entirely possible for universities and other institutions to adopt policies and practices so that women can more easily fulfill both family obligations and work obligations."
Perception of university presidents can also be affected by stereotypical gender roles, Ostrander said.
"Women are always held to different standards. We walk a thin line between being too tough or not tough enough, too sensitive or not sensitive enough, too demanding or not demanding enough," she said.
Senior Kayt Norris, a Trustee Representative for the TCU Senate, agreed that social norms affect perceptions of female leaders.
"I think that in our society we still have a very clear expectation of what a man's role is and what a woman's role is, as well as what types of characteristics and personality aspects each is supposed to have," she said.
She added, "When ... female [leaders try] to demonstrate that they have all types of leadership skills, society tells them they're being mean, too aggressive or too manly. It's hard for women to find a balance between their own strengths as a woman and acknowledging strengths that are more traditional leadership traits."
Norris explained that female candidates could offer a different type of leadership, but would have more challenges to overcome.
"Women are gaining a lot in the field of academia, but it will take a lot for a [female] president to prove herself. She'll have more to overcome. Women aren't seen as being as strong with making quick business decisions and they aren't as trusted in hiring and firing decisions," she said.
Norris felt that women who might be seen as weak in certain areas could bring other strengths to the table.
"When we talk about women in leadership, we often hear that 'Women can do anything men can do,' and whether or not that's true, I think the proper way to think about it is that women bring our own strengths to the table," she said.
"Women tend to have qualities that do make strong leaders - they are encouraged to be collaborators, facilitators and oral communicators - and we need to honor that women have a unique perspective instead of pretending there aren't differences," Norris added.
While Tufts has never had a female president, several of its deans are female, including Dean of Engineering Linda Abriola. According to Ostrander, this "signals Tufts' openness to women in top positions."
Tufts also has a clear affirmative action policy which states that "all managers and officials of the University directly bear the responsibility for making every effort to identify and alleviate underutilization of minorities."
However, sophomore TCU Senate member Pooja Chokshi noticed that university leadership is overwhelmingly male.
"If you look at Tufts - at our president, our two provosts and our dean of student affairs, all the important people we deal with on Senate - they're all male. It's sort of funny when you get to [Judicial Affairs Officer] Veronica Carter, that the person who 'punishes' people is a woman," Chokshi said.
Norris, however, felt that the possibility of Tufts hiring a female president was not at all out of the question.
"I don't think we can evaluate it right now, but in the future, when Bacow moves on, I wouldn't be surprised at all if there was a female candidate in consideration," she said.
