Women represent 57 percent of all college and university students in the commonwealth, but just 31 percent of presidents and chancellors of institutions statewide are women, according to a first-of-its-kind study that’s being hailed as a wake-up call to higher-education leaders across the commonwealth.
The study — The Women’s Power Gap in Higher Education — was spearheaded by the nonprofit Eos Foundation in partnership with the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMass Boston.
Among the 17 largest public and private universities in the commonwealth, none have a woman as board chair, the study shows. Twenty-six schools have boards composed of fewer than 30 percent female members — and 14 have no women on their boards nor a female president. And of the 94 presidents represented in the study, just five are women of color.
“The data shows we need thoughtful and concerted action to close the women’s power gap,” said Andrea Silbert, president of the Eos Foundation, who co-authored the study. “Our report is meant to create a benchmark and also help provide a roadmap for heading in the right direction toward gender parity.”
Gathering data is an important first step in discussing strategies to address the gender gap, Silbert said. The study outlines a comprehensive gender leadership ranking of each of Massachusetts’ 93 public and private institutions, weighing factors such as the percentage of women enrolled as students as well as the number of women in senior leadership roles.
Twenty percent of schools in Massachusetts — including larger universities such as MIT, Boston University, Clark University, Tufts University, Boston College, UMass Dartmouth and UMass Medical School — fall into a category the study defines as “needs urgent attention” and should “give serious consideration to immediate changes to improve women’s representation.”
Silbert argues it’s tough for schools to stay innovative if they do not strive for gender and racial diversity.
“It doesn’t just happen. If you’re not deliberate in looking for diversity and making sure you have it, people are going to end up back to who they’re comfortable with, who they know, and you end up having more homogeneous campuses,” Silbert said. “Nothing’s more important than having leadership at the top that says, ‘this really matters, not just for gender, but for people of color.’ Diversity is good for business.”
To Lee Pelton, president of Emerson College, the study’s most significant finding is that the gender gap in higher education is widespread, rather than a one-off idiosyncrasy.
“It needs immediate and strategic attention,” Pelton said. “I would hope that the most meaningful outcome of this study would be for colleges and universities and their governing boards to understand that the leadership gap in higher education with respect to women is a structural issue.”
Colleges and universities should implement a long-term strategy to address the gender gap issue across all levels, from governing boards and academic leadership on down, Pelton said.
“Excellence in any area, and especially in this area, is an exercise in continuous improvement,” Pelton said. “Colleges and universities need to commit themselves to setting aspirational goals, and putting into play resources, leadership and a strategy to achieve those goals, and to have the courage to review where they are and be honest with themselves with respect to their progress toward those goals.”
“You have to diagnose the problem before you set out to solve it. This is an effective diagnosis. I think it is a wake-up call to our colleges and universities overall,” he continued. “I suspect that they believe that we are doing much better than this scorecard would suggest.”
Total FTE student enrollment for Fall 2017
| Rank | Prior Rank | School/Prior rank (*unranked in 2017)/ |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
2 | 2 | Boston University |
3 | 3 | Northeastern University |
