Working Together for Change Curriculum and Education: A Working Group

Women are on the move in academic den-tistry! In a 2003 article in the Journal ofDental Education, the authors cite the strong growth in the number of women deans in aca-demic dentistry. In U.S. dental schools, women now occupy 18 percent (ten of fifty-six) of the dean’s positions nationally, and Canada has had one of its ten dental schools led by a woman.1 Progress has also been noted at the associate and assistant dean levels growing from 28.5 percent in 1991-92 to over 74 percent by 2001-02. In contrast to a situation re-port at the first AADS International Women’s Lead-ership Conference held in 1998, women are making progress—but as a profession, we can do more to advance the role of women in senior administrative positions.2 In Virginia Valian’s 1998 book, Why So Slow