Characteristics of institutions of higher education employing women in top level administration and a profile of the women

The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of four-year public and private institutions employing women in top level administrative positions over three time periods: 1969-70, 1974-75, and 1978-79; and to develop a profile of the women who held chief administrative positions of President/Chancellor, Vice President, and Academic Dean during 1978-79. Comparisons were made between those institutions with and without women in top level administration in terms of the date of establishment, type of affiliation, geographic region, size of the institution, student body mix, and the highest degree granted by the institution. Where possible, comparisons were made across the three time periods and statistical significance of the comparisons were tested by chi square. The descriptive data were based on computer taped information from the National Center for Educational Statistics and Probability; The educational and professional background of the women were obtained from individual resumes requested from public relations offices of the institutions in this study;The number of institutions employing women in top level administration has almost doubled over the ten year period from 1969 to 1979. More women were employed in these positions by public institutions than private ones;A majority of the institutions with women administrators were those established during 1880 and 1919. A greater percent of those institutions in the South Central Region of the country had women administrators. When comparing the highest degree offered and the number of women administrators, a majority of the institutions that offered the bachelor\u27s degree as the highest had women in top level positions. The greatest number of institutions with women administrators were those with a coed student body with an enrollment below 10,000;The educational and professional background of the women who fit the criteria were located in 821 institutions. Of the 10,795 positions identified with the title of President/Chancellor, Vice President, or Academic Dean, women held only 11.6 percent of the positions. There were 2,442 positions of President/Chancellor and women held 5.9 percent of those. Women held 12.6 percent of the Vice President positions and 14.3 percent of the Academic Deans positions;Seventy percent of the women held a doctorate degree with 84.2 percent of them receiving the doctorate between 1961 and 1979. Twenty-four percent of the women held the master\u27s degree and 50 percent of them received the degree between 1961 and 1979. Education was the most frequent field of study. Forty percent majored in education and 20 percent in the humanities;Approximately one third of the women were appointed to their current position before 1974, 22 percent were appointed in 1975-76, and 20 percent in 1978-79. Over half of the women had been employed at the present institution for six years or less. Very few of the women received a degree from the institution where they were presently employed. More than eighty percent of the women came to the present position from inside the university community rather than from outside;Forty-six percent of the women had between one and nine years of teaching experience and over 60 percent had between one and nine years of administrative experience;These data indicated that some women had been able to combine marriage, a career and children