Women in Higher Education

If you are in higher education and occasionally find yourself wondering what a huge career change might look like for you, I’d like to share my story. After more than two decades in higher education as a professor, chair, MBA director and dean, along with various adjunct and visiting positions here and there, I decided to make a major change for my anticipated last decade of work life.

We love to talk about “work–life balance” as though it’s a natural state you just…arrive at, as if once you hit the right combination of early-morning yoga and Sunday meal prep, the scales will even out and stay there. Here’s the truth: Balance is not a constant. It’s not even always possible, especially for women leaders in higher education running complex portfolios, managing people and politics and still showing up for your families, your communities, and yourselves.

As two-time Olympic gold medalist Natasha Hastings (2008 and 2016 Olympics, 4 × 400 relay) saw her track career winding down, she contemplated what the next chapter of her life would be. While she had found psychotherapy of tremendous benefit both athletically and personally, she had often been frustrated by the dearth of Black female therapists.

Have you ever experienced a seemingly minor incident—a colleague's offhand comment, a delayed response, a sense of being overlooked, or the disappointment of your idea not gaining traction—that triggered a cascade of negative emotions? Perhaps you've even felt that someone else received undue credit for your contributions or removed you from a project you poured time and energy into.

Tanya L. Domi's life has been a journey of diverse interests and careers, all fueled by her passion for justice and peace. She currently holds several positions in academia. The one that occupies the most time is Director of Media Relations for the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center.

I recently started a job at a graduate school in Portland, Oregon. I've switched higher ed departments and transitioned from academic advising over to admissions. I am learning a lot about communication because my job focuses largely on student outreach. Our Vice President of Admissions recently went to a continuing education conference that focused on students' communication preferences. The pie chart that he shared with us upon his return listed students' preferred methods of outreach.

Over the past 15 years, Krishan Trotman, Vice President and Publisher of Legacy Lit, an imprint at Hachette Book Group, has worked to publish books by multicultural voices and about social justice. Influential individuals such as Deesha Dyer and Zerlina Maxwell provide historical and social context for issues explored in gender studies, history, sociology, African American studies and more.

Higher education has never been a neutral playing field. It wasn't built for women, and despite decades of effort, it still doesn't quite know what to do with women. Enter Savanah N. Landerholm's Beyond Equality: Women Leaders in Higher Education (published November 2024 by Fortress Press) which argues—rightly—that equality is a necessary but insufficient goal. Equality suggests that if we can just get the numbers right, if we can place women in the right leadership roles, the work is done.

As people in academia wonder what to expect from name, image and likeness (NIL) or how colleges and universities will handle the landmark House Settlement, which will require institutions to retroactively pay student-athletes for lost NIL opportunities, they will often consult Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti, the director of the MS in Sport Management program at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB) DC and an associate professor of Sport Management.

Over the past 15 years, Krishan Trotman, Vice President and Publisher of Legacy Lit, an imprint at Hachette Book Group, has worked to publish books by multicultural voices and about social justice. Influential individuals such as Deesha Dyer and Zerlina Maxwell provide historical and social context for issues explored in gender studies, history, sociology, African American studies and more.