Women community college presidents' leadership agendas

Abstract

This qualitative research study was an investigation into the leadership agendas of five women community college presidents and the outcomes of these agendas. The study had two unique features. First, it examined the conceptual basis of the presidents' leadership agendas. Second, it provided a comparative analysis of a feminist leadership model to other, more prominent, models of higher education leadership. A feminist research methodology, which extended beyond describing simplified realities of women leaders, was used to determine if women leaders' interpretations of how they practice leadership are consistent with their actual behaviors; how the processes of leadership influence tangible and substantive outcomes. Data were collected through participant/observation, interviews, and document analysis, and presented in five case studies. The study's findings help to inform two distinct but interconnected scholarly domains: women in higher education leadership and women's issues in higher education. What has emerged from this inquiry is that while processes of leadership behaviors may reflect "women's ways of leading," the substantive or tangible outcomes of a leader's actions are not necessarily feminist in nature. The findings reinforce the dangers in women accepting and celebrating the dichotomous and essentialist views of women's ways of leading. We need to resist the hegemonic discourses around gender and leadership and acknowledge that women leaders make sense of and enact their own realities in a variety of ways.