Women Administrators in Higher Education: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (review)

Nidiffer and Bashaw's edited volume examines the careers of women administrators in higher education from the 1830s to the 1970s. Focusing on the positions of president, chief academic officer, dean of women, and physical educator, the authors tell the stories of these leaders thereby providing today's women administrators with the comforting insight that, though the struggle for women's full access to higher education is not over, it certainly has come a long way!

This is a powerful book. It covers a unique period of American history of higher education, that of women students' access and gradual assimilation in coeducational institutions up to passage of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972. It is must reading for men and women who aspire to administrative careers in higher education and for scholars and researchers who seek to extend this history.

For the most part, the book is very readable. The writing is impeccable, and the stories the 11 authors tell are filled with illustrative and entertaining anecdotes from historical primary sources. The chapter endnotes testify to the careful scholarship underlying the text. There are occasional minor distractions such as some repetition of content (though the authors cross-reference each other) and rapid movement among different eras within and between chapters. However, these shortcomings do not compromise readers' overall enjoyment.

After an introductory historical overview of women's early participation in coeducation during the 19th century, the book is divided into two sections. The first section examines institutional leadership beginning with the women presidents at four women's colleges from 1880 to 1910: Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Trinity, and the College of New Rochelle. Here and in a chapter about women religious who founded, built, and presided over new Roman Catholic colleges, Brown and Introcaso both emphasize the political environments and leadership strategies of these extraordinary academicians.

The book then fast forwards to the career paths and aspirations of women in chief academic officer positions, using the results of a statistical survey conducted in 1991 by Walton and McDade. This section concludes with an analysis of leadership skills by Nidiffer who speculates that their women presidents' skills (consensus building, cooperation, facilitating, sense-making) may provide a strategic advantage when combined with the more traditional skills typically exercised by men: power, control, and charisma.

The second section highlights the careers of early deans of women and physical educators, emphasizing their pragmatism, professionalism, and dedication to coeducation. While these early deans (1892-1916) had impressive academic credentials, they were employed as matrons and disciplinarians to monitor the propriety of young women students. Their roles gradually changed, creating the foundation for modern student affairs administration. However, the demise of the National Association of Women Deans and Counselors and attacks on their profession after World War II described by Bashaw resulted in merging the positions of deans of women and men into the position of chief student affairs administrator. Jones and Komives explore the resulting decline in the numbers of women in this top position.

The careers of women in physical education were similar. They began as guardians of women students' health and well-being during an era of poor facilities, Victorian dress codes, and a lack of respect for physical education. Eventually, with the passage of Title IX, women's participation in athletics programs expanded. However, as Carpenter and Acosta point out, the demise of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and the subsequent merger of men's and women's athletics have made parity for women in athletics an elusive goal. Their chapter covering the enormous changes brought about by Title IX is must reading for anyone seeking an overview of women's intercollegiate athletics and the high price paid by women physical education administrators, many of whom lost their...