Building Bridges for Women of Color in Higher Education: A Practical Guide for Success (review)

Building Bridges for Women of Color in Higher Education: A Practical Guide for Success (2004) is a compilation of research findings and personal narratives written by 23 women of color from various sectors within academe. The stated intent of this work, as indicated by its title, is to provide a guide for women of color seeking to begin or continue academic careers. Five chapters comprise the book, dealing with different aspects of life in the academy.

Chapter 1 discusses the career paths of women of color college presidents and the issues faced by women of color in this role. The section begins with a qualitative study by Waring of twelve African American women's career paths to the college presidency. The results indicate that women of color ascend to the president's office often through non-traditional routes and are likely to be "atypical" (p. 13). Despite this, Waring's concluding recommendations are for women of color aspiring to the college presidency to pursue advanced degrees in traditional academic disciplines to make them competitive for "more prestigious institutions" (p. 13) and develop mentoring relationships and other professional alliances to be kept abreast of possible openings as they advance.

The following four essays in this chapter are by women of color who are serving or who have served as college presidents. There are three common themes across their narratives. First, each president emphasizes the importance of networking and mentoring. Second, they each admonish women of color to demonstrate competence consistently and to expect others to challenge their skills and qualifications. Third, the narratives emphasize the importance of being able to cast vision and galvanize others. Dolores Fernandez' account of her ability to put Hostos Community College on a course for renewal provides the best testimony to the importance of this leadership skill. Together, these narratives accentuate the conclusions made by Waring and give women of color considering the college presidency many issues to consider.

Chapter 2 introduces the importance of institutional context and climate to the discussion. There are six essays in this section, including one report of an empirical study (Anderson & Dédé) about the perceptions of women of color employed by a state system of higher education. The importance of understanding academic culture in general and one's institutional culture specifically looms large throughout the chapter. These essays describe the particular challenges and opportunities women of color may face as faculty and administrators in either predominantly White or minority-serving institutions. As Battle writes in her concluding essay about this chapter, the challenges faced by women of color in either setting are not disparate.

Related to the challenge of administrative roles, Chapter 3 discusses the role of the academic department chair. These authors each describe the difficulty of negotiating the dual role of faculty and administrator and the importance of maintaining one's recognition as a scholar to maintain credibility with faculty colleagues. Similar to the college presidents in Waring's study in the first chapter, the women who authored these essays seem also to be atypical of most standing department chairs in higher education as each of them spent very little time in the faculty role and were not tenured when they assumed the chair's role. Nevertheless, Willis' essay provides the strongest and most concrete discussion of the challenges that chairing an academic department can bring and offers very useful advice and strategies.

Chapter 4 turns its attention to the tenure process for faculty. The essays in this section discuss the complex nature of student evaluations and give practical advice to achieve tenure successfully. Common themes across these essays echo earlier emphases on finding and developing mentoring relationships and being politically perceptive. However, due to its focus on faculty going through the tenure process, this section adds strategies for balancing teaching, research, and service; suggests that novice faculty...