Problematizing Gender in Higher Education: Why Leaning In Isn’t Enough

Abstract

The demographic data on academic women paints a bleak picture of advancement into the upper ranks of colleges and universities. Women represent only 31% of full professors and only one in four of all college presidents, with the bulk of these leaders serving at community colleges versus more prestigious research universities. We problematize the recent discussion of women “leaning in” as a way to progress into leadership positions (Sandberg, Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead. New York: Alfred A. Knopf/Random House, 2013). The premise of Sandberg’s book, Lean In, is that greater willpower and fortitude can address barriers that have prevented women from ascending to top-level positions. We use structuration theory (Giddens. The constitution of society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) to question how Sandberg’s call for women’s increased agency intersects with organizational and structural frameworks in college and university settings, and Foucault’s (The subject and power. In Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics, ed. Hubert L. Dreyfus, and Paul Rabinow, 208–226. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1982) notion of power to critique how structures reinforce barriers for women. Finally, we offer implications for practice, both at an individual and an institutional level.