Who Is Okay? The Harm of One-Dimensional Appraisals of Women Scholars During COVID-19 & Beyond

In this essay, I detail how homogenizing appraisals of diverse faculty women during COVID-19 are harmful to all, including myself. I highlight how academic demands to be “talking heads” and not full human beings, though not new, is especially harmful in the current era. As a Black woman faculty dealing with the double pandemic of COVID-19 and anti-Black racism, the one-dimensional appraisals of women faculty exclude me: I am not a mother dealing with sexist overburden in household responsibilities that interfere with my work. Instead, I am dealing with isolation and loneliness, which I sublimate through work productivity. Resulting in shame, I also realize that universities could operate differently, recognizing women scholars for their diversity in identities, backgrounds, responsibilities, work styles, and personalities during the pandemic and beyond. Given that work productivity is not synonymous with well-being, I hope my colleagues know that, in this moment, I am not okay.

Welcome to Academia, Expect Cyberbullying

Academic contrapower harassment occurs when those with less perceived power harass someone with more power. Cyberbullying as contrapower occurs when students express varying levels of incivility and bullying through assorted online mediums such as email, online evaluations, or social media sites. This project examines the experiences of three faculty women with different racial/ethnic backgrounds, age differences, years in the academy, and at different levels within their career, and explores the connection between sexism and racism that persist in academic settings. Experiencing varying levels of cyberbullying the authors have found departments, administration, and universities fail to provide training or policies to protect faculty from student bullying behaviors. The concept of hegemonic civility is used to illustrate how the actions of students and inaction of administrators uphold the hegemonic order.

The Resilient Women of Color Leaders

In this chapter, the authors report on their experiences as higher education faculty women of color through three narratives. They present the narratives from their perspectives as three full professors in educational leadership. In the first narrative, an African-American scholar reports on her experiences in academia. In the second narrative, a Latina scholar reports on former Latina students who are currently in school leadership positions enacting social justice leadership. In the third narrative, an Asian-American scholar reports on her current project about networking as a strategy for women of color.

Women Faculty in STEM Disciplines: Experiences with the Tenure Process and Departmental Practices

Using data from a national survey of tenure-track faculty job satisfaction, the purpose of the study is to explore predictors of perceptions of tenure clarity for faculty in STEM and non-STEM fields. We build on extant studies and use the gendered organization framework as the conceptual lens to examine whether for four groups of faculty (women and men in STEM, and women and men in non-STEM) assessment of fairness in tenure decisions and evaluations, messages about tenure requirements, mentoring, and relationships with peers have a similar effect on their assessment of tenure clarity. Bivariate findings reveal that compared to all other faculty, women in STEM fields are less likely to perceive the expectations for tenure as clear, and the messages about tenure requirements as consistent. Compared to men in both STEM and non-STEM fields, women in STEM are less likely to assess tenure decisions and evaluations as fair, mentoring as effective, and relationships with peers as satisfactory. Multivariate results show that for women in STEM, except for relationships with peers, all other independent variables significantly influence their assessment of tenure clarity. Policy and practice recommendations are discussed.

Preparing for Uganda: Anticipating the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nationality in Transcultural Leadership Development Research

<p>I describe my leadership stance that leans heavily into the intersection of race, class, gender, and ethnicity and its effect on an individual’s life experiences and worldview. The chapter addresses how I need to shift my thinking in applying an intersectional lens to research in a traditionally patriarchal African context. I am excited to visit Africa and embark on much-needed research with faculty women that has the possibility of expanding our knowledge of women’s leadership and gender equity. As I make necessary preparations to begin the research in Uganda, perhaps the most difficult things to attend to are my own thoughts and reflections. In this chapter, I explore the preparatory journey of a Black woman, a Feminist, and American visiting Uganda for transcultural leadership research.</p>

Preparing for Uganda: Anticipating the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nationality in Transcultural Leadership Development Research

<p>I describe my leadership stance that leans heavily into the intersection of race, class, gender, and ethnicity and its effect on an individual’s life experiences and worldview. The chapter addresses how I need to shift my thinking in applying an intersectional lens to research in a traditionally patriarchal African context. I am excited to visit Africa and embark on much-needed research with faculty women that has the possibility of expanding our knowledge of women’s leadership and gender equity. As I make necessary preparations to begin the research in Uganda, perhaps the most difficult things to attend to are my own thoughts and reflections. In this chapter, I explore the preparatory journey of a Black woman, a Feminist, and American visiting Uganda for transcultural leadership research.</p>

FACULTY MENTORING PROGRAMS AT ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE MENTORING PROGRAMS

Teaching is the oldest profession in the world. Mentoring program for faculty only began as recently as the 1970’s. While there are many types of mentoring programs, there is a clear need for more mentoring programs as the demographics of faculty have changed. Single parent faculty, women, minorities and foreign faculty need mentoring programs. Research has shown that there is a clear link between mentoring programs and retention of faculty. Furthermore, mentoring programs are needed at academic institutions and this paper explains why they are needed and what types of mentoring programs could be implemented to retain faculty.