Reported factors influencing the selection of women to top-level administrative positions in public community colleges

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (l) to identify factors which contributed to the selection of women who held the positions of chancellor, provost, trustee, president, vice-president, or dean of administration in the public community colleges in the United States; and (2) to generate hypotheses concerning those factors, which could further add to the knowledge base concerning the upward mobility of professional women. The researcher was able to identify 30 women who occupied top-level administrative positions in public community colleges in l979.

To identify any factors which these women believed were influential in their selection, a questionnaire, cassette tape, and accompanying letters were mailed to each of the 30 women. Twenty women responded to the survey. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. Part I solicited biographical information about the participants. Part II consisted of open-ended questions which asked the women administrators to identify any reasons or factors which they believed had enhanced or hindered their selection to administrative positions for which they had applied. The respondents were encouraged to answer the open-ended questions by recording their responses on the cassette tape. Part III of the questionnaire asked the respondents to identify any top-level women administrators who were iv

unknowingly omitted from an enclosed roster of potential participants.

The biographical data submitted by the respondents were collated to develop a profile of the women executives. The responses recorded on the cassette tapes were transcribed. The data were analyzed utilizing the constant comparative method. Some of the findings of the study are listed below.

l. A terminal degree with a major in educational administration was influential in the selection of the respondents.

2. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents were or had been married.

3. In every case, the father of a respondent had as much or more education than the mother.

4. Fifty-three percent of the respondents had children under r 18 years old at the time of their first administrative appointment.

5. Formal factors which the respondents believed most influenced their selection to their latest position were educational preparation and administrative experience; the informal factor most often cited by the respondents was personal relationships with people holding superior positions within the organization.

6. Sixty-three percent of the women administrators had been promoted from another position in the same college.

7. The respondents seemed to possess positive selfconcepts and good human relation skills.

vi 8. Cultural conditioning was believed to be the primary reason so few women occupied administrative positions in public community colleges.

9. Female role models and activities to increase the visibility of qualified women were the most frequently cited strategies to increase the number of women administrators.

10. Only one respondent said she was "very active" in the Women's Movement.

11. Forty-five percent of the respondents reported that federal regulations had positively influenced their selection.