Sisters At The Helm:A Study Of Female Presidents In American Colleges/Universities

The feminism movement,feminism and the wave of gender equality have promoted the academic position of American women in the field of higher education.Many economic and social factors in American social life have jointly created the history,present and future of female university presidents.Since the beginning from the late 18th century and development to the present,the female presidents of American universities have grown from scratch,from less to more,from serving only in women’s college to serving as presidents of traditional universities,from serving as two-year colleges or regular four-year university presidents to becoming research-oriented university presidents.Female presidents appear later than male presidents,and their number is even fewer.However,their performance during their tenure is not inferior to that of their male peers.The influence and the discourse power of the female presidents are also gradually expanding.The development history of the female presidents of American universities not only engraved women’s tremendous progress and achievements in academic and management fields,but also recorded their heavy resistance and discrimination in career choices and career promotion.Social gender discrimination,the suspicion of women’s ability,and "glass ceilings" remain the biggest organizational barriers for women to further participate in management and promote to university leaders.The open questions of women’s access to the presidency of the university have always been full of women’s entry into the academic and management fields of higher education.The realistic conflicts and contradictions between family roles and social roles are still the thorny issues that women can never avoid.The female presidents of generation to generation experienced numerous oppression and revolt,they surpassed the limitations and constraints of society and eventually became innovative transformers;they sought to the way for quelling the male right through difficulties and suffering,finally ushered in the "women’s time".However,The female presidents should change the status and label of the "minority" thoroughly,and still have a long way to go.This dissertation will try to seek the thinking that this unfinished business brings to us from the development process of female presidents of American universities.In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion,this dissertation has four chapters.The Introduction will justify choice of this thesis topic,the purpose and significance of the research,explain core concepts,review the international and domestic literature,describe methodology and innovation points of the paper.Chapter One analyzes the economic,political and cultural foundations of the birth of female presidents of American universities,and describes the struggles of a group of pioneers of early female presidents.Chapter Two discusses the struggle and failure of womer’s college to adhere to the tradition of female presidents,and presents the hard course of the tortuous development of female presidents in American universities.Chapter Three explores the transition from "absentee" and "aphasic" to "speaker" in the female presidents of American universities.The female presidents of research-oriented universities begin to lead the trend of the times,and draw their social structure atlas.Chapter Four summarizes the characteristics of the leadership qualities of female presidents in American universities and the dilemmas they face.The Conclusion points out that women’s role as a university even a research-oriented university president is the trend of the times,predicts the future vision of female university presidents,but the realization of true equality between men and women must continue to struggle.