Voice Dispossession and Attributional Accommodation for Career Persistence: A Systematic Review of Gender Parity in U.S. Higher Education Leadership

Background

Cavanaugh (2020) noted that despite the incremental gains women have made over the past 50 years toward higher education leadership, women remain underrepresented in leadership roles even though women earn more higher degrees than men. Within the absence of mentoring, role models, and peer groups, women who attain leadership roles are often left to themselves to navigate an uneven culture where conscious and unconscious biases exist (Cavanaugh, 2020). Women leaders are too often left ill-equipped to successfully deal with the institution’s leadership community where many members “demonstrat[e] behaviors based on various stereotypes and misconceptions, displaying sexism, implementing pay inequity, and subtly discriminating” (Cavanaugh, 2020, p. 6). Similarly, Reis and Grady (2019) noted women college presidents too often face gendered perspectives of followers and these “stereotypical perceptions of followers often cloud the effect of a woman leader’s voice” while decisions made by men are often found to be more believable by followers (p. 34).