The Influence of Mentorship and Role Models on University Women Leaders’ Career Paths to University Presidency

While the literature concerning female administrators in higher education indicates the critical role that mentors and role models play in contributing to women's professional advancement, the relationship between mentorship and women's attainment of senior leadership positions including the college presidency remain under explored The purpose of this study was to explore how women in key-line administrative positions to the presidency (e.g., academic dean, vice president, chief academic officer) and women presidents understood the role of mentoring relationships and role models in their career paths to leadership. This study employed a postmodern feminist theoretical framework and a feminist qualitative design to give voice to the unique and individualized ways university women in key-line positions to the presidency and women presidents made meaning of the influence of mentors and role models during their careers. Data collection involved 16 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a criterion-based sample of 12 female key-line administrators and four presidents employed at universities located in the southeastern United States. The data analysis revealed four main themes related to: (1) the minimal role of mentors and role models; (2) gender dynamics characterizing participants' role models and mentoring relationships; (3) mentoring moments with multiple and non-traditional mentors and role models; and (4) the benefits of mentors and/or role models. This study recognizes the participants' complexity in their multiple identities and demonstrates women's resourcefulness in seeking career guidance and social support from multiple sources including male and female mentors, role models, colleagues, friends, and family members. Keywords: Mentoring, Gender, Leadership, Higher Education, Women's Advancement, University Presidency, Feminist Qualitative Research Scholars have consistently pointed to the crucial role that mentoring and role models play in women's career path advancement (Brown, 2005; Dunbar & Kinnersley, 2011; Ely, Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011; Madsen, 2008; Schipani, Dworkin, Kwolek-Folland, & Maurer, 2009). Mentoring is important for women at all levels of the academy--as graduate students, faculty, and administrators--in providing them with (a) career role models, (b) career development and advice, (c) sponsorship and greater visibility, (d) advice for successfully balancing work/family responsibilities, (e) career guidance and support, and (f) strategies for overcoming gendered barriers (Brown, 2005; Dunbar & Kinnersley, 2011; Gibson, 2006; Kurtz-Costes, Helmke, & Ulku-Steiner, 2006; Madsen, 2008, 2012). Researchers suggest that women need role models who can show them how to advance despite existing barriers (Kurtz-Costes et al., 2006). There is a critical need to prepare women to form leadership identities, negotiate barriers to women's advancement, seek mentoring and role models, support one another, and combat stereotyped attitudes toward women's leadership (Pfafman & McEwan, 2014; Madden, 2011; Salas-Lopez, Deitrick, Mahady, Gertner, & Sabino, 2011). Madsen (2008) explains that the dearth of research concerning university women's pathways is a result of the small percentage of "women serving as presidents of research and comprehensive institutions" (p. 136). Further, King and Gomez (2008) assert, "there is almost no information on those individuals in the senior campus administrative positions [e.g., academic dean, executive vice presidents, CAO, etc.] that most typically lead to the presidency" (p. iv). As such, the majority of leadership studies in higher education have almost exclusively focused on the experiences of white males--"render[ing] women's experiences as invisible" (Chliwniak, 1997, p. 19). The lack of published research pertaining to the influence of mentoring and role models on women administrators' career paths to the university presidency is made more significant when considering the findings from The American College President report, which projected that over the next 10 years there will be a large number of presidential retirements (American Council on Education, 2012). …