Degendering Leadership in Higher Education: (Great Debates in Higher Education)

Binary gendered leadership definitions are threatening to leaders whose styles do not match these narrow understandings, and do not leave room for trans, non-binary, and intersex leaders who do not fit within this binary that does not predict leadership styles. Through 34 interviews with women and men serving as presidents, deans, and provosts at some of the United States' top colleges and universities, this book explores what degendered leadership looks like in an academic setting.Higher educational settings have seen more women in leadership roles than in corporate and governmental settings, making this a prime setting for the study of the intersection of gender and leadership. Through interview analysis, the author addresses the following questions: What role does gender play in the narratives of women and men leaders? How might leaders’ gendering of leadership reproduce gender stereotypes? What strategies might leaders and institutions of higher education use to degender leadership? and What might degendered leadership look like? This timely and important book creates a path for inspired, talented, and qualified leadership that is not reduced to gender norms and stereotypes. Institutions that wish to see leadership diversity and that strive toward creating inclusive academic communities need to pay attention to leadership expectations associated with stereotypes that encompass all identities including race, sexuality, ethnicity, age, and religion. This book is a tool for promoting leadership diversity.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Effective Academic Leadership Chapter 3. Learning How to Be an Academic Leader  Chapter 4. Gender and Leadership in Higher Education  Chapter 5. Conclusion, Implications and Suggestions 

About the Author :
Barret Katuna is the Executive Officer of Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS). Barret completed her PhD at the University of Connecticut, USA, and was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut. While pursuing her PhD, Barret also earned certificates from the Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and Human Rights Institute.

Review :
Comprehensive in-depth interviews with higher education leaders provide rich and useful data for leadership studies as well as for aspiring leaders of every gender. Barret Katuna makes an important and timely contribution to promoting leadership diversity by critiquing prescriptive definitions of leadership in academia. Through a wide range of rich in-depth interviews with academic administrators in leadership positions, Katuna challenges gender essentialism and offers a nuanced understanding of effective and inclusive leadership. Drawing on interviews with 34 individuals serving as presidents, deans, and provosts at colleges and universities in the US, the author addresses the role of gender in the narratives of female and male leaders in higher education, how gender fits in their descriptions of workplace interactions, how their gendering of leadership reproduces gender stereotypes, the strategies leaders and institutions can use to degender leadership, and what degendered leadership might look like. She discusses effective academic leadership; training and experiences for learning leadership skills and the relevance and limitations of gender-specific training for women leaders; leaders’ reactions to the socially constructed masculine vs. feminine leadership framework, as well as situations in which they felt gender mattered or did not matter in their work; and how gender identity does not predict leadership style. The book is based on the author’s 2014 doctoral dissertation, Breaking the Glass Ceiling? Gender and Leadership in Higher Education.