Boston University will be one of three Massachusetts universities targeted in a campaign to increase female leadership in higher education administration.
Andrea Silbert, president of the Eos Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation that aims to break to break the cycle of poverty, said Wednesday that members of the BU community are preparing to petition for more female representation, as reported by the Greenfield Recorder.
The Eos Foundation ranked BU 82nd out of 93 higher education institutions surveyed in Massachusetts for the foundation’s Women’s Power Gap in Higher Education study, a ranking that garnered the university a “needs urgent attention” categorization.
Silbert said two major factors influencing BU’s low rank were that the university has never had a woman president and that the board chair is male.
“One thing about this study is that it’s really about the past of the presidency,” Silbert said. “We look at the very top level, we’re not looking at the level down because what we’re seeing is a glass ceiling in higher ed.”
The foundation saw that women are well-represented overall at the dean and provost level, but have little representation at BU’s top spot, according to Silbert.
BU Provost Jean Morrison said the school has many in leadership positions despite its low ranking in the Eos Foundation study. The rankings weigh heavily on the gender of the president and the gender representation of the board members, Morrison said, which do not always present the entire picture.
“Certainly the president is the leader, but the provosts and the deans are really the critical — and large in number — people who are leading and managing,” she said.
BU currently has six female deans, Morrison said. Additionally, she said the majority of vice presidents and associate provosts who report to Morrison are women.
“Many of our largest and most impactful colleges are led by women,” she said. “… I am frankly a little chagrined at the ranking. I can’t see how precisely how they weigh the relative positions to come up with that ranking, but when I think about the leadership culture and climate at BU, women are very strongly represented.”
In an email to a BU alumnus who inquired about gender parity in BU’s leadership, provided to The Daily Free Press by Silbert, BU President Robert Brown wrote that the university takes gender equality seriously.
“I want to assure you that Boston University is committed to finding the very best leadership team irrespective of gender,” Brown wrote, “and that this commitment has led to a preponderance of women in the senior academic leadership of the University.”
The Board of Trustees recently elected a woman, Carla Meyer, as the vice chair for the first time in BU’s history, Brown wrote.
BU’s Questrom School of Business appointed its first female dean this year.
Morrison, the first female provost at BU, said the university can always do better.
“We’re having a number of firsts, but we’ve also had women in leadership roles for a while,” Morrison said. “Can we always do better? Sure, of course we can. But I think under Bob Brown’s leadership, BU has moved quickly toward the goal of gender equality.”
Questrom Dean Susan Fournier wrote in an email that she does not want gender to define her experience as the first female dean of the school.
“I do not and do not wish others to define me as a female dean,” Fournier wrote, “but rather as a dean who [happens] to be a woman.”
Several students expressed different opinions on the impact of the gender imbalance in the administration but agreed that more women should be in positions of power.
Jillian Plotka, a sophomore in the College of Communication, said she thinks many qualified women could and should be part of BU’s leadership, as more than half of BU students are women.
“There are probably ways that women can handle situations that men can’t,” Plotka said, “or a way that it would be better for collaboration and for female students to be comfortable going to leadership about uncomfortable issues that a lot of female students face.”
Nicole Burns, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, said that while she does not think the current administration is inadequate in any form, improvements can alway be made.
“I don’t feel like there’s been any issues with how the men are handling anything,” Burns said, “but I definitely think that there should be more women [in higher positions].”
Galo Espinosa, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he has not heard of any problems of gender discrimination at BU, but having more women in leadership positions could benefit the university.
“I think we could be missing out on stuff just because we don’t have enough women there,” Espinosa said. “So it’s not a problem, it’s just that we’re missing out on stuff that could be improved.”
According to the Eos Foundation report, smaller colleges have significantly more gender parity than large universities. Silbert said smaller colleges often do a better job of ensuring their leadership reflects the makeup of their student body.
“If BU is 59 percent women,” Silbert said, “then why are women only 29 percent of your board members?”
