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The Glass Ceiling Is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues Among Faculty in Higher Education

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The Glass Ceiling Is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues Among Faculty in Higher Education Chapman University Chapman University Digital Commons Educational Studies Dissertations 5-2016 The Glass Ceiling is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues among Faculty in Higher Education Jillian Wood Chapman University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/ces_dissertations Part of the Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Higher Education Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Wood, J. (2016). The glass ceiling is not broken: Gender equity issues among faculty in higher education (Doctoral dissertation). https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000012 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Chapman University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational Studies Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Chapman University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Glass Ceiling is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues among Faculty in Higher Education A Dissertation by Jillian Wood Chapman University Orange, California College of Educational Studies Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education May 2016 Committee in charge: Penny Bryan, Ph.D., Chair Kris de Pedro, Ph.D. Kim Padulo, Ph.D. Gail Stearns, Ph.D. The Glass Ceiling is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues among Faculty in Higher Education Copyright© 2016 by Jillian Wood iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would never have been able to complete this journey without the help of my committee members, husband, family, friends, and boss. I would like to thank my chair, Dr. Penny Bryan, for introducing me to narrative inquiry. This methodology opened my eyes to the power of story in research. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Kris DePedro, Dr. Kim Padulo, and Dr. Gail Stearns, for taking the time to serve on my committee and offer guidance as well as feedback. I cannot thank my chair and committee enough for their time and wisdom during this process. I would like to thank my boss for his support during my entire four years in the program. He allowed me to take the time I needed from work to focus on my research and writing. I do not think I could have completed this dissertation without his flexibility. I would like to thank my siblings and friends, for understanding my busy schedule and offering encouraging words when I needed them. I would like to thank my parents, Barbara and Tim Ryan, who taught me at a young age I can achieve anything with hard work. Their belief in me demonstrated that I could accomplish anything I put my mind to. I would like to thank my husband, Blair Wood, for his unwavering support throughout my entire education journey, starting with my senior of high school through my undergraduate, master’s, and now Ph.D. program. His patience and confidence has helped me through the good and bad times on this journey. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the five women in this study. Thank you for your courage in sharing your personal stories. I hope people reading these stories can in turn share their own stories of inequities in the hope of making sustainable societal changes in the move toward a more equitable world. iv ABSTRACT The Glass Ceiling is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues among Faculty in Higher Education by Jillian Wood Gender discrimination is an ongoing topic, including discrimination that occurs in higher education. Previous studies have shown female faculty experience a variety of workplace discrimination including sexual harassment/bullying, salary disparities, and lack of work- life balance. This dissertation aimed to analyze equity issues for female faculty at a private university. The researcher utilized a narrative inquiry methodology, conducting interviews with five full-time female faculty. The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the participants’ everyday stories and lived experiences. The researcher utilized critical feminist theory and leadership theory to examine the notion of equity at this campus. The findings, shown through narrative profiles, demonstrate the five women have experienced equity issues at the institution including workplace bullying and lack of work-life balance. It also found the women utilize a self-silencing voice, struggling between challenging equity issues while maintaining their positions at the university. In addition, gender issues experienced prior to working at the university were discussed, demonstrating larger societal issues in relation to gender equity. This dissertation adds to the current studies on equity issues in higher education by focusing on the participants’ stories rather than quantitative or coded data. In addition, it bridged two seemingly disparate frameworks, critical feminist theory and leadership theory, to demonstrate how these concepts can work toward alleviating equity issues in organizations. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Inspiration through Story .........................................................................................1 Historical Background .............................................................................................4 The Gender Gap: Higher Education ........................................................................6 Dissertation Justification ..........................................................................................7 Researcher Positionality.........................................................................................17 Chapter Two: Literature Review .......................................................................................20 Gender Equity Issues in Academia ........................................................................20 Work-Life Balance.....................................................................................27 Promotion Opportunities ............................................................................30 Salary Disparities .......................................................................................36 Campus Climate .........................................................................................39 Feminist Theory .....................................................................................................45 The Psychology of Women ........................................................................47 Early Feminist Theory ...............................................................................50 Critical Feminist Theory ............................................................................54 Leadership Theory .................................................................................................57 Early Leadership Theory............................................................................57 Transactional Leadership ...........................................................................61 Transformational Leadership .....................................................................62 Servant Leadership.....................................................................................63 Relational Leadership ................................................................................64 Intersectionalities of Feminist and Leadership Theory ..........................................66 Power .........................................................................................................67 Leading from Within..................................................................................70 Transformative Leadership ........................................................................70 Relational Leadership ................................................................................71 Use of Feminist and Leadership Theory ................................................................72 Fitting In.....................................................................................................75 Organizational Change...............................................................................78 Moving Forward ....................................................................................................82 Chapter Three: Methods Section .......................................................................................85 Research Statement and Research Questions ........................................................86 Arts-Based Research Methodology .......................................................................87 Narrative Inquiry ....................................................................................................91 Use of Narrative Inquiry to Examine Female Faculty Equity Issues.....................93 Participants .............................................................................................................96 vi Data Generation .....................................................................................................98 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................101 Evaluation Criteria ...............................................................................................105 Unfinishedness
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