A Dissertation Entitled Mothering Academics

A Dissertation

entitled

Mothering Academics: Women’s Perception of the Intersectionality of Academic

Leading and Rearing Underage Children in a Midwestern Urban Community College

Crystal R. Clark

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Doctor of Philosophy Degree in

Higher Education

______Dave Meabon, PhD, Committee Chair

______Ron Opp, PhD, Committee Member

______Penny Poplin Gosetti, PhD, Committee Member

______Colleen Quinlan, PhD, Committee Member

______Dr. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, Dean College of Graduate Studies

The University of Toledo

December 2017

This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of

Mothering Academics: Women’s Perception of the Intersectionality of Academic Leading and Rearing Underage Children in a Midwestern Urban Community College

Crystal R. Clark

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Higher Education

The University of Toledo December 2017

In 2011, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) acknowledged the absence of trend data to predict the representation of women in future academic leadership. This gap in the literature coupled with non-representative female leadership numbers and imminent shortages in leadership in the community college sector predicated the importance of this study and its contributions to literature and practice. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of women serving in community college leadership while rearing underage children. Through 13 semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, the study procured an understanding of the participants’ perceptions of the influence of their mothering role on their leadership role, providing insight about (a) the non-representative numbers of females in community college leadership, (b) the leadership crisis predicted to soon impact community colleges, and (c) the factors contributing to both. The study found that women living the phenomenon (a) similarly applied practices across their role of mothering and leading, (b) experienced changes in their perceptions of self because of the intersectionality of mothering and leading, (c) endured limited access to professional

iii development, and (d) found professional advancement not readily accessible. Further, the study provided a means of interpreting the findings based on the nascent

Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering Academics (KTMA), which emerged from the consideration of the intersectionality of participants’ identities through the intersectionality of applicable theories—matricentric feminist theory, social role theory, and feminist critical policy analysis. The study’s resulting recommendations included (a) intentional recruitment; (b) coordinated mentoring, coaching, and networking; (c) local professional development; (d) succession planning and “grow your own” training; (e) campus-wide cross training and internships; and (f) the creation of policies and practices sensitive to the needs of women leading or with the potential to lead while rearing underage children.

Table of Contents

Abstract iii

Table of Contents v

List of Tables xi

List of Figures xii

List of Abbreviations xiii

I. Introduction 1

A. Background of the Study 1

B. Statement of the Problem 3

C. Significance of the Problem 4

D. Theoretical Framework 8

a. Matricentric Feminist Theory 9

b. Social Role Theory 10

c. Feminist Critical Policy Analysis 10

d. Theories in Unison 11

E. Research Questions 12

F. Methodological Approach 14

a. Data Collection 14

b. Data Analysis 15

G. Definitions, Assumptions Limitations, and Delimitations 16

a. Definitions 16

b. Assumptions 17

c. Limitations 17

d. Delimitations 17

H. Summary 18

II. Literature Review 20

A. Introduction 20

B. Section I: Praxis 25

a. Outside the Academy 25

1. Good Mother vs. Ideal Worker 30

2. Work and Family Balance 34

3. Pay and Promotion Disparity 39

i. Mommy Tracking 40

ii. Family-Friendly Policies 41

iii. Competence and Commitment 44

b. Inside the Academy 47

1. Women Faculty 52

2. Community College Level 55

C. Section II: Theory 58

a. Matricentric Feminism 59

1. Womanism 59

2. Mother-ism 62

3. Critical Void: Motherwork, Re/Productive Labor,

and Maternal Work 66

4. Mother Theory 68

b. Social Role Theory 69

c. Feminist Critical Policy Analysis 71

C. Summary 74

III. Methodology 76

A. Introduction 77

B. Qualitative Inquiry 77

a. Five Qualitative/Quantitative Distinctions 78

1. Positivism and Postpositivism 78

2. Postmodern Sensibilities 79

3. Point of View 79

4. Constraints of Everyday Living 79

5. Rich Descriptions 80

b. Qualitative Research 80

C. Phenomenological Methodology 81

a. Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) 82

b. Husserl, Schutz, and van Manen 83

c. Hermeneutics 85

d. Phenomenological Data Analysis 88

D. Participants 93

E. Desired Research and Research Design 96

a. Desired Research 96

b. Research Design 96

F. Instrumentation 98

G. Analysis of Data 100

vii

H. Ethical Issues 106

I. Limitations and Delimitations 106

a. Limitations 106

b. Delimitations 107

J. Summary 107

IV. Findings 108

A. Introduction 108

B. Participant Demographics 109

C. Data Collection Process 110

D. Pilot Interviews 111

E. Data Analysis Process 112

F. Theme Development 113

G. Findings for Research Question One 116

a. One Informs the Other 117

1. Language and expression 117

2. Same practices 120

3. Intersecting moments 124

b. Intersectionality of Roles Shaping Identity 127

1. Expressions from within 127

2. External expressions 129

3. Expressions of reconciliation 130

i. Before-and-after with children 131

ii. A pivotal moment with children 132

viii

iii. Ever-present children 133

H. Findings for Research Question Two 134

a. Full Access 135

b. Limited Access 135

c. Hope for Future Access 137

d. Self-determined Access 138

I. Findings for Research Question Three 138

a. No Plans 138

b. Inhibited 140

c. Postponed 141

d. In Preparation 143

e. In Progress 143

f. Other Observations 144

J. Summary 145

V. Discussion 147

A. Introduction 147

B. Interpretation 149

a. Career and Leadership 149

b. Mothering and Family 150

c. Identity and the Intersectionality of Identities 152

d. Professional Access 153

C. Theories 156

a. Transference 157

b. Reticence 159

c. Absence 161

d. Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering Academics 162

D. Implications 164

a. Implications for Practice 165

b. Implications for Policy 165

c. Implications for Future Research 167

E. Recommendations 170

a. Visibility and Recognition of Intersecting Identities 170

b. A Culture Conducive to Female Leadership 172

c. Networking, Role Models, and Mentoring Relationships 174

F. Summary 176

References 180

Appendices

A. Permission to Reproduce Women in Leadership Figure 198

B. Permission to Reproduce Work/Family Border Crossing Model 200

C. Pre-Interview Information Survey 203

D. Research Consent Form 205

E. Interview and Observation Protocol 208

List of Tables

Table 1.1 The Study’s Participants, Their Positions, and the Number of Children .....7

Table 1.2 Kaleidoscoped Theories and Participant Performances ...... 12

Table 2.1 Female Leadership in Higher Education ...... 24

Table 2.2 Female Leadership and Progress ...... 27

Table 2.3 Labor Force Participation Rates 2013...... 29

Table 2.4 Institutional Family Friendly Polices ...... 58

Table 2.5 Re-Framing Gender Policy Questions ...... 73

Table 3.1 Demographics ...... 95

Table 4.1 Coding Terms and Meanings ...... 114

Table 4.2 Coding Categories in NVivo11 ...... 115

Table 4.3 Research Questions, Emergent Themes, and Key Terms ...... 116

Table 4.4 Reconciliation of Mothering and Leading Identities ...... 134

Table 4.5 Access to Professional Development ...... 139

Table 4.6 Access to Professional Advancement ...... 145

List of Figures

Figure 1-1. A theoretical model of kaleidoscope theories ...... 11

Figure 2-1. Percent of women in leadership by sector ...... 26

Figure 2-2. Border crossers’ adaptation in the work and home environments ...... 35

Figure 2-3. Border crossers trafficking matricentric pedagogy ...... 66

Figure 2-4. Social role theory diagram ...... 69

Figure 3-1. Data analysis spiral for processing qualitative research data ...... 105

Figure 5-1. Matricentric transference ...... 159

Figure 5-2. Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering Academics (KTMA) capturing

the study’s multi-celled illumination ...... 163

Figure 5-3. KTMA supporting intersectionality of theories ...... 169

Figure 5-4. KTMA illustrating range of resulting outcomes ...... 170

xii

List of Abbreviations

AACC ...... American Association of Community Colleges ACE ...... American Council on Education AAUP ...... American Association of University Professors

FMLA ...... Family Leave Act of 1993

GYO ...... Grow Your Own

KTMA ...... Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering Academics

MLA ...... Modern Language Association MIRCI ...... Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement

xiii

Chapter One

Introduction

Background of the Study

Research has shown that the presence of women in leadership positions in

America’s community colleges is markedly different than in its four-year colleges and universities (McKenney, 2000; Opp & Gosetti, 2000; Tedrow & Rhoads, 1998;

Townsend, 1995a; Townsend & Twombly, 2007). In the two-year environment, women hold administrative and quasi-administrative roles in greater proportion than what has been reported for institutions granting bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees (King

& Gomez, 2008). Townsend and Twombly (2007a, 2007b) found that while females were 38% of full-time faculty across the academy, in community colleges they were

49%. Further, their research showed women in the community college setting held 40% of the department chair positions, 42% of chief academic officers, 30% of chief financial officers, and 28% of the presidencies (Townsend & Twombly, 2007a).

Some scholars have reasoned that the increased presence of professional women could be attributed to the lower status and prestige held by community colleges

(LaPaglia, 1995; Townsend, 1995a; Tedrow & Rhoads, 1998; Opp & Gosetti, 2000); community colleges’ emphasis on teaching rather than on research and scholarship

(Wolf-Wendel et al., 2007); and perhaps community colleges’ open access mission influencing more diverse hiring practices (Opp & Gosetti, 2000; Townsend and

Twombly, 2007a). A small number of scholars have ventured so far as to think on the possibility of marginalization (Clark, 1998; Eddy, 2002; Townsend, 1995b; Townsend &

Twombly, 2007a, 2007b), and the matter of choice—women choosing the community

1 college for work and family balance reasons (Wolf-Wendel & Ward, 2006; Wolf-

Wendel, et al., 2007). Yet, very few studies have asked women in these positions about the career path that led to their community college placement and the circumstances they experience while in these positions. Today’s academic landscape exhibits elements that make understanding the circumstances of female leadership important. First, the attrition of current leadership, brought about by the aging process and retirements, is reaching a point of crisis (American Association of Community Colleges, 2001, 2005, 2014, 2016;

Keim, 2008; O’Keefe, 2013; Rice & O’Keefe, 2014; Shults, 2001; Watts & Hammons,

2002). Second, the growth of female students attending community colleges sharply contrasts the growth of female academic leadership (Eddy & Cox, 2008).

This study contributed to the body of literature that documents the experiences of women in the academy. More specifically, it addressed a gap in the literature on women in the community college holding positions of leadership while engaged in the act of mothering underage children; for little has been written about community colleges, few studies have been conducted on professional women in community colleges, and even fewer studies have been published on mothering academics outside of the faculty perspective.

While the immediacy of mothering is essential (Eddy & Cox, 2008), in practice and in name, the act of mothering possesses a complex and often misunderstood status

(hooks, 1984; O’Reilly, 2013, 2014; O’Reilly & Ruddick, 2009; Ruddick, 1989)—even for the mothering academic (Covington-Ward, 2013; Grasetti, 2013; Nzinga-Johnson,

2013)—one historically suggesting the private sphere rather than the public, and submissiveness rather than assertiveness (Eagly, 1987). Heilman and Okimoto (2008)

2 found the concept of “mother” as strongly associated with kindness and nurturance, not the independence and competitiveness usually associated with males and leadership roles, which led to their conclusion that motherhood was an impediment for women seeking career advancement because of gender-based stereotypes.

For this study, academicians were studied based on their mothering and leading— the unique alignment of providing care for the daily physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing of a developing child or children while serving or having served in a community college leadership position, also requiring careful maintenance of its own. More important, the phenomenon selected for study, academic leading while rearing underage children, was narrowed to the practice of mothering during the kindergarten through high school senior years when the child possesses enough independence to free the mother to pursue responsibilities unrelated to the child and enough dependence to still require the mother’s emotional sustenance and support.

Statement of the Problem

While it may appear that more positions of leadership have been acquired by women in community colleges than in other sectors (Townsend, 1995a; Townsend &

Twombly, 2007a), scholars suggest gender-based barriers remain (Eddy, 2010). Women comprise 57% of the two-year student population but only 29% of community college presidencies (Eddy, 2010; Eddy & Cox, 2008), leaving some scholars to question whether the community college holds the male-centered precepts of a gendered organization (Acker, 1990; Eddy, 2010; Eddy & Cox, 2008) and whether the potential presence of those precepts in some way influences leadership norms, thus barring the advancement of women “based on arguments about women’s reproduction, emotionality,

3 and sexuality” (Acker, 1990, p. 152). Eddy (2002) reported “with senior level community college leaders, women achieve success up to a particular organization level and then receive promotions more slowly into the presidency than their white male counterparts” (p. 500). Further, Tedrow and Rhoads (1998) found “[a]lthough there is evidence of high levels of support for women in the community college, there is also a significant counterbalance that often works against women” (p. 6). This counterbalance may be evidenced in what Fuegen, Biernat, and Deaux’s (2004) study determined; unlike the employed father who is deemed the provider, “[a] full-time employed mother violates norms regarding the caretaker role” (p. 749). Potential responses to these perceived violations could affect female professional development and advancement (Eagly &

Karau, 2002; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011) as one research study has found

“employed mothers are often judged more harshly than employed fathers” (Fuegen et al.,

2004, p. 740).

Significance of the Problem

In 2006, The University Committee on the Status of Women at Johns Hopkins

University determined that leadership attainment for women took a much longer length of time and sometimes was unachievable. Acknowledging what many women’s lived experiences could have attested (Evans & Grant, 2008; Monosson, 2008), the university made transparent the challenges set before female academic leaders. However, the Johns

Hopkins’ (2006) study and similar research (e.g., American Council on Education, 2015) fall short of considering a fuller range of women across the higher education spectrum; they fall short of adequately considering women in less prestigious academic environments. Going under-researched because of what has historically been scholarly

4 indifference are the professional experiences of women in community colleges

(Townsend & Twombly, 2007a, 2007b; Wolf-Wendel et al., 2007). Many of these women are often rearing children while engaged in the business of helping to run the institution. This gap in the literature has contributed to a kind of invisibility for these academic leaders and may continue to feed what scholars have identified as the marginalization of female work within community colleges (Clark, 1998; Townsend,

1995b; Tedrow & Rhoads, 1998; Townsend & Twombly, 2007a; Wolf-Wendel et al.,

2007). Additionally, the experiences of female community college leaders who are mothering children has been affected by organizational structures necessitating the need for females to mimic male-centered leadership styles (Tedrow & Rhoads, 1998). Eddy and Cox’s (2008) studies found that there is often the expectation of the “disembodied employee,” where women are expected “to fit this male-normed mold” (Eddy & Cox,

2008, p.74) while “performing gender” (Eddy & Cox, 2008; Lester, 2008).

Valian’s (1998) research posited “[s]tereotypes of male and female roles unconsciously pervade attitudes of both men and women, leading to a persistent pattern of overrating of men and underrating of women when work-related behavior is compared to entrenched expectations” (as cited in Bilen-Green, Froelich, & Jacobson, 2008, p. 2).

This may be evident in the fact that while women earn more than half of all doctorate degrees and are “43 percent of all college and university professors,” they still occupy less than a quarter of the full professorships (Allison, 2007, p. 24; Bilen-Green, Froelich,

& Jacobson, 2008). And, even then, according to Modern Language Association’s

(2009) Standing Still: The Associate Professor Survey, “it takes women from 1 to 3.5 years longer than men to attain the rank of professor” (p. 1). The slow or delayed process

5 could serve as a deterrent for women seeking career advancement; for, in the two-year, just as in the four-year setting, ascension to leadership traditionally has started within the ranks of faculty (McKenney & Cejda, 2000; Warner & DeFleur, 1993) though this is changing in the community college. Where 70% of college presidents previously held full-time faculty appointments (Eddy, 2002; Cook, 2012) and “[a]dministrative positions in academia have a welldefined [sic] hierarchy, with progressive ranks that are fairly uniform nationwide, from division director to department chair, dean, and then university leadership positions” (Dominici, Fried, & Zeger, 2009), the community college has noted a variation of its own. More specifically, “37% of community college presidents have never been a faculty member, and 67% have been employed outside higher education”

(Eddy, 2010, p. 20-21). Still, “chilly climates,” gendered institutional processes (e.g., academic tenure), and the privileging of the “male ideal worker,” according to Allison

(2007), may affect advancement and retention rates for female faculty members and the progression of women attempting to advance from other academic areas (Harper, 1990;

Madsen, 2011, 2012).

Applying social role theory to the initiations of matricentric feminist theory, the interrogation of feminist critical policy analysis, and the lived experiences of academic leaders mothering underage children, this study engaged the gap in the literature created by the minimal attention given the two-year institution and the women, therein, actively childrearing while serving in leadership positions. The study examined what perceptions were held by female academic leaders of their intersecting and interacting roles as mother and community college administrator. Table 1.1 provides a list of the participants in various stages of community college leadership: administrative, faculty, and student

6 services. Moreover, the table lists their academic role within the college and the number and ages of their children.

Table 1.1

The Study’s Participants, Their Positions, and the Number of Children

Number of Age(s) of Participants Title children child(ren)

Administrative leadership

MA-1 VP 1 15 MA-2 VP 2 14, 16 MA-3 Asst. to Pres. 2 10, 15 MA-4 Asst. to Pres. 2 11, 13

Faculty leadership

MA-5 Dept. Chair 3 12, 14, 18 MA-6 FMR Int. Dept. Chair 1 14 MA-7 Director 1 13, 14, 16 MA-8 FMR Coord. 3 6, 6, 16 MA-9 FMR Coord. 2 10, 14 MA-10 FMR Int. Dept. Chair 2 11, 15

Student services leadership

MA-11 Director 1 10 MA-12 Director 1 7 MA-13 Director 2 9, 11

Note. Asst. to Pres. = Assistant to President; Coord. = Coordinator; FMR = Former; Int. Dept. Chair = Interim Department Chair; MA = Mothering Academic; VP = Vice President.

In a testimony before the Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S.

Secretary of Labor Tom Perez (2013-2017) not only noted the disparity experienced by women in the workplace, particularly mothers, but he recognized the need to avoid

7 squandering any human capital in this 21st century economy (United States Department of Labor, 2015). This study sought to provide data which could encourage and inspire community colleges and other institutions of higher education to avoid the underutilization of viable human resources, and instead rethink any dated policies and practices. Further, the study contributed to scholarship that Curtis (2011), former director of research and public policy for the American Association of University Professors

(AAUP), confessed was missing—scholarship predicting the representation of women in future academic leadership. The research uncovered data that merit the urgency for immediate institutional dialogue and action focused on gender-related institutional policies, as identified by DiCroce (1995); female recruitment, training, and mentoring, as identified by Hertneky (2012) and Wise (2013); and work/family balance, and career planning and guidance, as identified by Perrikas and Martinez (2012).

Theoretical Framework

As aspects of the professional collide with the personal in the lives of twenty-first century women, accessibility to having it all and at the same time appears to erase the psychological separation, if not the physical separation, of the public and private spheres or the marketplace and home. Women who are holding positions of academic leadership in higher education while mothering underage children repeatedly encounter collisions of identity in innocuous and nocuous ways (Perrakis & Martinez, 2012). These encounters shape how female academic leaders view their worker selves as well as their mothering selves or the intersectionality of their identities. Additionally, these encounters affect career trajectory—its ascent or its descent.

To acknowledge fully the intersectionality of identities of the women participating in the study required a complex construction of theories in a complementary design, such

8 as a kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope provides a singular view of a multifaceted projection of colored glass. The facets are created by two or more reflecting surfaces angled at specific degrees and in relation to each other. Cell rotation, controlled by the viewer at the base of the device, creates motion with the glass and changes in the projection. Thus, the viewer is provided a multi-colored, multi-celled display of beauty and light in a single glance. The union of O’Reilly’s (2014, 2016) matricentric feminist theory, Eagly’s (1987) social role theory, and Bensimon and Marshall’s (1997) feminist critical policy analysis facilitated the engagement and understanding of the participants’ unique perspective via this means. Matricentric feminist theory, social role theory, and critical feminist policy analysis served as the reflecting surfaces, their angles in relation to each other framing the casted view. The lived experiences of the study participants were the colored glass, projecting different illuminations as determined by the intersection of the reflecting surfaces with each other and the motion of the glass. And, the researcher served as the viewer, rotating participant narratives within the scope of the reflecting surfaces, while witnessing the illuminations.

As this section of the chapter proceeds, a brief overview will be provided for each theory as well as the researcher’s plans for its use within the kaleidoscoped design.

Matricentric feminist theory. Matricentric feminist theory assumes a practice of mothering that “empowers mothers to resist patriarchal motherhood: to mother against motherhood” through a matrifocal, self-reflexive, and philosophical thinking of motherwork involving critical consciousness, self-affirmation, and social action

(O’Reilly, 2013, p. 191). This practice of mothering promotes its agentic qualities.

Middleton (2006), Grasetti (2013), and O’Reilly (2013) assert the conceptual scheme of

9 matricentric pedagogy equips those engaged in the act of mothering with authority, authenticity, autonomy, agency, and advocacy. For this study, matricentric feminist theory provided the tangible characteristics by which to perceive the practices of the women participating in the study.

Social role theory. Social role theory, the second reflecting surface of the kaleidoscoped design, describes gendered stereotypes and expectations and discusses the influence upon the behaviors of the female worker as depicted in Eagly’s (1987) scholarship on sex differences in social behavior. The division of labor in the family, community, and workplace shapes gender-role expectations on the part of the perceivers

(Dulin, 2007), while determining sex-typed skills and beliefs acquired on the part of the receiver; this ultimately constructs sex differences in social behavior. Thus, women are cast as communal—(e.g. nurturers, caregivers, non-paid or low pay workers, subordinates, and domestics), while men are perceived as agentic (e.g. aggressors, self- reliant, leaders, superiors, and masters) (Eagly, 1987). For this study, social role theory formed a clarifying lens through which to read and understand any images of the masculinization of leadership roles (Diekman & Eagly, 1999; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, &

Ristikari, 2011) emerging in the study.

Feminist critical policy analysis. Feminist critical policy analysis, the third kaleidoscope reflector, treated the institutional perspective of the female worker within what feminist scholars identify as the less-than-transparent structures of the gendered organization (Acker, 1990; Bensimon & Marshall, 1997; Eddy & Cox, 2008) and, according to Eddy (2010), “the community college is a gendered organization” (p. 25).

Feminist critical policy analysis assisted with the critique of institutional policy and

10 practice as the theory critiques institutional sexism within academe by rejecting conventional policy analysis as androcentric because of its implicit belief in a singular concept of truth, its often ahistorical and decontextualized approach to subjects; and its evaluation of women based on male norms (Bensimon & Marshall, 1997).

Theories in unison. Each theory considers a different aspect of the mothering academic’s identity. She serves singularly and simultaneously as mother, academic leader, and institutional member. Dissecting and intersecting theoretical discourse affords consideration of the complexity of the participants’ identities and intersecting identities and adheres to the kaleidoscope design. Figure 1-1 provides a visual conceptualization of the theories viewed in unison, while Table 1.2 shows each theory in relation to the performance of the mothering academic.

Matricentric Critical Kaleidoscoped Social Role Feminist Feminist Policy Theories Theory Theory Analysis

Figure 1-1. A theoretical model of kaleidoscoped theories.

Table 1.2 emphasizes the mothering academic’s performance of various identities.

Within the theoretical context of matricentric empowerment, gender bias, and institutional sexism, the study explored the lived experiences of the academic leaders rearing underage children in the community college setting. The participant narratives, procured through the one-on-one interview process, revealed the intersectionality of their identities and the need for an intersectionality of theories. Therefore, the researcher’s

11 understanding of participant experiences was captured through considerations of social role theory, matricentric feminist theory, and feminist critical policy analysis.

Table 1.2

Kaleidoscoped Theories and Participant Performances

Kaleidoscope Theory Performance

Reflector 1 Matricentric Feminist Theory as mother

Reflector 2 Social Role Theory as academic leader

Reflector 3 Feminist Critical Policy Analysis as institutional member

Research Questions

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of women community college administrators who are mothering underage children. To that end, the research questions were as follows:

1. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their role as

academic leader?

2. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional

development?

3. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional

advancement?

From this development, two significant research terms emerge that warrant study specification: college administrators and perception. First, the title college administrator encompasses women in community college leadership holding administrative as well as quasi-administrative roles (i.e., faculty leadership). Participants were drawn from three different areas of college leadership, allowing for a range of leadership perspectives.

Second, for this study, perception is defined as the intuitive awareness from which individuals grasp understanding or make meaning of their world. In the language of la facultad scholar Anzaldúa, (1987), it is the ability to discern meaning beneath the surface of an event or an occurrence; it is a way of knowing. More concretely, it is what sense the research participants make of the signals received from their sensory (auditory, gustatory, tactile, visual, and olfactory) receptors. Additionally, perception is defined as what the research participants imagine as the architect of their fixed and fluid realities as described in the multiple dimensions of identity research of Abes, Jones, and McEwan

(2007) and Jones and McEwan, (2000). Briefly, the research suggests that contextual influence or influences outside the individual’s self—peers, family, norms, stereotypes, etc.— penetrate, at varying degrees, the meaning making filters that construct personal meaning, thereby affecting self-perceptions (Abes, Jones, & McEwan, 2007). In the case of study participants, while the roles that they perform (mother, academic leader, and institutional member) rotate around their core (personal characteristics, personal attributes, personal identity), external influences penetrate their meaning making filters and shape or reshape how they view circumstances encountered in the home environment and in the workplace.

Methodological Approach

Phenomenology is the methodological approach applied to this qualitative study.

As a whole, the qualitative inquiry or narrative research “is utilized when research questions concern how people understand and make meaning of facets of their lives”

(Josselson, 2013, p. vii). The researcher tries to understand—not measure, predict, or classify—the study participant holistically, “gathering experiential accounts in the participants’ own words” (p. viii). Further, “[t]he intent is to understand how people construct or interpret their experiences, rather than piecing together views of an external event” (Josselson, 2013, p. viii). Similarly, Creswell (2007) explained, “a phenomenological study describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon” (p. 57), reducing the individual experiences to a universal essence or truth. In this case, what this study documented, in the words of the participants, were the narratives of those living the phenomenon of academic leading in the community college while rearing underage children still at home requiring motherly attention.

Data collection. The project studied a convenient but purposeful sample of 13 mothering academic leaders drawn from the community college sector in various areas of leadership—administrative, faculty, and student services. For the purpose of data collection, first, data were collected via 60-90 minute semi-structured one-on-one interviews, which were conducted, audio-recorded, and transcribed. Before the interview process was underway, the researcher started with pilot tests to ensure the effectiveness of the questions and then proceeded with the interview protocol (a form for recording information collected during an interview) of open-ended questions (Creswell, 2007).

As this was a phenomenological study, participants were asked broad or general questions which were then followed by additional open-ended questions (Creswell,

2007).

To ensure the process of triangulation, the interview sessions were planned within each participant’s immediate work environment, where the researcher took photographs.

In this way observations were drawn from the workspace and from the participant while in the workspace. Further, participants were asked to complete a personal data sheet before the interviews commenced, and afterward, they were afforded the opportunity to review their transcripts for the purpose of member checking.

Data Analysis. Once all the data had been successfully gathered and recorded, to reduce bias, the researcher began analysis using the triangulation of the one-on-one interviews, participant observations, and member checking. Additionally, inter-rater reliability was implemented as well as qualitative analysis software. The entire process modeled Creswell’s (2007) Data Analysis Spiral and involved (a) data managing; (b) reading and memoing; (c) describing, classifying, and interpreting; and (d) representing and visualizing. First, the researcher managed data into file folders and computer files.

Second, the researcher read and re-read the data for key concepts while composing reflective notes in the margins and in journals. Third, the researcher “describe[d] in detail, develop[ed] themes or dimensions through some classification system, and provide[d] an interpretation” (p. 151) based on findings in the literature. The coding and categorizing process began during the describing, classifying, and interpreting and with the use of NVivo11 Data Analysis Software. Fourth and finally, the researcher presented the data in textual and visual form.

Definitions, Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations

Definitions. Key terms used in the study were defined as follows:

Academic leader – one who holds a position of authority within the community college with one or more subordinates under her leadership and an area-specific operating budget. The position could be held within the division of administration, faculty, or student services.

Leadership – as described by Eddy’s (2010) research, “taking an organization or some part of it in a new direction, solving problems, being creative, initiating new programs, building organizational structures, and improving quality” (p. 27).

Motherhood – in the study, as within the context of the research, this term was used to reference the patriarchal rendering of the term which, according to feminist theorists, disempowers, stifles, and embodies oppression.

Mothering or “act of mothering” – used in place “motherhood,” the practice of rearing children.

Mothering academics – those women serving as the subject of this study who hold positions of authority in the community college while rearing underage children.

Position of authority – a position requiring a special designation as to indicate being set apart from the masses in an organization while possessing some measure of self-autonomy and power over one or more subordinates of the organization.

Rearing – caring for the daily physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing of a developing child or, as feminist scholar Sara Ruddick (1989) posits, the act of protecting, nurturing, and training.

Underage children – K-12 offspring who have not yet grown to the legal age of adulthood (18 years) and still abide within the household of the study participant.

Assumptions. The study commenced with several assumptions in play. First, it was assumed that the women participating in the study and serving in leadership capacities while rearing underage children wanted to be in leadership, wanted to remain in leadership, and wanted to advance in leadership. Second, it was assumed that the women participating in the study were influenced by the responsibilities of rearing underage children. Third, it is assumed that the women participating in the study were in pursuit of personal and professional balance—academic success and a thriving family.

Fourth, it is assumed that the women participating in the study wished to continue professional development in order to enhance current positions and in preparation for future positions.

Limitations. The study involved a single community college setting where the researcher was also employed, which may have produced some hesitancy with openness and truthfulness on the part of participants. Moreover, the researcher had a collegial connection with each of the women who participated in the study. Though epoche or bracketing (setting aside preconceived experiences) (Creswell, 2007) was used in the study, the researcher was an academic engaged in the practice of mothering underage children.

Delimitations. The sample population for this study was limited to thirteen women in the community college setting holding positions of academic leadership while rearing underage children. The sample population was not representative of the entire population, but because the study was phenomenological, the aim was not so much to

17 measure, as it was to reduce individual experiences to universal understandings

(Creswell, 2007). The study excluded academic women leaders whose children were not

(K – 12) underage and it excluded women academic leaders without children. Also, because this study focused on gender, it did not compare and contrast mothering and leading observations based on race.

Summary

The perspective of women mothering underage children while holding positions in community college leadership is largely missing and serves as a significant gap in the literature. Studies have been completed on the disparity of pay for women—inside and outside of the academy (Aranda & Glick, 2014; Baker, 2010; Curtis 2011; Kiser 2015;

Kricheli-Katz, 2012). Studies have been completed on the scarcity of women in upper level faculty positions and their slow rise in higher education leadership (American

Council on Education, 2015; Baker, 2012; Bilen-Green et al., 2008; King, 2008). Studies have been completed on the lack of support for mothers with children inside the faculty ranks of the four-year institution (Allison, 2007; Evans & Grant, 2008; Joecks, Pull, &

Backes-Gellner, 2014; Monosson, 2008; Perrakis & Martinez, 2012). What has not been significantly explored and what this study documented were the experiences of women academic leaders in the community college engaged in the act of mothering underage children. For scholars in search of better practices, this study provides just that—better practices for acquiring and retaining new academic leadership as well as insight into the culture and conditions mothering women encounter in the community college. For institutions pondering investment in and retention of female talent, this study provides insight into their leadership potential. As Madsen (2008) noted, “Understanding the

18 experiences and perceptions of these women [leader women] provides insight into the types of activities, influences, and experiences that are beneficial for women to develop the needed knowledge, skills, and competencies required for effective leadership” (p.

150).

Chapter Two

Literature Review

Introduction

Though notable progress has been achieved in recent decades, the professional advancement of women in the U.S. has not matched the pace of the professional advancement of men (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics, 2012, 2013), despite women making up 48% of the workforce (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009). This may not come as a surprise, but to learn that female professional leadership on today’s university and college campuses is not in sync with the steady growth in the number of female students certainly should since females make up 57% of undergraduate enrollment and 59% of graduate enrollment (Eddy & Cox, 2008; Knapp, Kelly-Reid, & Ginder, 2011; Lapovsky &

Larkin, 2009). Moreover, women earn more than half of the doctorate degrees (Johns

Hopkins University, 2002; Bilen-Green, Froelich, & Jacobson, 2008); yet, the number of females in academic leadership roles pales in comparison. On the Pathway to the

Presidency—a collaborative look at 852 of the nation’s doctorate-, master’s-, baccalaureate-, and associate’s degree-granting institutions by the American Council on

Education (ACE) and the College and University Professional Association for Human

Resources (CUPA-HR)—reported that overall women were 23% of all the presidents,

38% of chief academic officers or provosts, and 35.5% of academic deans (King &

Gomez, 2008). The report also identified that women were 50.3% of “central senior academic affairs officers,” but these positions it identified as “typically staff,” i.e.

“associate provosts or deans of graduate studies” (King & Gomez, 2008, p. 5). These numbers corroborate what Johns Hopkins University Committee on the Status of Women

(2002, 2006) determined, which is clear access to leadership is often impeded for women.

Disaggregating the ACE and CUPA-HR (King & Gomez, 2008) data reveals that a significant amount of female leadership is located in the community college sector.

Table 2.1 illustrates the findings that should warrant more scholarly attention than has been given the community college tier of the academy (Borlandoe, 2008; Townsend,

1995b; Townsend and Twombly, 2007b). Representation of females in positions of leadership in the community college is noticeably higher than in any other sector.

According to the data drawn from King and Gomez (2008) and Lapovsky and Larkin

(2009), these women hold 29% of the presidencies and are 43% of the CAOs/provosts,

45.1% of the deans, and 52.5% of the senior administrators. As the ACE and CUPA-HR

(King & Gomez, 2008) report observed, female leaders may be experiencing a sequestering, whether positive or negative, in community colleges, but even these numbers—29% presidents, 43% CAOs, and 45.1% deans—do not reflect the 57% female undergraduate population (Eddy & Cox, 2008; Knapp, Kelly-Reid, & Ginder 2011;

Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009).

While several studies have theorized that the larger percentage of women leaders in the two-year setting could be a result of the lower status and less prestige held by community colleges (DiCroce, 1995; LaPaglia, 1995; Opp & Gosetti, 2000; Tedrow &

Rhoads, 1998; Townsend, 1995a; Townsend & Twombly, 2007b); the community colleges’ emphasis on teaching rather than on research and scholarship (Townsend,

1995b; Wolf-Wendel et al., 2007); and the institutions’ open access mission, perhaps, influencing more diverse hiring practices (DiCroce, 1995; Opp & Gosetti, 2000;

Townsend and Twombly, 2007a), few studies have been generated to determine the

21 definitive cause or causes. Some researchers, though, have ventured so far as to question whether the female saturation of the community college (Townsend, 1995a; Townsend &

Twombly, 2007b) is evidence of their marginalization (Clark, 1998; Eddy, 2002;

Townsend, 1995b; Townsend & Twombly, 2007a; Townsend & Twombly, 2007b) despite the few research findings that have suggested the increased number of women in the community college is a result of the intense competition for faculty at the expansion of higher education during the sixties, which made women necessary candidates when four-year institutions drew away male candidacy, thus creating a shortage (Townsend,

1995b), or the result of choice—women choosing the community college for its being perceived as an environment conducive to balancing work and family (Wolf-Wendel &

Ward, 2006; Wolf-Wendel et al., 2007). This critique deserves careful consideration, especially if it parallels the observations made in Lapovsky and Larkin’s (2009) The

White House Project Report findings, which suggest reaching a critical mass of women in an environment does not produce the kind of change that fosters increased viability “if the women are only at entry-and mid-level positions” (p. 14). Regrettably, the community college could be perceived in one of two ways: as the entry-level (or lowest tier) of higher education as a whole or as a locale where women are increasing in presence but not attaining leadership positions on par with men.

In route to exploring what perceptions female academic leaders have of their professional development and advancement in the community college while rearing underage children, this chapter considers what currently exists in the body of scholarly literature on female academic leadership. Serving as criteria for inclusion in this chapter, the discussed works involve one of the following: women in the professional workplace;

22 women mothering children; women leaders in the academy, specifically the community college; the role of the family for the community college professional; and/or study- related theories: matricentric feminist theory, feminist critical policy analysis, and social role theory. The literature was gathered through Ohio Link: Ohio’s Academic Library

Consortium, Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), Ohio Link Electronic

Theses and Dissertations (ETD), annual meetings of Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI), reference lists (bibliographies), and referenced studies. With the electronic searches, such key words and phrases as women administrators, female community college leaders, community college plus chief academic officers, female administrators, women faculty, female CEOs, mother scholar, mother academic, academic motherhood, women leaders, etc. were used to procure research materials.

Additionally, when the researcher sent emailed correspondence to matricentric feminist scholar Dr. Andrea O’Reilly to address the inability to locate theory that accommodates the use of specific mothering skills in the workplace, Dr. O’Reilly wrote back suggesting the following works for consideration: Ellison’s (2006) Mommy Brain:

How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter; Green and Byrd’s (date) Maternal Pedagogies: In and Outside the Classroom; Hrdy’s (2000) Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How

They Shape the Human Species; Ruddick’s (2007) “Maternal Thinking” in O’Reilly’s

Maternal Theory; and Kinser and Freehling-Burton’s (2014) Performing Motherhood.

The chapter will discuss two specific areas as revealed in the literature: praxis and theory. The praxis section will treat the professional faring of women in the workplace to contextualize the development of women as leaders within the academy.

Some of the literature will discuss statistical and experiential findings in the public and private sectors, chiefly as it concerns women who are mothers navigating structures identified as hierarchical and male-oriented. Secondly, the praxis section will narrow its scope to women in higher education, for there are professional and personal commonalities experienced by women across the spectrum of research institutions, comprehensive colleges and universities, and community colleges. Lastly and more importantly, the praxis section will draw its focus even narrower, discussing the few studies published on the specific theme of this project: the experiences of women leaders in community colleges balancing the responsibilities of rearing underage children with the responsibilities of their professional lives.

Table 2.1

Female Leadership in Higher Education

Type of Degree- Dean of Senior Granting Academic Administrator Institution Presidencies CAO/Provost College Total

Doctorate 14.0% 23.0% 19.3% 34.0%

Master’s 22.0%* 37.6% 28.2% 38.3%

Baccalaureate 23.0%* 33.8% 34.4% 41.8%

Associate’s 29.0% 43.0% 45.1% 52.2%

Note: Data drawn from ACE and CUPA-HR’s (King & Gomez, 2008) On the Pathway to the Presidency, except for data marked (*). This information is drawn from The White House Project Report (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009).

The theoretical second section of this chapter will discuss the research related to the theories framing the study: Eagly’s social role theory (1987) and Bensimon and

Marshall’s (1997) feminist critical policy analysis undergirded by the questionings of

O’Reilly’s (2013) matricentric feminism.

The intent of the first section is to illuminate an important gap in the literature— the paucity of documented experiences of women serving in community colleges.

Discussing specifically women who lead while rearing underage children, the literature review will not only show what is included in the scholarly discourse, but what is not.

The section begins, however, with how women overall are faring professionally in public, private, and non-profit sectors.

The intent of the second section is to shed light on the absence of applicable women-centered theories articulating the work of mothers outside the home and within the context of feminism.

Section I: Praxis

Outside the academy. The White House Project Report: Benchmarking

Women’s Leadership (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009) found that while women have been met with access to equal participation in the labor force, they have not been met with access to equal participation in leadership roles. In fact, the report revealed women are stalled at an 18% average within the fields of academia, business, film, journalism, law, military, nonprofit, politics, religion, and sports. Figure 2-1 provides a synopsis of the report’s findings for women in leadership across the employment sectors.

Figure 2-1. Percent of women in leadership position by sector. Visual drawn from Lapovsky & Larkin’s (2009) The White House Project Report: Benchmarking Women’s Leadership, p. 9.

The White House Project Report (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009) concluded that

“[i]ncreasing women’s leadership is an imperative” particularly in light of the baby boomer generation, some 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964, retiring from the labor force, and the smaller number, 46 million, of Generation X folks born between

1965 and 1979, attempting to fill the vacancies (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009). Perhaps this understanding of the sense of urgency is reflected by polled Americans, who indicate a

90% acceptance rate of female leadership, despite what is occurring in the actual world: the low number of women serving in senior leadership positions across varied fields

(Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009, p. 5). Thought and reality simply do not align. The report found the U.S. is “nowhere near where we need to be in terms of representation in leadership position—in fact, we are even losing ground in some sectors” (Lapovsky &

Larkin, 2009, p. 9). Consider the findings in Table 2.2, summarizing the lack of or limited progress for women in academia, business, film, law, and politics.

Table 2.2

Female Leadership and Progress

Women in Leadership Lack of Progress

Academia

57% female enrollment 10-year fixed number for female presidents

26% of full professors Early 70s women earned 83% of the salary of males; early 2000s, women earned 82%.

23% of university presidents

26% of college and university board members

Business

3% of Fortune 500 CEOs No women on 13% of Fortune 500 boards

15% of Fortune 500 boards No progress for women in leadership in the last decade.

Wage improved less than ½ a cent a year since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 or 23 cents.

Film

16% of all directors, executive producers, 16% is a slight decrease from the previous producers, writers, and cinematographers. decade.

Law

48% law graduates Male counsel lawyers earn $20,000 more

18% of law partners Male equity partners earn $90,000 or more than female equity partners

Female Leadership and Progress

Women in Leadership Lack of Progress

16% of equity partners in private law At the top of legal sector, no female firms progress in 15 years

25% of judges

Politics

17% of Congress In state legislatures, the number of women increased 2% in 10 years.

6 U.S. governors

U.S. ranks 71st out of 189 countries for women in national legislature

Note. Data drawn from Lapovsky & Larkin’s (2009) The White House Project Report: Benchmarking Women’s Leadership, pp. 10-12.

As Table 2.2 illustrates, “the advance of women to the top is stalled” (Lapovsky &

Larkin, 2009, p. 14). This holds true in the other five fields studied, as well—in religion, nonprofit, military, journalism, and sports.

For all of The White House Project Report’s (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009) acumen, it mentioned mothering sparingly, addressing its related concerns with the start of the career in the academy—the tenure process coinciding with critical childbearing years— and with women-and-children centered policy-making within the political career, but it did not go beyond a few scant sentences. However, the existing body of research suggests that rearing children is of greater importance than this report reveals. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (2016a), 57% of women in the U.S. participate in the

28 labor force, and 70% of women with dependent children work for wages. Table 2.3 reveals how these numbers compare to workers, both mothers and fathers, whose children are not under eighteen.

Table 2.3

Labor Force Participation Rates, 2013 Annual Averages

Mothers Fathers

All

57.2% 69.6%

With Children Under 18

69.9% 92.8%

Note. Data drawn from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (CPS) retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t05.htm and http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat03.htm

Interestingly, Crittenden (2001) contests female employment numbers, explaining that

20% of this group is government-classified as working but may hold part-time employment of as little as one hour a week, may be looking for paid work, or may work without pay in a family business. But, if Crittenden’s (2001) critique is set aside for a moment and the statistics are taken at face value, a comparable female presence is not proportionately reflected in work-related leadership positions though more women with underage children are working than women whose children are adults. To date, current literature is selective about which parts of the work experience of women is researched, documented, and reported.

What follows is the first section of the literature review (the praxis section), describing the recurring themes in the research and experiences of wage-earning women

29 divided into the following categories: (a) the good mother versus the ideal worker, (b) work and family balance, and (c) pay and promotion disparity.

Good mother vs. ideal worker. The literature surrounding women in the labor force is teeming with discussions on the good mother versus the ideal worker, which very narrowly amounts to the quality and quantity of time spent with the children versus that spent on the job. Drawing on the mythological Good Mother from earlier scholarship,

Spore, Harrison, and Haggerson (2002) described the Good Mother “as the creative matrix of the cosmos,” holding “the promise of perfection, beauty, and unity” (p. 7). She is “of multidimensional and private power, power of spirit, emotions, physicality, and personality. The Good Mother in mythic terms is the power of femaleness and the power of creation” (p. 7). In less than mythic terms, the scholars defined the archetype as “the present, attainable mother who protects,” accepts, encourages, and forgives; “the mother who grants freedom to the growing child and welcomes maturity and adulthood of the child” (p. 6). Several scholars would make an addendum to the wording, perhaps, adding

“freedom to the child at the loss of the mother’s own.” This is evinced in O’Brien

Hallstein and O’Reilly’s (2012) criticism of intensive mothering, a substitute term for good mothering, first labeled by sociologist Sharon Hayes (Douglas & Michaels, 2004).

The demand for this form of child rearing requires constant nurturing by the biological mother, the instruction of experts, and exorbitant amounts of time and energy dedicated to the child, thus putting the needs of the child above the needs of the mother, her work, and anything else (O’Reilly 2012; Baker, 2012). Douglas and Michaels (2004) defined it as a practice that “insists mothers acquire professional-level skills such as those of a therapist, pediatrician (“Dr. Mom”), consumer products safety inspector, and teacher, and

30 that they lavish every ounce of physical vitality they have” and “every single bit of their emotional, mental, and psychic energy on their kids” (p. 6). Further, Douglas and

Michaels (2004) identified new momism, taken from the writing of journalist Philip

Whylie, as the fulcrum of intensive mothering. Here, “a set of ideals, norms, and practices, most frequently and powerfully represented in the media” (Douglas &

Michaels, 2004, pp. 4-5) celebrate motherhood while placing the demands of mothering beyond the mothers’ reach. With new momism, women recognize and possess their choices, mused Douglas & Michaels (2004) almost mockingly: they are active agents in control of their own identity; they have autonomy. What the scholars observed is the contradictory nature of new momism—“[i]t both draws from and repudiates feminism”

(Douglas & Michaels, 2004, p. 5).

Thurer’s (2007) research found the way we “perform mothering” is culturally derived, meaning it varies from culture to culture and “[o]ur particular idea of what constitutes a good mother is only that, an idea . . . . The good mother is reinvented as each age or society defines her anew, in its own terms, according to its own mythology”

(p. 334). Moreover, “the current standards for good mothering are so formidable, self- denying, elusive, changeable, and contradictory that they are unattainable” (Thurer, 2007, p. 334).

Posed in opposition to the good mother—however elusive, however unattainable—is the ideal worker; for in order to be the ideal worker, one would have to be, in the words of Hochschild (1997), (a) zero drag, an unencumbered employee— without attachments and obligations; “available to take on extra assignments, respond to

31 emergency calls, or relocate any time” (p. xix) or (b) a man married to a homemaker who assumes full responsibility of the household.

According to Williams (2000), Unbending Gender author, the discriminatory power and practice of the ideal worker, the antithesis to the good mother, manifested itself first in the ideology of domesticity, a gender system that began in the late eighteenth century by usurping and redefining the customary understandings of market work and family work. In Matricentric Feminism, O’Reilly (2016) argued the image of the good mother “took work out of the home and repositioned the domestic space [. . .] as an exclusively nonproductive and private realm, separate from the public sphere of work”

Similarly, Hrdy’s (1999) Mother Nature credited parallel agendas toward reinforcement of domesticity or good mother qualities to early nineteenth century moralists and

Victorian evolutionists. Prior to this period, between the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, the work outside the home and the work inside the home had not been so sharply separated; families farmed and cared for their children in less gender- defined and gender-restricted ways. Domesticity, however, created new structures for labor and forged new definitions for the roles men and women (Williams, 2000). It minimized the involvement of fathers in the home and rendered childrearing the responsibility of mothers. Further, it identified men as naturally belonging in the market or the public sphere because of attributes identified as competitive and aggressive, and women in the home or the private sphere because of attributes identified as nurturing and caring (Williams, 2000). More than a decade earlier, Rich (1986) stated and perhaps warned that the institution of motherhood, in its patriarchal form, “exonerates men from fatherhood” and creates “a dangerous schism between ‘private’ and ‘public’ life” (p. 13).

Domesticity justified gender role restrictions, thrusting women in positions of limited responsibility and authority (Williams, 2000). The gendered system, having very much become a part of America’s norm, bears two defining characteristics, Williams

(2000) explained: (a) the organization of market work around the ideal worker who works extensive hours with little or no time off for childbearing or child rearing and (b) the marginalization of caregivers—often in collusion against themselves. Williams

(2000) recognized what was so succinctly stated by Rich (1986) that “[w]omen are controlled by lashing us to our bodies” (p. 13). If women who are mothering manage to uphold the image of the ideal worker, manage to work the required and excessive hours, then they are not good mothers and suffer stigmatization (Williams, 2000). If working mothers are cognizant of the needs of their children and perhaps cut back on working excessive hours outside the home, then they are not ideal workers and suffer penalization

(Williams, 2000).

Other ideal-worker-related literature captured the expense of working while mothering. Hochschild (2003) found “women pay a cost,” “entering a clockwork of careers that permits little time or emotional energy to raise a family (p. xii). The toll upon working mothers can be emotional, physical, psychological, as well as financial. In the managerial culture, Pues and Traut-Mattausch’s (2008) research found that because it was designed for males, it often has a negative impact on females—ignoring their family responsibilities, scheduling meetings during irregular times (early in the morning, late in the evenings, or on weekends), and making no accommodations for a career trajectory in harmony rather than conflict with the woman’s reproductive cycle. Women in the study, the researchers found, were often forced to choose between career and family (Pues &

Traut-Mattausch, 2008). In the academy, Hochschild (2003) posited, women enter a work environment “originally designed to suit a traditional man whose wife raised his children,” and what women need now are “careers basically redesigned to suit workers who also care for families” (p. xii). Williams (2000) shared this same sentiment and called for a new paradigm or reconstructive feminism, which would eliminate the ideal- worker norm in market work, eliminate the ideal-worker norm in family entitlements, and change the current discussions surrounding gender.

Kricheli-Katz’s (2012) study identified a peculiar occurrence within the ideal worker paradigm. The researcher learned “mothers who are perceived as having more control over their status as mothers are penalized more than mothers who are perceived as having less control” (p. 558); thus, workplace discrimination is rendered justifiable under this guise, according to the research, and negative stereotypes persist, particularly those concerning working mothers’ commitment and productivity.

Work and family balance. The need for women to find a feasible balance between the responsibilities of the workplace and the responsibilities of the home dominates much of the literature across varied work and career fields in the U.S. and abroad (Allison, 2007; Chang, Chin, & Ye, 2014; Seay, 2010; Tower, Faul, Hamilton-

Mason, Colins, & Gibson, 2015; Ward & Wolf Wendel, 2004; Wolf-Wendel et al., 2007;

Zacker, 2004). Rantanen, Kinnunen, Mauno, and Tillemann (2011) ceded that “work- life balance is important for an individual’s psychological well-being,” but argued no clear consensus has been drawn on how it should be defined, measured, and researched

(p. 28). Clark (2000) drew a similar conclusion a decade before finding no scholars

“have created a comprehensive theory that explains the process by which conflict and

34 balance occur” (p. 750). Still, she adeptly defined balance as “satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home, with a minimum of role conflict” (p. 751) and pushed onward to construct a theory similar to that of feminist scholar Gloria Anzaldua’s (1987) postulate on language and psychological border crossings between Mexico and America.

Clark (2000) discussed work and home as distinct territories consisting of permeable borders to be traversed by border-crossers and territories to be maintained by border- keepers or domain members. Figure 2-2 illustrates the permeable border between the territory of work and the territory of home. The border crosser, the person moving from location to location bears the burden of shifting to and assuming the identity of the respective setting.

Figure 2-2. Border crossers’ adaptations in the work and home environments. Adapted from “Work/family border: A new theory of work/family balance,” by S.C. Clark, 2000, Human Relations 53(6), p. 754.

The border-crossers, those successfully navigating work and home domains, Clark (2000) explained, must possess the “ability to alter the domains and borders to fit their needs” (p.

759), which is achieved through influence inside the domains and identification with the

35 domains. However, in order to hold influence and identification, border-crossers must be in possession of certain attributes: the ability to (a) internalize the domain’s culture, language, and values; (b) connect with central membership of the domain; (c) demonstrate competence in assigned responsibilities; and (d) identify personally with domain responsibilities (Clark 2000). The researcher’s insight into the functionality of the domains is keen, but because Clark (2000) does not consider women specifically in the theory construction, she does not question what influence and identification mothers may or may not have within historically male-centered workspaces.

More cognizant of gender than Clark (2000), Rantanen et al. (2011) posited work- family research has been guided by role stress theory and dates back to earlier research on the psychological distress of women serving in the roles of paid worker, mother, and wife, while juggling positive role quality (rewards) against the backdrop of role overload, role conflict, and anxiety. Rantanen et al.’s (2011) study of Finnish and Estonian managers yielded four types of work-life balance, situated between demands and resources: (a) beneficial (high resources, low demands); (b) harmful (low resources, high demands); (c) active (high resources, high demands), and (d) passive (low resources, low demands). Other researchers cover a large expanse of concerns, but focus primarily on the demands draining mothers rather than on the resources or rewards that counterbalance the demands. The concerns include nursing babies and expressing milk (Allison 2007), time spent with children (Crittenden, 2001), internal and external childcare, the time bind

(Hochschild, 1997) or the time famine (Hill, Martinson, Ferris, & Baker, 2004), housekeeping and preparing meals (Hochschild, 2003), long and late hours at work, being physically and mentally present in the workplace (Hurn 2013), and maintaining a pre-

36 maternity work pace. While Clark (2000) asserted “work and family life influence each other, and so employers, societies and individuals cannot ignore one sphere without potential peril to the other” (p. 749), the research has shown that many women in the role of border-crosser are often experiencing just that—personal and professional peril (Peus

& Traut-Matausch, 2008).

At the time of publication of Hochschild’s (2003) seminal work Second Shift

(which denotes the work that commences once women leave their outside employment to return home and face another round of responsibilities) women made up 47% of the labor force and dual employment marriages made up 63% of marriages with children.

Hochschild (2003) identified wage-earning women, in a number of key studies and even in her own eight-year 50-couple study, carrying the bulk of childrearing and housekeeping responsibilities. She found 80% of the men in her dual employment married couples “didn’t share housework or child care” (Hochschild, 2003, p. 181).

Williams (2000) similarly documented, “American women still do 80% of the child care and two-thirds of the housework” though they work outside the home (p. 2). This gendered burden shouldered by working mothers is corroborated in many studies (see

Brown, 2010; Ezzendeen and Richey, 2009; Grady and McCarthy, 2008; and Perrakis &

Martinez, 2012). Hochschild (2003) logged, in the voice of those experiencing it, the toll on the family, the workplace, and the women themselves. Ward and Wolf-Wendel

(2004) and Wolf-Wendel and Ward (2006) identified the “greediness” of the academic life and family life, as well as “the need to watch the clock” (Ward & Wolf-Wendel,

2004, p. 241) among the concerns of mothers in the academy. O’Brien Hallstein and

O’Reilly’s (2012) research discussed the physical and psychological burden incurred by

37 women. Conjuring up Sara Ruddick’s (1989) trailblazing work and concept Maternal

Thinking—whose precepts center on protection, nurturance, and training of children—

O’Brien Hallstein and O’Reilly (2012) recorded the intricacies of remembering, planning, co-ordinating, and orchestrating involved in maintaining a functioning household. In

The Mask of Motherhood, Maushart (1999) made mention of this, as well, calling it initially a symphony and then a cacophony of daily life. The physical and psychological demands placed upon working mothers led to what Crittenden discovered: “Working mothers put in longer hours than almost anyone else in the economy. On average, they are estimated to work more than eighty hours a week” (p. 22) or the equivalent of an additional month of work each year (Hochschild, 2003). Unfortunately, not all of the work, motherwork or work of the private sphere, is considered real labor (Maushart,

1999). As Ruddick (1986) asserted, “the woman at home with children is not believed to be doing serious work; she is supposed to be acting out of maternal instincts, doing chores a man would never take on, largely uncritical of the meaning of what she does” (p.

37).

Many of the research conclusions on work-life balance projected gloomy outcomes. According to Hochschild (2003), “[i]n increasing numbers women have gone into the workforce, but few have gone very high up it in it,” for “[w]omen who enter these traditional structures and do the work of the home, too, can’t compete on male terms” (pp. xii-xiii). Similarly, O’Brien Hallstein and O’Reilly (2012) reported “it is important to remember that all professional women have been largely unsuccessful in their attempts to wed motherhood with a career” (p. 13).

Perhaps akin to Clark’s (2000) discussions on domain influence and identification, Ezzedeen and Ritchey’s (2008) work contrasted these negative views, documenting the successful balance of family and career for 25 executive women through

(a) abandoning and embracing certain beliefs about their roles; (b) nurturing social support in the workplace, home, and community; and (c) discreet decision making.

Additionally, Laney, Carruthers, Hall, & Anderson’s (2014) study discussed renegotiations and restructurings of the perception of the female self as the result of the personal sphere of mothering influencing the public sphere of the profession.

Pay and promotion disparity. As much as work and family balance may lead the discussion on women in the workplace, it does not outdistance the attention given to gender-based pay disparity. Alksnis, Desmarais, and Curtis (2008) implemented a between-subjects design study and discovered gender-based discrimination fixed upon occupational stereotyping and the devaluation of work done by women. With women earning “78.7 cents to every dollar earned by a man” (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009, p. 5;

United States Department of Labor, 2016a), the data concerning women and their 18% leadership average (Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009) add up to undervalued and under- respected human capital. Further, this decrease in merit grows with the role of motherhood, which is more likely than not to occur, since Williams (2000) found “nearly

90% of women become mothers during their working lives” (p. 2). It is little wonder, then, that The Price of Motherhood author Crittenden (2001) asserted “motherhood is the single biggest risk factor for poverty in old age” (p.6). The mommy tax is “typically more than $1 million for a college educated American woman” (Crittenden, 2001, p. 5).

Kricheli-Katz (2012) documented the financial loss a little differently, referring to the

39 motherhood penalty as a 5% pay decrease per child. It was the combining of caring and earning, Baker’s (2010) research yielded, that rendered mothers in deficit; in fact, the

“earnings gap is substantial between mothers and women without children” (p. 215).

Crittenden’s (2001) research concurred.

Mommy tracking. The motherhood penalty manifests itself in multiple ways.

One of the most prevalent is through mommy tracking. As Williams (2000) explained, the term got its start in an article on lawyers published in the New York Times. Arlene

Rossen Cardozo coined the term to reference women working part time (fewer than the customary 60-80 hours a week of most in the profession) to allow for time with family and, who learned, they were no longer perceived as serious about their work and, therefore, no longer considered for promotion and career advancement (Maushart, 1999).

This often “permanent associate” track, made up of lower paid mommies and marked by a permanent bar from advancement, has been referred to subsequently as the “pink-collar ghetto” (Williams 2000) or the “feminization of poverty” (Wolfinger, Mason, and

Goulden, 2009). Maushart (1999) found women occupying this working sphere deemed second class citizens of the workplace.

Hill, Martinson, Ferris, and Baker’s (2004) research addressed mommy tracking more favorably and found its solution to be the new-concept part-time work. An example of such, the study found in IBM’s Flexible Work Leave of Absence Program, which enabled employees, specifically mothers with preschool children, to reduce their scheduled work hours without losing their (a) professional position, (b) pro-rated level of pay and benefits, and (c) access to promotion and recognition. Eagly & Carli (2007) recounted a similar but highly criticized proposal for women with families made by

Felice Schwartz, founder and first president of Catalyst, that proffered flexible jobs associated with lower pay and slower advancement. Pues and Traut-Mattausch (2008) also discussed mommy tracking, but their study participants used lateral career moves to counter any negative outcomes associated with gender or motherhood bias.

Family friendly policies. Using or forgoing the use of family-friendly polices is another means by which the motherhood penalty presents itself. Hochschild (1997) found the family-friendly policies in her study of the large corporation Amerco disappointingly ineffective. Not only were the policies or perks largely not implemented, but those who adopted the flex schedules typically worked more hours for fear of career demise or advancement stagnation. Likewise, Brown’s (2010) study found that family- friendly policies, intended to accommodate and protect employed mothers, were not working (see also Hochschild, 1997; Williams, 2000; and Pues & Traut-Mattausch,

2008). Users and potential users of the benefits feared that the dangers associated with a slowed process and often a slowed career (Eagly & Carli, 2007) might lead to an inability to get back on track or recover previous pre-policy-use status.

Relatedly, the motherhood penalty has surfaced in court surrounding family- friendly policies. Back v. Hastings-On-Hudson Union Free School District (2004), a case catapulted beyond the K-12 realm and into all of academe (Euben 2005), involved

Elana Back, a mother and elementary school psychologist who alleged her denial of tenure was gender based and violated her constitutional right to equal protection under the law. Back insisted that her termination was due to the concern of defendants—

Marilyn Wishnie (the school’s principal) and Ann Brennan (the director of Pupil

Personnel Services for the school district)—“that she, as a young mother, would not

41 continue to demonstrate the necessary devotion to her job, and . . . could not maintain such devotion while at the same time being a good mother” (Back v. Hastings, 2004).

The lower court decision granted the employer’s motion for summary judgment, but the

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Judges—Winter, Calabresi, and

Katzmann, ruled that the case be sent back to the lower courts for a jury to consider because sufficient evidence of gender discrimination had been provided by Back.

The appeals court’s ruling drew on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Nevada

Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs (2003), arguing that “where stereotypes are concerned, the notions that mothers are insufficiently devoted to work, and that work and motherhood are incompatible, are properly considered to be, themselves, gender-based

(Back v. Hastings, 2004) . The judges asserted: Back’s appeal “strikes at the persistent

‘fault line between work and family-precisely [sic] where sex-based overgeneralization has been and remains strongest’”(Back v. Hastings, 2004). With the use of language from the Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs (2003), the court sufficiently tied the two cases together and provided fodder for major concern at all levels of the academy.

William Hibbs’ complaint concerned the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of

1993. When Hibbs, who had been granted a leave of 12 work weeks to care for his wife, did not report to work on a requested date, he was terminated. Hibbs sought “equitable relief and money damages” (Nevada v. Hibbs, 2003). The District Court granted a summary judgment for the employer; the Ninth Circuit, however, reversed the decision and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve the split.

It is the language of the case, its opinion delivered by Chief Justice Rehnquist, that is of most interest here, and what probably drew the attention of the Second Circuit judges of the Back case. In a footnote of the Nevada case, of FMLA, it reads: “‘It is the purpose of this Act . . . to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families, to promote the stability and economic security of families and to promote national interests in preserving family integrity’” (Nevada v. Hibbs, 2003, p. 3). And, in another, it reads: “Congress sought to adjust family leave policies in order to eliminate their reliance on and perpetuation of invalid stereotypes, and thereby dismantle persisting gender-based barriers to the hiring, retention, and promotion of women in the workplace”

(p. 12). Though the Back case did not involve work leave, it very much involved family and the perception of mothers in the workplace, subjects of the Nevada case. As the

Justices explained,

By creating an across-the-board, routine employment benefit for all eligible

employees, Congress sought to ensure that family-care leave would no longer be

stigmatized as an inordinate drain on the workplace caused by female employees

[. . .]. FMLA attacks the formerly state-sanctioned stereotype that only women

are responsible for family caregiving, thereby reducing employers’ incentives to

engage in discrimination by basing hiring and promotion decisions on

stereotypes” (p. 14)

The debate that ensued in the Nevada case involved the Fourteenth Amendment and “prophylactic legislation” or Congress’ ability to ensure “facially constitutional conduct, in order to prevent and deter unconstitutional conduct” (Nevada v. Hibbs, 2003, p. 4). After providing a brief history of state laws’ discriminatory practices against

43 women and cases involving the enactment of FMLA, the Justices—Rehnquist, O’Connor,

Souter, Ginsberg, and Bryer—argued “differential leave policies were not attributable to any differential physical needs of men and women, but rather to the pervasive sex role stereotype that caring for family members is women’s work” (p. 8). Further, they noted that “Congress had evidence that, even where state laws and policies were not facially discriminatory, they were applied in discriminatory ways” (p. 9).

Ultimately, the Justices ruled to affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals, but not before attending to a statement Justice Kennedy made in his dissent, regarding FMLA as an entitlement program. The Opinion of the Court responded, “[t]he dissent misunderstands the purpose of FMLA’s family leave provision. [. . .] Congress did not create a particular leave policy for its own sake” (p. 12). If a member of the highest court in the land could not comprehend the attempt at combating institutional sexism—which

Justice Kennedy did not if he named FMLA an entitlement program, how can the navigation of existing structures not be daunting for those suffering under the weight of its control?

Competence and commitment. As evident in the judicial decisions of the Back v.

Hastings and Nevada v. Hibbs cases, a third emergence of the motherhood penalty surfaces in the form of wage-earning mothers being perceived as less qualified, less competent, and less committed to their jobs (Baker, 2010; 2012). Hurn (2013) identified a number of inhibitors to the progress of women in the workplace; among his findings were the lack of adequate or affordable childcare, the absence of sufficient female role models, balancing career and family, and “presenteeism,” the idea of being ever present for the company. Each springs from a gender-oriented center; unfortunately, as Alksnis

44 et al. explained, “[. . .] gender is a multifaceted system of practices and beliefs that privileges men and male characteristics” (Alksnis, 2008, p. 1418). What should have been substituted in the aforementioned definition is “gender in the workplace” in the stead of simply “gender”. In the study completed by Alksnis et al.’s (2008), involving

260 undergraduates and employment gender assignments, researchers coped with the lowered value placed on the work of women, the stereotype that women are less competent, and the shift in a job’s status once it becomes dominated by women. With a more compelling study because the surveyed were professionals rather than students,

Heilman and Okimoto (2008) investigated the sex-based bias in work settings surrounding motherhood and found mothers, not just women, were “expected to be less competent” (p. 197).

Likewise, published studies have revealed women working and rearing children even in countries outside the U.S. have had to contend with the misconception that they are less committed to their careers. In a study completed in Seoul, Korea of 1,308 working mothers affiliated with Samsung, Chang, Chin, and Ye (2014) considered work- to-family conflict and found, in comparison to their peers (women without children and men with and without children), (a) working mothers were no less committed,( b) working mothers had lower career expectations, and (c) working mothers showed a higher level of work-family conflict but only at the associate manager level. Though the study revealed that the mothers were committed to their jobs or careers, the expectation was that they would not be; that somehow their need to care for family might preclude the need for the necessities that employment accommodates. More important than this lack of awareness surrounding the motivation of mothers is the mothers’ own expectation

45 toward employer disfavor. Lastly, the correlation drawn between the level of conflict and the level of management is worthy to be noted. In the American marketplace, this lower rung is mostly where female leadership resides.

In a qualitative study of 25 American female managers and 23 German female managers, Peus and Traut-Mattausch (2008) learned both groups identified work and family balance as “a barrier to women’s career advancement” (p. 565). With this perception and the female workers commitment and competency perceived as lacking, it does not take great effort for these conclusions to serve as justification for little upward progress. The working mother encounters the maternal wall when she finds she cannot meet ideal-worker norms (O’Brien Hallstein & O’Reilly, 2012). Brown’s (2009) research found women with children were awarded fewer promotions than their male counterparts. Hurn’s (2013) research considered female progress within the context of quotas imposed upon boardrooms of companies within the European Union (Germany,

France, Italy, Belgium, etc.), determining “[t]he glass ceiling still appears to be intact when it comes to top executive posts” (p. 196). Hurn’s (2013) research is particularly interesting when considered in the light of Eagly and Carli (2007) who argue the time of the glass ceiling has come and gone. In Through the Labyrinth: The Truth about How

Women Become Leaders (2007), the scholars asserted women no longer contend with the barriers of years past. Women no longer struggle with concrete walls or even glass ceilings; in fact, the two described the shattering of the glass ceiling, whose metaphor was drawn from an article chiefly written by Carol Hymowitz and published in the Wall

Street Journal in 1986. Instead, Eagly & Carli (2007) reported, women have to contend with complex labyrinths, equipped with barriers of their own—i.e. childcare challenges,

46 but no “exclusionary laws” and no “endorsed norms of exclusion” (p. 6). Further, Eagly and Carli’s (2007) research proved “women can attain high positions, but finding the pathways demands considerable skill and some luck” (p. 8).

Perhaps providing a hopeful perspective, Aranda and Glick (2014) found that work-devoted mothers escaped the motherhood penalty when they professed a high commitment to work (at the expense of family) but only when evaluated by men, not by other women.

Inside the academy. The range of literature concerning women in the academy, even on the university and college level, is rather shallow. What is available largely concerns the experiences of women faculty, primarily because there a considerable number of women reside, though the women may not be in full professor positions, and because the faculty ranks have been the principal path to leadership positions (Eddy,

2000; Warner & DeFleur, 1993). Women in significant positions of leadership is a decades-old phenomenon, surfacing after opportunities began to open for women in the late eighties (Warner & DeFleur, 1993). Those opportunities have not come without challenges as scholars have identified glass ceilings (Eddy, 2000; Hurn, 2013), maternal walls (O’Brien Hallstein & O’Reilly, 2012), sticky floors (O’Reilly, 2014), and labyrinths (Eagley & Carli, 2007). In 2002, Johns Hopkins University completed a study, The University on the Status of Women, which involved twenty-seven senior women faculty, eight of whom were department chairs, deans, or provost. An additional study followed in 2006. In both, the committees determined and reiterated that the

“[p]aths to leadership are slower and often blocked for women” (Johns Hopkins, 2002,

2006; Dominici, Fried, & Zeger, 2009). MLA corroborated this key finding in its 2006

Standing Still: The Associate Professor Survey. According to the results, “it takes women from 1 to 3.5 years longer than men to attain the rank of professor” (MLA, 2009, p. 1), and during the process or once the attainment happens, women “feel less authority, autonomy, and control over their work lives than men” (MLA, 2009, p. 16).

“Because traditional organizations serve as a barrier to the development of women’s leadership,” Tedrow and Rhoads (1998) concluded, “change will not occur unless key members of institutions are willing to critically examine the college’s culture”

(p. 22). Eddy (2002) drew similar conclusions. The researchers qualitative study, featuring 30 senior-level administrative women employed in Midwest community colleges, examined the functioning of women’s leadership within male-centered organizational cultures. There, they located women leaders implementing one of three general strategies—adaptation, reconciliation, or resistance to organizational dynamics— in response to rejection, unacceptance, isolation, silence, depersonalization, and marginalization. “[H]aving to enact these complex strategies,” Tedrow and Rhoads

(1998) learned, “places a greater psychological burden on women,” who are struggling to survive when they should be thriving (p. 22).

Ligeikis (2010) dissertation study targeted sixteen community college vice presidents in New York State. The themes that emerged from the qualitative phenomenological study concerned (a) preparation for or a lack of interest in the presidency position, (b) leadership trends for the 21st century, (c) perceptions of gender effects, and (d) perceived obstacles impeding female accession. Aside from “[m]obility, or the inability to move, prevent[ing] professional women from pursing presidencies,” the scholar learned,

Family responsibilities prevented women from mobility early in careers as women

resisted uprooting families. Participants in the study opposed mobility later in

professional careers stating an unwillingness to sacrifice long-term personal

relationships. Multiple responsibilities associated with home, children, family,

and career prevented timely pursuit of terminal degrees and career accession. (p.

142)

The negative connotations and female-specific struggles associated with a presidency convinced the majority of the vice presidents in Ligeikis’ (2010) study not to pursue the position.

McKenney and Cejda (2000) highlighted Marshall’s feminist critical policy studies in their examination of the career paths of women CAOs in public comprehensive community colleges (“those that provide college transfer, general education, occupational extension, continuing education, and community service” (p. 6)). Their research mapped the career paths for the women in the study and determined the mobility was not straight and typically involved lateral, internal moves. Hertneky (2012) found participants “speak almost apologetically about lacking a predetermined career path” (p. 152). Her study of women college presidents discussed nonlinear career opportunities and unintended leadership development within the context of a kaleidoscope model of shifting personal and professional roles around authenticity, balance, and challenge. In addition, Hertneky

(2012) found

For the women in this study, leadership meant relationships and connections with

those around them. [. . .] They lead from within rather than having to be

positioned out in front, without losing sight of their position of ultimate

responsibility and decision making. [. . .] This is a different picture than the

traditional model of the heroic leader standing apart from followers [. . . ]. The

paradox of their leadership is that it encompasses the compatibility of working

with others and the loneliness of responsibility and distance. (150)

Hertneky’s (2012) discovery that female leadership emanated from within echoes Eddy’s

(2000) observation of female leaderships steering away from the metaphorical hero leader, quarterback, or father figure (p. 501).

To navigate the “changing environments” and “ambiguous circumstances” of leadership, along with its loneliness and isolation, Hertneky (2012) identified the need in leaders (and potential leaders) for a) loyalty, integrity, and self-understanding; b) mentors, role models, and teachers; and c) leadership training and education. However,

Hertneky (2012) closed with the following: “A list of skills, traits, or tips for successful leaders does not sufficiently equip us [. . .]; authentic leadership comes from within” (p.

152).

Cognizant of the obstacles set before professional women, DiCroce (1995) placed a clarion call to women executive leadership that discussed a new leadership paradigm implemented by (a) “break[ing] down institutional gender stereotypes,” (b) penetrating institutional power structures and redefining institutional power, (c) “us[ing] power of office to alter gender-related institutional policies,” (d) “rais[ing] collegial consciousness and initiating collegial dialogue on gender and related issues,” and e) becoming an active participant in public policy development and debate beyond the college level” (85-86).

Wise’s (2013) dissertation study on the counterstories of female community college presidents of color discussed, in the interest of cultivating female talent, “Grow

Your Own” (GYO) succession planning and professional development programs in the likes of Daytona Beach Community College’s Leadership Development Institute (LDI),

Owens State Community College Leadership Academy (LA), and Massachusetts’

Community College Leadership Academy. The basic tenets of GYO programs, the researcher explained, included a) “developing qualified successors to vacancies in

Executive Leadership Positions (ELPs) within the college,” b) “designing and providing professional development opportunities specifically for internal faculty and staff, and” c)

“creating a viable pipeline for internal faculty and staff to advance a diverse talent pool within the organization” (Wise, 2013, p. 34-35).

Further, nationally recognized organizations and institutions have begun to address what they understand as potentially “solvable” problems—both in reflected population numbers and the reception of female leadership, as well as the crises looming with approaching retirements (American Association of Community Colleges, 2001,

2005, 2014, 2016; Keim & Murray, 2008; Shults, 2001; Watts & Hammons, 2002). For instance, AACC (2005) discussed six competencies—organizational strategy, resource management, communication, collaboration, community advocacy, and professionalism—candidates need for future leadership in community colleges, if they are to be met with success as the impending leadership gap draws nearer. Ferri-Mulligan

(2013) built on these competencies in her qualitative dissertation study of fifteen female academic senators drawn from three community colleges. Eight higher-level themes emerged toward both effective and excellent leadership, including people management, communication, self-efficacy, decision making, institutional knowledge, empathy, acceptance of criticism, and appreciation. Ferri-Mulligan’s (2013) findings suggested

AACC’s competencies and its leanings toward training, recruitment, and educational policies required consideration of various constituents—more specifically the input of female faculty. And, ACE’s (2015) Women’s Network Executive Council, focusing on leadership specifically in women, launched in the summer of 2014 a multi-association initiative to increase the number of women in positions of senior leadership in higher education. The long term goals of the council involve generating a national sense of urgency for female advancement, encouraging governing boards to consider practices for recruiting/hiring women, building capacities in women and in institutions for advancement, and suggesting practices that recognize female success. Additionally,

Johns Hopkins’ 2006 Report of the University Committee on the Status of Women concluded the following innovations necessary for “redressing gender-based inequity”:

(a) “expanding leadership opportunities for women,” (b) “guaranteeing reasonable work/life balance for all,” and (c) “transforming a culture in which gender-based obstacles and discrimination are deeply rooted” (n.p.)

Shults (2001) reported nearly two decades ago, what still holds true: “To address the [leadership] gap effectively, community colleges must identify new leaders and give them the opportunity to acquire and practice the skills they will need to lead colleges in the 21st century” (p. 3). How those new leaders will be defined will likely determine the future of community colleges and higher education as a whole.

Women faculty. In 2015, Catalyst reported the status of women within academia in the U.S. and abroad. The results were consistently lower than the figures provided for males. In Canada, women professors earned 87.8% of what men professors earned. In

Australia, women fared similarly; there “women held 43.6% of Senior Lecturer faculty

52 positions and just 29.9% of ‘Above Senior Lecturer’ faculty positions,” but a study and the University of Western Australia determined that female academics experienced a gender pay gap of 15%. Catalyst (2015) reported, in Europe, women academics held

“less than 40% of academic positions at top universities” and “just 18% of full professorships.” The United Kingdom similarly displayed inequity in pay with women academics earning 11.3% less than men academics. In Japan, as of 2013, women represented less than 13% of academics at the highest performing institutions. According to Catalyst (2015), women have not found better positioning in the U.S. While women held 48.4% of all tenure-track positions, in 2013, they held 37.5% of tenured positions and were usually found in the lower ranks. Catalyst’s (2015) U.S. research also determined “[r]aising a family negatively impacts women’s academic career.”

The numbers cited by Catalyst (2015) are important, for as Warner and Defleur

(1993) have reported, the ascension to leadership in higher education most often begins within the ranks of faculty—though the process may be problematic (Allison, 2007).

Seventy percent of college presidents in 2011 previously held full-time faculty appointments (Cook, 2012). Moreover, “[a]dministrative positions in academia have a welldefined [sic] hierarchy, with progressive ranks that are fairly uniform nationwide, from division director to department chair, dean, and then university leadership positions” (Dominici, Fried, & Zeger, 2009). Unfortunately, “chilly climates,” brought on by competitive practices; what some scholars have identified as the privileging of the

“male ideal worker;” and gendered academic tenure, serving as gatekeeper to disadvantage women during their childbearing and childrearing years—all may contribute to the lack of advancement and the high attrition rate for female faculty

53 members (Allison, 2007). Whereas “43 percent of all college and university professors are women,” only 20% are full professors (Allison, 2007, p. 24). And, according to

Allison (2007), the “overall percentage of women in tenure-track positions is declining, while the percentage of those in non-tenure-track and part-time positions is rising” (p.

24). The non-tenure-track and part-time positions held by women appear to foretell a non-academic-leadership future.

Perrikas and Martinez (2012), in their study of academic department chairs with children, discovered their participants “did not see positions at the level of dean or above as realistic goals in the immediate future. Childcare responsibilities and long hours required for the job were the two factors preventing these women from visualizing a position in senior academic administration” (p. 214). Still, their work suggested defining personal and professional roles, mentorship from deans, and work-life balance and sustainability as the means to overcoming leadership barriers.

A study completed by Heilman and Okimoto (2008) and based on the lack of fit model determined motherhood, because of gender-based stereotypes, an impediment for women seeking career advancement. The study’s observations held true for mothers as well as for women with the potential to be mothers. Bilen-Green et al. (2008) identified the common phenomena serving as barriers to female progress: “second shift,” juggling the responsibilities of home and work life; the conflicting “biological and tenure clocks;” the “invisible job,” involving more academic service roles; the “hidden curriculum,” male-culture-assimilating women de-emphasizing their femaleness; and the “Catch-22,” women having to prove their abilities more extensively than men. Lee’s (2013) dissertation study, described “opting between,” the practice of career shifting, ranging

54 from reduction in hours to a complete change in careers, to accommodate rearing children. The “leaky pipeline” in the academia surfaced in Joeks, Pull, and Backes-

Gellner’s (2014) study. The researchers noted “that motherhood had an adverse impact on labor supply,” but concluded, after evidence of higher research activity for tenured mothers, “that either there are positive (incentive) effects of childbearing for female researchers, or . . . there is a positive process of self-selection where only the more productive female researchers decide to become mothers” (pp. 518-519).

Existing literature also reflected the need for social change (Curtis, 2011; Aranda

& Glick, 2014), but for professional mothers, the practical recommendations leaned toward outsourcing domestic and caregiving responsibilities (Baker, 2010); practicing choice, by postponing or foregoing parenting (Kemkes-Grottenthaler, 2003; Kricheli-

Katz, 2012; Joecks, et al., 2014); and coping with earning while caring for children

(Baker, 2010). For academic institutions, the literature posed increasing accessibility to and offsetting the cost of childcare (Perrakis & Martinez, 2012); stopping the tenure clock or implementing a handicap system (Joecks et al., 2014); providing flexible work schedules and mentorships (Perrakis & Martinez, 2012); and developing sound institutional policy on gender equity (Curtis, 2011).

Community college level. The academic landscape of community colleges has significantly changed since the turbulent sixties. The competition for faculty at the height of the expansion of higher education was so intense that women became a sought after commodity, but only after four-year institutions had acquired their masculine fill

(Townsend, 1995b). Townsend’s (1995b) research revealed women community college faculty were not hired out of concern for sexual balance and equity, though the data may

55 give the appearance of such, and women “were not hired for altruistic or ideological reasons” (p. 40). Instead, women were hired as faculty because of the scarcity of male applicants (Townsend, 1995b, p. 40). Now, with emerging concerns about the sheer number of women laboring at lower levels of the academy and the hint of marginalization

(Clark 1998; Eddy, 2002; Townsend, 1995b; Townsend & Twombly, 2007a; Townsend

& Twombly, 2007b), coupled with the impending crisis brought about by the graying of current leadership (American Association of Community Colleges, 2001, 2005, 2014,

2016; Keim, 2008; Shults, 2001; Watts & Hammons, 2002), those governing institutional structures, who bear any awareness of the community college past, must consider the future leadership shortage and how to move forward productively and effectively.

Cook (2012) asserted academic leadership often rises from the faculty ranks. McKenney and Cejda (2000) similarly found the faculty career as the primary entry point for women

CAOs in the community college. At the faculty level, future leaders cut their proverbial teeth on lived experiences within the environment and women are “living” in community colleges. While women make up 29% of community college presidencies (King &

Gomez, 2008), they are 53% of its instructional staff (AACC, 2016). Wolf-Wendel and

Ward (2006) found women teaching in community colleges “expressed happiness with their career choice” (p. 511) of the two-year institution over the four-year institution.

Further, the scholars’ study treated this perceived happiness in conjunction with family and found women viewed the community college as “positively intersect[ing] with motherhood” (p. 511). It appears this affect has attributed to the larger female presence within associate-degree granting institutions. Wolf-Wendel & Ward (2006) observed in their 117-participant study across research institutions, comprehensive colleges and

56 universities, and community colleges, “the relationship of motherhood and faculty work is largely dictated by the kind of institution in which one works rather than by other factors” (p. 497). Yet, Lee’s (2013) research indicated that community colleges offer the least family-friendly policies of any higher education institution (p. 141). Lee drew her assessment from Hollenshead, Sullivan, Smith, August, and Hamilton (2005), whose research documented the results of The Faculty Work/Family Policy Study, undertaken by the University of Michigan’s Center for Education for Women, of 255 Carnegie- classified university and colleges. Table 2.4 illustrates the findings from the study.

While the table reveals that research institutions have the most work/family policies with nearly three documented on the average, associate degree-granting institutions average the least with 0.8 documented policies. Tedrow and Rhoads (1998), in an overarching statement, reported: “Although there is evidence of high levels of support for women in the community college, there is also a significant counterbalance that often works against women [. . .]” (p. 6), but because so little scholarly attention has been given this sector of higher education, what serves as the source of this discrepancy has yet to be documented widely.

For Section I, at this point, the literature begins its dip into the void. Not much literature addresses the positives of family-centeredness in the community college and even less attests to the counter-narratives to that perception. Further, the full scope of

Tedrow and Rhoads (1998) assertion may be overshadowed by the strides made by women in the community college.

Table 2.4

Institutional Family Friendly Policies

Types of Institution

Number of Research Doctoral Master’s Baccalaureate Associate’s Policies (n = 73) (n = 16) (n = 66) (n = 70) (n = 30)

0 7% 31% 38% 51% 50%

1 18% 25% 30% 19% 37%

2 22% 25% 14% 13% 7%

3 21% 13% 12% 9% 0%

4 7% 6% 0% 6% 3%

5 8% 0% 3% 1% 3%

6 18% 0% 2% 1% 0%

7 0% 0% 2% 0% 0%

8 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Average number of policies 2.99 1.38 1.29 1.09 0.8

Note. Adapted from “The challenge of balancing family careers and family work” by C.S. Hollenshead, et al., 2005, New Directions for Higher Education (130), p. 47.

Section II: Theory

Applying social role theory (Eagly, 1987) to the initiations of matricentric feminist theory (O’Reilly, 2013), the interrogation of feminist critical policy analysis

(Bensimon & Marshall, 1997), and the lived experiences of academic leaders mothering

58 underage children, this study addressed the gap in the literature and the gap in the theory brought to light by the minimal attention given women in the two-year institution engaged in childrearing while serving in leadership positions. What follows is an examination of applicable theory-based literature.

Matricentric feminism. Feminist mothering (O’Reilly, 2007), which evolved into matricentric feminism in 2011, is used to describe mother-centered feminism

(O’Reilly, 2014) and provides the context for engagement of the lives of the women in this study and the subtext for the critique of the central theories—Eagly’s social role theory (1987) and Bensimon and Marshall’s (1997) feminist critical policy analysis.

What warrants initial scrutiny, however, is the claimed negation of mothers from feminist discourse. As O’Reilly (2014) explained, “motherhood is the unfinished business of feminism.” She continued, despite its contributions over more than two decades, matricentric feminism has gone without recognition and incorporation within feminist theory and women’s studies. Calls for feminism for mothers have been “dismissed, trivialized, disparaged, and ridiculed” (O’Reilly, 2014). Literature reveals that women of other marginalized groups, too, have experienced this.

Womanism. In the opening to In Search of Our Mothers Gardens: Womanist

Prose, Walker (1983) articulated what it meant to be a womanist, a woman of color embracing feminist thought geared toward her personal experiences. Walker (1983) defined it in the following terms:

1. From womanish. (Opp. of “girlish,” i.e. frivolous, irresponsible, not

serious.) A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of

mothers to female children, “you acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman. Usually

referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior. Wanting to

know more and in greater depth than is considered “good” for one. Interested in

grown up doings. Acting grown up. Being grown up. Interchangeable with

another black folk expression: “You trying to be grown." Responsible. In charge.

Serious.

2. Also: A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or

nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional

flexibility (values tears as natural counterbalance of laughter), and women’s

strength. Sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or

nonsexually. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and

female. Not a separatist, except periodically, for health. Traditionally a

universalist, as in: "Mama, why are we brown, pink, and yellow, and our cousins

are white, beige and black?” Ans. “Well, you know the colored race is just like a

flower garden, with every color flower represented." Traditionally capable, as in:

"Mama, I’m walking to Canada and I’m taking you and a bunch of other slaves

with me.” Reply: “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and

food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.

4. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.

Recognizing the barriers for some within the Black liberation movement and of others in the feminist movement, Walker (1983) sought to articulate an expression of feminism that spoke to, for, and about the intersections of race, gender, and class experienced by women of color; one that did what the other two transformative movements could not,

60 which was see beyond the otherness of the dissimilar. Womanism. Walker’s was not the only observation made about feminism’s exclusivity. Hooks (1984) captured the whole of marginality within Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. “Much feminist theory emerges from privileged women who live at the center,” wrote hooks (1984), “whose perspectives on reality rarely include knowledge and awareness of the lives of women and men who live in the margin”(p.iii). In “Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory,” hooks (2000) wrote, “Feminism has never emerged from the women who are most victimized by sexist oppression; women who are daily beaten down, mentally, physically, and spiritually – women who are powerless to change their condition in life” (p. 131).

Instead, according to hooks (2000), a “select group of women” usurped all of feminism in

“a case study of narcissism, insensitivity, sentimentality, and self-indulgence” (p. 132).

O’Reilly’s (2014) work in the field would make a strong case that mothers—not the privileged or leisurely mothers who are given voice from the pages of Friedan’s (2013)

The Feminine Mystique—but mothers without choices, those of which hooks (2000) wrote, often live on the margins, placed there by a patriarchal society and quite often by other women. Ruddick’s (1989) work postulated “[m]others have been a powerless group whose thinking, when it has been acknowledged at all, has most often been recognized by people interested in interpreting and controlling rather than in listening”

(p. 26). O’Reilly (2014) reasoned because motherhood has been “seen as a patriarchal institution that causes women’s oppression” the feminist solution has been to dismiss motherhood in theory and practice. Maushart (1999) drew a similar conclusion, observing that the debates on education, employment, and equity had ejected motherhood

61 from the feminist agenda since the days of Betty Friedan’s early scholarship in the sixties.

Mother-ism. Within theoretical discourse and debate, women who are mothering find themselves at another kind of intersection—like that of race, gender, and class—and with a need to articulate the ideological process of rearing children within the context of feminism. This void within the literature also marks the spot where this study sits— contemplating the intersection of gender and station: mother-worker inside the home and mother-worker outside the home. Uniquely enough, station possesses the conflicting/complementing duality of private sphere work (mothering children) and public sphere work (leading academically).

In a form of alignment or perhaps to assuage feminist theorists, O’Reilly (2007) articulated, before her statement of feminist abandonment, that feminist mothering,

“refer[red] to an oppositional discourse of motherhood, one that is constructed as a negation of patriarchal motherhood” (p. 796), which is male-defined, male-controlled, and oppressive to women. The theoretical work of Rich (1989), Ruddick (1989), and, the researcher would add, Walker (1983) and hooks (2000) provided foundation for this estimation, their scholarship having closely examined the textured lives of the women.

Feminist mothering functions “as a counter narrative of motherhood,” O’Reilly suggested, by seeking “to interrupt the master narrative of motherhood to imagine and implement a view of mothering that is empowering to women” (p. 796). For this reason the term mothering was used in reference to the practice of the women in the study rather than motherhood. Further, this spotlighting of what so little feminism addresses

62 identifies and disassociates itself from the ten ideological assumptions concerning the rearing of the young and the defining and controlling of the mother:

1. essentialization – positioning maternity as the basis of female identity;

2. privatization – locating motherwork as solely within the reproductive realm of

the home;

3. individualization – causing the responsibilities of mothering to be the sole task

of one person;

4. naturalization – assuming maternity is natural to all women;

5. normalization – restricting maternal identity and practice to the nuclear family

with mother serving as nurturer and father, as provider;

6. idealization – setting unattainable expectations for mothers;

7. biologicalization – positioning the birth mother as the “real” mother

8. expertization – causing motherwork to be expert-driven or expert-informed;

9. intensification – identifies motherwork as a consuming practice; and

10. depoliticalization – characterizing childrearing “as a private, non-political

undertaking with no social or political import” (O’Reilly, 2013, p. 187).

Feminist mothering or matricentric feminism, instead, assumes a practice of mothering that “empowers mothers to resist patriarchal motherhood: to mother against motherhood” through a matrifocal, self-reflexive, and philosophical thinking of motherwork involving critical consciousness, self-affirmation, and social action

(O’Reilly, 2013, p. 191). This practice of mothering promotes its agentic qualities.

Middleton (2006), Grasetti (2013), and O’Reilly (2013) asserted that the conceptual scheme of matricentric pedagogy equips those engaged in the act of mothering with

1. authority – confidence and conviction

2. authenticity – truth, integrity, and consistency with personal beliefs and values

3. autonomy – self-definition and self-determination

4. agency – power and control

5. advocacy – political and social recognition and activism surrounding the very practice and the woman’s being.

Unfortunately, matrticentric feminist theory has not garnered significant academic recognition and has yet to reach its full potential in the consideration of not just motherwork but the waged work of mothers, the mothering-informed work conducted outside the context of the home and the community. For instance, few studies have done as Grasetti (2013) has; few studies have discussed the empowerment of the mother’s self- identity beyond the scope of the private sphere. Grasetti explained,

It was in my motherhood that the seeds of empowered feminist mothering skills . .

. were first sowed and it was the act of mothering that cultivated those seeds and

allowed them to grow and flourish. [. . . ] I write this essay as a mother who

became an academic, because my academic identity was harvested through the

work of motherhood. (p. 10)

Additionally, evidence of growth or mental advancement due to mothering surfaces, as well, in Ellison’s (2006) The Mommy Brain. However, the theoretical absence creates a critical void for the study as a specific paradigm encompassing the work of mothers in the workplace or, as in the case of the study, in the community college, has not quite been crafted.

Clark’s (2000) revised look at Anzaldua’s (1987) language and psychological border crossings, discussed in the Praxis section of this chapter, addressed the trekking between the workspace and home. Clark’s (2000) research described work and home as distinct territories consisting of permeable borders to be traversed by border-crossers and territories to be maintained by border-keepers or domain members. In the illustration, the border crosser, the person moving from location to location, bears the burden of shifting to and assuming the identity of the respective setting. And successful navigation, according to Clark (2000), is contingent upon the border crosser’s influence and identification with the domains. When Clark’s (2000) model was shared with Dr. Andrea

O’Reilly, the scholar who conceived matricentric feminism, at the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement’s 20th Anniversary Conference held in

Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 14-16, 2016, O’Reilly stopped to discuss the possibilities. In addition to the border crossing model, the researcher shared her critical extrapolation, one that transposed matricentric pedagogy atop the border-crossing model.

Figure 2-3 provides the reinterpretation of Clark’s (2000) border crosser model. It illustrates the border crosser, represented by the arrow and, in this case, the mothering academic, carrying the components of matricentric pedagogy—authority, authenticity, autonomy, agency, and advocacy—from the home environment to the work environment and back. When the researcher asked O’Reilly the feasibility of the hypothesis or the existence of literature surrounding such discussion, she explained her agreeability to the line of reasoning, but could only vaguely recall a dissertation, circa 2000, in the area of business that had been written on any such research.

Border Crossers

Home environment Authority Work environment

Authenticity

Autonomy

(re)productive labor = no $ Agency productive labor = $ Advocacy

Matricentric Pedagogy

Figure 2-3. Border crossers trafficking matricentric pedagogy. Adapted from “Work/family border: A new theory of work/family balance,” by S.C. Clark, 2000, Human Relations 53(6), p. 754.

Critical void: motherwork, re/productive labor, and maternal work. The Mask of Motherhood (1999) discussed how mother’s work has been shrouded in deafening silence and heroic lies. In an attempt to provide voice, Maushart (1999) pulled back the mask of motherhood to reveal a considerable number of mysteries; however, the overarching truth, she learned, concerned the minimization of the enormity of women’s work in the world. She reported:

One hugely important reason that scholarship, philosophy, and virtually every

other form of public discourse have been so astonishingly silent on the subject of

motherhood is simply that men do not experience it. And what we call public

discourse is a forum for what men know. (Maushart, 1999, p. 17).

The defining work of mothers and, perhaps, much of their work beyond that single transformative moment may go without acknowledgement because of Maushart’s (1999) observation—men do not personally experience it, thus rendering female labor without the merit required of discourse. Gordon (1990) so aptly described women’s work as not only reproductive but productive. Her research made accommodations for both unpaid and paid labor and implicitly called into question the external value placed upon the reproductive ($0) labor and productive ($ but < $ than males) labor of women.

Ruddick (1989) referred to the family-related or reproductive work of women as maternal work and explained its press upon mothers to think—not just to do, but to think.

It is

the intellectual capacities, she develops, the judgments she makes, the

metaphysical attitudes she assumes, the values she affirms. . . . [A] mother caring

for children engages in a discipline. She asks certain questions—those relevant to

her aims—rather than others; she accepts certain criteria for the truth, adequacy,

and relevance of proposed answers; and she cares about the findings she makes

and can act on. The discipline for maternal thought, like other disciplines,

establishes criteria for determining failure and success, set priorities, and

identifies virtues that the discipline requires. (p. 24)

These capacities fostered while childrearing could very well encompass the work ethos of mothers in their paid labor performances. But, while Ruddick (1989) expressed the capabilities of and need for mothers to think, the dearth of scholarly research witnesses the need for those mothering to speak: testify and document.

Mother theory. Within theory, many marginalized voices have broken free of their silencing. Hooks’ (1984) Feminist Theory: From Margins to Center shattered any notion that the lived experiences of those dwelling at the intersection of race, class, and gender had no platform from which to speak. Her scholarship, as well as Walker’s

(1983), attested to those lives’ existence, legitimacy, and merit, granting them access from the margins. Similarly, mother-centered feminism, finding no position for itself in the current feminist agenda, makes efforts to solidify itself within theoretical discourse; but, while it strives for its own legitimacy, its research is centered on certain aspects of mother’s work and not on others. Its research has not fully arrived at articulating language for the engagement of the productive work and (re)productive work of women

(where the two collide). Both paid and unpaid women’s labor, within and around the context of empowered mothering, could be informed by the exact same components— authority, authenticity, autonomy, agency, and advocacy (O’Reilly, 2013; Grasetti, 2013 and Middleton, 2006—the latter two sources mention all but advocacy).

As the researcher’s review of the literature has discovered, the intersection of gender and station (the productive/(re)productive position of labor) is as sidelined as the intersection of race, class, and gender. Mothering women have not been invited to contribute to the dialogue of feminist thought because too much their role, under the title of motherhood, has been perceived as in collusion with the patriarchy (Rich, 1986;

O’Reilly 2013, 2014). Further, the consideration of the intersection of gender and station

(the productive/reproductive position of labor), within the confines of this project and under the auspices of Eagly’s (1987) social role theory and Bensimon and Marshall’s

(1997) feminist critical policy analysis, captures the absence of language within feminist thought for articulating the simultaneity of mothering while engaged in paid labor.

Social role theory. Eagly’s (1987) social role theory describes gendered stereotypes and their influence on the behaviors of the female and male workers.

According to Eagly (1987) and Dulin (2007), the division of labor in the family, community, and workplace determines the gender-role expectations of the perceivers, while defining sex-typed skills and beliefs acquired by the receivers, which ultimately constructs sex differences in social behavior. In simpler terms, the division of labor constructs societal norms concerning gender-stereotypic behavior. Figure 2-4 provides an illustration of Eagly’s (1987) model, highlighting how the division of labor shapes gender-role expectations and sex-typed skills and beliefs as wells as sex differences in social behavior.

Gender-role Expectations

Division of Labor Sex Differences in between the Social Behavior Sexes

Sex-Typed Skills and Beliefs

Figure 2-4: Social role theory diagram. Adapted from Sex differences in social behavior: A social-role interpretation by A. Eagly, 1987, p. 32.

Communal characteristics (e.g. nurturers, caregivers, and subordinates) are typically assigned women, while agentic characteristics (e.g. aggressors, leaders, and superiors) are given over to men, whether the individual possesses these traits or not.

Unfortunately, some women have found themselves in positions of disfavor for violating gender-prescribed characteristics, such as filling or attempting to fill a position of leadership (Eagly & Karau, 2002; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011; Tedrow &

Rhoads, 1998). “Stereotypes often are a potent barrier to women’s advancement to positions of leadership,” Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, and Ristikari (2011, p. 616) observed, particularly if the woman does not measure up to expectations. However, DiCroce’s

(1995) research found that some stereotypes worked in favor of female leadership (p. 82).

Dicroce (1995) identified six central traits pared down from the 25 leadership behaviors that are female-oriented and counterintuitive to accepted masculine norms: (a) women empower or reward rather than punish; (b) women restructure, seeking change rather than control; (c) women teach as opposed to giving orders; (d) women are role models; (e) women are open, cultivating the environment by reaching out rather than issuing orders; and (f) women ask the right questions instead of knowing all the answers (p. 82).

Nonetheless, if female socialization into leadership is viewed as an anomaly, how will women be able to take up significant roles successfully?

A look at the existing literature reveals thoughts that are in alignment with

Eagly’s (1987) ideology. “Occupation pursuits are extensively gendered,” explained

Bussey and Bandura (2004), and “[t]he pervasive stereotypical practices of the various subsystems [. . .] leave their mark on women’s beliefs about the occupational efficacy”

(p. 100). Further, Bussy and Bandura’s (2006) review of the literature found

The gendered practices of familial, educational, peer, and media subsystems are

essentially replicated in organizational structures and practices, including

extensive segregation of jobs along gender lines, concentration of women in lower

level positions, inequitable wages, limited opportunities for upper level mobility,

and power imbalances in work relationships . . . . (p. 111)

Feminist critical policy analysis. Feminist critical policy analysis provides the means for a look into the structures of gendered organizations (Acker, 1990; Bensimon &

Marshall, 1997; Eddy & Cox, 2008), the form which, according to Eddy (2010), the community college subscribes to. Feminist critical policy analysis serves this purpose as it critiques institutional policy and practice in academe, by rejecting conventional androcentric policy analysis and asserting a feminist paradigm in its place (Bensimon &

Marshall, 1997). Critical feminist critical policy analysis, the theorists argue,

1. poses gender as a fundamental category;

2. concerns itself with the analysis of differences—contrary to the assumption of

gender blindness achieving equality;

3. posits the data of feminist theory is the lived experience of women;

4. strives to transform institutions;

5. supports an interventionist strategy that is openly political and change-

oriented (Bensimon & Marshall, 1997).

The theory sets the parameters for considering what was observed on the institutional level.

Critic Anderson (2003) found fault with Bensimon and Marshall (1997) use of academic language and protocol acquired from male academic masters to undermine

71 existing systems. She found the scholars’ efforts to replace accepted structures with an inferior female-centered paradigm warranted feminist Audre Lorde’s proverb: “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (Anderson, 2003, p. 321). She wrote, “Their alternative, however, of using a feminist vocabulary to redescribe our situations and our past, is nothing more or less than an attempt to assert the power of language from another vantage point” (p. 324). Bensimon and Marshall (2003) provided a retort to Anderson’s (2003) assessment, identifying the scholar as in collusion with structures that disfavor women. Still, the researchers provided clarification which did not appear in their Policy Analysis for Postsecondary Education (1997). For instance, where the scholars had initially written feminist critical policy analysis concerns in an overarching way, they delineated its purpose “to critique or deconstruct conventional theories and explanations and reveal the gender bias . . . inherent in commonly accepted theories, constructions, methodologies and concepts,” as well as “to conduct analysis that is feminist both in theoretical and methodological orientations” (Bensimon & Marshall,

2003, p. 339).

Shifting the focus from identifying women rather than gendered practices as the problem, the scholars posed a series of questions for an appropriately trained policy analyst to consider. Table 2.5 shows sample questions and their revisions posed by

Bensimon and Marshall (2003). In addition, Bensimon and Marshall (2003) explained that the analyst’s responsibilities should include the following:

1. recognizing the past policies constructed without feminist critique are flawed;

2. re-constructing policy arenas and discourses for the excluded and token-ly

included;

3. including feminist questions;

4. employing alternative methodologies (e.g. narrative and oral history);

5. searching for traditions and practices that inhibit women; and

6. taking an advocacy stance.

This is if institutional change designed toward gender parity is to commence. Eddy’s

(2010) research has suggested that it should and it will if “institutions can discard a masculine paradigm of operations” (p. 27).

Table 2.5

Re-framing Gender Policy Questions

When gender is a variable, we ask: When gender is an analytical category, we ask:

1. Why are women faculty candidates 1. In what ways do faculty appointment less likely to get job offers than male practices affect men and women? candidates?

2. Why are women faculty less productive 2. In what ways does “gender” impact than male faculty? productivity?

3. Why are women faculty less successful 3. In what ways is “gender” a factor in in getting tenure? socialization processes?

4. Why do women faculty earn less than 4. In what ways is “gender” embedded in male faculty? definitions of merit?

5. Why are women angry? 5. What effective changes has the university made for women’s inclusion and acceptance?

Note. Adapted from “Like It Or Not: Feminist Critical Policy Analysis Matters,” by E. M. Bensimon and C. Marshall, 2003, The Journal of Higher Education, 72(3), p. 345.

Summary

As aspects of the personal collide with the professional in the lives of twenty-first century women, accessibility to having it all and at the same time appears to remain an issue of debate. Scholars and thinkers centered on the study of women wonder, is it possible and, if it is, then how? Additionally, in the community college, emerging concerns for the marginalization of women (Clark 1998; Eddy, 2002; Townsend, 1995b;

Townsend & Twombly, 2007a; Townsend & Twombly, 2007b) and the impending crisis of retiring baby boomers (American Association of Community Colleges, 2001, 2005,

2014, 2016; Keim, 2008; O’Keefe, 2013; Rice & O’Keefe, 2014; Shults, 2001; Watts &

Hammons, 2002) converge at the 1960s genesis of the prevalent female presence in the two-year sector. The current academic climate appears to have positioned institutions of higher education within a similar dilemma—the need is greater than the norm of favoring one gender over another. Despite dwindling resources, not enough study has been given over to the most productive use of female human capital within the community college sector. The review of literature drawn from documented personal accounts, researched experiential and theoretical studies, academic and institutional reports, and government documents and websites reveals voids in the literature and in related theory. Though significant studies have been completed on the disparity of pay for women—inside and outside of the academy (Aranda & Glick, 2014; Baker, 2010; Kricheli-Katz, 2012); significant studies have been completed on the lack of support for mothers with children inside the faculty ranks (Allison, 2007; Evans & Grant, 2008; Monosson, 2008; Perrakis

& Martinez, 2012); and significant studies have been completed on the scarcity of women in upper level faculty positions and their slow rise in higher education leadership (Baker,

2012; Bilen-Green et al., 2008; Hallstein & O’Reilly, 2012; King, 2008), women working and leading in the community college have been given little attention and the motherwork of women (the intersection of paid and unpaid labor) has been given spotty acknowledgement. What this study attempted was documentation of the experiences of women in the community college sector who hold positions of leadership while rearing underage children.

Chapter Three

Methodology

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how female academic leaders perceive their professional experiences within the community college—a sector that heralds more women in leadership roles than any other in academe. More specifically, the study focused on the intersection of two identities these women assumed—(a) mother, rearing underage children, and (b) leader, academically leading in the community college; thus, the study sought to investigate the contrasting ideologies of the

“good mother” and the “ideal worker” often embedded within the psyche of institutional structures. To this end, the research questions were as follows:

1. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their role as

academic leader?

2. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional

development?

3. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional

advancement?

Here, the title college administrator encompassed women in community college leadership holding administrative as well as quasi-administrative roles—i.e. faculty.

Further, perception was defined as the intuitive awareness from which individuals grasp understanding or make meaning of their world.

As the chapter proceeds, it describes the qualitative paradigm implemented for the study. In addition, the chapter includes discussions on (a) the rationale for the research approach; (b) the selection of research participants; (c) desired research and research design; (d) methods for data collection, analysis, and synthesis; and (e) limitations of the study. Finally, the chapter closes with a brief concluding summary.

Qualitative Inquiry

In Yin’s (2011) work with qualitative inquiry, he outlined five features in an attempt to arrive at a singular definition to a diverse concept. A study implementing this methodology, his work explained, calls for

1. Studying the meaning of people’s lives, under real-world conditions;

2. Representing the views and perspectives of the people [. . .] in the study;

3. Covering the contextual conditions within which people live;

4. Contributing insights into existing or emerging concepts that my help to

explain human social behavior; and

5. Striving to use multiple sources of evidence rather than relying on a single

source alone. (p. 7-8)

The human element plays out in each aspect of Yin’s (2011) definition. The study participants share meaning and perspective within the context of their world.

Before launching into discourse on the views of opponents and proponents of qualitative inquiry, Denzin and Lincoln (2013) posed that “qualitative research is many things to many people” (p. 16), assuming among its forms ethnographic prose, historical

77 narratives, first-person accounts, still photographs, life history, fictionalized ‘facts,’ and biographical and autobiographical materials” (p. 20). But, they narrow its essence to (a)

“a commitment to some version of the naturalistic, interpretive approach to its subject matter” and (b) “an ongoing critique of the politics and methods of postpositivism”

(p.16), and provide their readers with five distinct differences between qualitative and quantitative research rising under the following categories: (a) using positivism and postpositivism, (b) accepting postmodern sensibilities, (c) capturing the individual’s point of view, d) examining the constraints of everyday life, and e) securing rich descriptions.

The discussion that follows briefly discusses each.

Five Qualitative/Quantitative Distinction. While qualitative research historically has been defined within the positivist paradigm, both positivism (reality can be studied, captured, understood) and postpositivism (reality can never be fully comprehended) shape qualitative and quantitative analyses (Denzin & Lincoln, 2013). In fact, Denzin and Lincoln (2013) identified five qualitative and quantitative distinctions— positivism and postpositivism, postmodern sensibilities, point of view, constraints of everyday living, and rich descriptions.

Positivism and postpositivism. Denzin and Lincoln (2013) reported the naïveté enveloping the influence that positivism and postpositivism have on the physical and social sciences concerning reality and its perception. And, the researchers maintained that though many qualitative researchers who adhere to the postpositivist tradition will use statistical measures, methods, and documents, they will seldom report their findings in terms of the complex statistical measures of quantitative researchers.

Postmodern sensibilities. Qualitative researchers embracing poststructural or postmodern sensibilities “argue that positivist methods are but one way of telling a story about society or the social world” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2013, p. 19) that may be no better or worse than any other rendering. Thus, they reject the use of quantitative positivist methods. Likewise, those of “the critical theory, constructivist, poststructural, and postmodern schools of thought reject positivist and postpositivist criteria when evaluating their own work” (p.19), claiming the produced science silences too many voices. This latter point was certainly a matter that Chase (2013) addressed in her instruction on narrative inquiry. With an emphasis on the need for change and social justice, Chase

(2013) discussed the urgency of speaking, of being heard, of collective stories, and of public dialogue within the qualitative narrative form.

Point of View. Though qualitative and quantitative researchers concern themselves with their research subjects’ point of view, qualitative researchers reason they draw closer to their subjects because of interviewing and observing. Further, they argue that quantitative researchers’ reliance on “inferential empirical methods and materials”

(Denzin & Lincoln, 2013, p. 19) renders them unable to capture the subject’s perspective.

Constraints of everyday living. Denzin and Lincoln (2013) suggested that quantitative researchers “abstract from this world and seldom study it directly” (p.19).

Instead, they seek an etic (outside the group) science “based on probabilities derived from the study of large numbers of randomly selected cases” (p.19); whereas qualitative researchers, whose scientific studies are emic (within the group), seek to “confront and come up against the constraints of the everyday social world” (p. 19)

Rich descriptions. Because details interrupt the process of developing generalities, according to Denzin and Lincoln (2013), quantitative researchers are deliberately unconcerned with the descriptions of the social world. Their focus is on the etic (outside the group) accounts, the culturally neutral accounts. Qualitative researchers place emphasis on the emic (inside the group) accounts, which provide rich descriptions of the social world and are of immense value to qualitative analysis.

Qualitative Research. The five features of Yin (2011) and the five distinctions of Dezin & Lincoln (2013) provided reason for this project to align itself with qualitative inquiry, for the study assumed an interpretive approach to the subject matter, while indirectly critiquing the politics of postpositivism. The research considered the narratives of the social or cultural environment, as told by the multiple voices of study participants through richly detailed interviews and observations, in an effort to “study the world directly” and “confront the constraints” from an emic (inside the group) perspective.

A closer look at the research style, presents an even stronger case for the use of qualitative inquiry. As Denzin and Lincoln (2013) explained, centermost to qualitative research is the word qualitative, which places emphasis on the qualities of the studied entity rather than on its quantity, amount, intensity or frequency. “Qualitative researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry” (

Denzin & Lincoln, 2013, p. 17), suggesting that particular kinds of study warrant this type of critical investigation. Whereas the quantitative study places emphasis on

“measurement and analysis of causal relationships between variables,” (Denzin &

Lincoln, 2013, p. 17) studies intended for qualitative outcomes “seek answers to

80 questions that stress how social experience is created and given meaning” (p. 17). Thus, the qualitative inquiry or narrative research should be “utilized when research questions concern how people understand and make meaning of facets of their lives” (Josselson,

2013, p. vii). Qualitative inquiry should be used when the researcher attempts to understand—not measure, predict, or classify—the study participant holistically,

“gathering experiential accounts in the participants’ own words” (p. viii). Further, qualitative inquiry should be implemented when “[t]he intent is to understand how people construct or interpret their experiences” (Josselson, 2013, p. viii). Since the study planned to capture how women in the community college simultaneously negotiated the role of leading and the role of mothering, qualitative inquiry provided the most appropriate means of arriving at a holistic understanding of the participants and their reality.

Phenomenological Methodology

Within the framework of a qualitative approach, the use of phenomenology best suited this study, for

[p]henomenology as a philosophy seeks to understand anything at all that can be

experienced though the consciousness one has of what is ‘given’—whether it be

an object, a person, or a complex state of affairs—from the perspective of the

conscious person undergoing the experience. (Giorgi, 2009, p. 4)

The need for understanding motivated this study as did the need to make that understanding more broadly known. Discussed in detail a little later in this chapter, van

Manen (1990) identified six research activities involved in a phenomenological study.

The first activity, however, warrants mentioning here, for it suggests researchers turn “to

81 a phenomenon which seriously interests us and commits us to the world” (p. 30). The experiences of women academically leading in the community college while rearing underage children vastly interest edthe researcher; further, the sheer absence of discourse on the subject rendered the research study a very necessary task.

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). Phenomenology traces its beginnings to the early twentieth century with Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) credited as its founder. Husserl provided a foundation for the philosophy through continuous writing and revision of his thoughts (Giorgi, 2009). After three decades of work (Schutz, 1970), Husserl left to students and scholars some 40,000 pages in manuscript form (Giorgi, 2009). According to Carr (1970), the mid-1930’s written work The Crisis of European Sciences and

Transcendental Phenomenology was Husserl’s last attempt at an introduction to phenomenology though earlier publications had been given the same “introduction” title.

In the work, Husserl (1970), a German Jew, identified the positivistic reduction of the idea of science to mere fact as the crisis plaguing the Nazi-influenced, existentialist- driven European culture of the early twentieth century; further, he identified this crisis as the loss of meaning for life. Situated between two world wars, Husserl (1970) wrote of society’s hostilities and the science of the day excluding “the questions which man [. . .] finds the most burning: questions of the meaning or meaninglessness of the whole of this human existence” (p. 6). Husserl (1970) pointed blame toward turbulent times and humanity’s readiness to relinquish those inquiries to “portentous upheavals” and stated,

“[m]erely fact-minded sciences make merely fact-minded people” (p. 6). Concerned about the loss of “genuine humanity,” Husserl (1970) challenged:

Scientific, objective truth is exclusively a matter of establishing what the world,

the physical as well as the spiritual world, is in fact. But can the world, and

human existence in it, truthfully have a meaning if the sciences recognize as true

only what is objectively established in this fashion, and if history has nothing

more to teach us than that all the shapes of the spiritual world, all the conditions

of life, ideals, norms upon which man relies, form and dissolve themselves [. . .].

Can we live in this world, where historical occurrence is nothing but an unending

concatenation of illusory progress and bitter disappointment? (p. 6-7)

The positivistic concept of science, which Husserl (1970) argued was not new but a residual concept, dropped all questions that had been considered under the concepts of metaphysics or outside the objective experience (p. 9). Husserl’s (1970) work discouraged the exclusion of the life-world—what Schutz defined as “the whole sphere of everyday experiences, orientations, and actions through which individuals pursue their interests and affairs by manipulating objects, dealing with people, conceiving plans, and carrying them out” (pp. 14-15). Husserl’s (1970) work discouraged “the surreptitiously substitution of the mathematically substructed world of idealities for the only real world, the one that is actually given through perception, that is ever experienced and experienceable—our everyday life-world (pp. 49-48). Providing theoretical space for its contemplation, the scholar legitimized the study of human reality and the viewers’ perception of it.

Husserl, Schutz, and van Vanen. Though Husserl (1970) made a way for alternate considerations, Schutz (1970) asserted that no adequate approach existed for the phenomenological movement initiated by Husserl; even if such is the case, what Husserl

(1970) did provide was essential groundwork. Schutz (1970) wrote, “[a]ccording to

Husserl, all direct experiences of humans are experiences in and of their ‘life-world’; they constitute it, they are oriented toward it, they are tested in it” (p. 14). Likewise, van

Manen (1990) posited “phenomenology is the study of the lifeworld—the world as we immediately experience it pre-reflectively rather than as we conceptualize, categorize, or reflect on it” (p. 9). The exploration of the study participants’ lived experiences within an academic setting, serving as a leader while rearing underage children, lent itself well to a consciousness-oriented undertaking of phenomenology: What do study participants perceive and what do they understand? Creswell (2007) wrote, “a phenomenological study describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon” (p. 57), reducing the individual experiences to a universal essence or truth, while resisting generalizations (Yin, 2011). Though the sample size of a phenomenological study was significantly smaller and less representative of the population than a sample in a quantitative study, the collective experience provides texture, tenor, and language, as well as authenticity and validity for its universal outcome.

Van Manen (1990) maintained that “phenomenological research reintegrates part and whole [. . .] encourage[ing] a certain attentive awareness to the details and seemingly trivial dimension of our everyday educational lives” (p. 8). More specifically, van Manen

(1990) identified six research activities in “dynamic interplay” and of importance to this study and its implementation. According to van Manen (1990), the research should

1. involve a phenomenon of interests that commits researchers to the world;

2. investigate lived experiences as lived rather than as conceptualized;

3. reflect the essential themes of the phenomenon;

4. describe the phenomenon through writing and rewriting;

5. maintain a pedagogical relation to the phenomenon; and

6. balance the research context by considering the parts and the whole. (p. 30-31)

The study adhered to the careful instruction provided here. In its exploration of community college women leaders who actively mother, it investigated their lived experiences, reflecting on and writing about their leading while mothering. Further, it maintained a pedagogical approach while balancing the parts and the whole of its participants’ shared experiences.

Before transitioning from this section, it might be important to list what phenomenology is not. In this way, the study and the researcher were able to avoid treading in a direction that the research could not fulfill. According to van Manen

(1990), phenomenology is not an empirical analytic science; it is not mere speculative inquiry in the sense of reflection that is unworldly, mystic, or meditative; it is neither

“mere particularity, nor sheer universality” (p. 23); and, most important, it does not problem solve. “Phenomenological questions are meaningful questions. They ask for meaning and significance of certain phenomena,” noted van Manen (1990), but meaning questions cannot be solved.

Hermeneutics. In Phenomenological Research Methods, Moustakas (1994) described five phenomenological design and methodology models for human science research: (a) ethnography, (b) grounded theory, (c) hermeneutics, (d) empirical phenomenological research, and (e) heuristic research. Though hermeneutics provided the most applicable method for this qualitative research study, a brief overview of the other four methods justifies its choice.

According to Moustakas (1994), ethnography involves direct observations of the activities, communication, and interactions of a studied group of people, resulting in a cultural description made through the researcher’s lengthy participation, observation, and analysis. Grounded theory provides the means for the researcher to “understand the nature and meaning of an experience” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 4). Moreover, grounded theory accomplishes at its conclusion what the other models do not in that it crafts a cohesive theory based on observations drawn from the study. Additionally, Addison explained that grounded theory questions gaps in the data; stresses open processes rather than fixed methods and procedures; recognizes “the importance of context and social structure;” generates theory and data through the interview process; simultaneously considers data collecting, coding, and analysis; and understands that the theory must be a product of and grounded in the data (as cited in Moustakas, 1994, p. 5).

Empirical phenomenological research “involves a return to experience in order to obtain comprehensive descriptions that provide the basis for reflective structural analysis that portrays the essences of the experience” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 13). This process appears in two levels, which Moustakas (1994) adopted from Giorgi’s scholarship from a decade before. The first level entails the original participant data articulated in “naïve descriptions,” while the second level provides descriptions prepared by the researcher of the structures of the experience based on reflective analysis and interpretation; thus, universal meanings are derived from individual descriptions (Moustakas, 1994, p. 13).

Heuristic research is the internal process of discovering the meaning of a human experience. An autobiographic process, the “life experience of the heuristic researcher and the research participants is not a text to be interpreted, but a comprehensive story”

86 that is portrayed through meaningful language and “elucidated through poems, songs, artwork, and other personal documents and creations” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 19).

Lastly, hermeneutics, the phenomenological research method chosen for this study, focuses on consciousness and experience (Moustakas, 1994). It involves “the art of reading a text so that the intention and meaning behind appearances are fully understood”

(Moustakas, 1994, p. 9).

The premise upon which this study hoped to sit was in the very function of the hermeneutics model, for the “direct conscious” description (rather than the naïve description) of an experience and the underlying structures that comprise the experience provided the central meaning that enabled the researcher to understand the essence of the experience (Moustakas, 1994, p. 9). This study explored the perceptions held by female community college administrators of their roles as leader and mother—both in direct conscious description and in underlying structures. Moustakas (1994) explained that

“[h]ermeneutic analysis is required in order to derive a correct understanding of a text,” and while the text or interview protocol, “provides an important description of conscious experience,” the researcher’s reflective interpretation, which included analysis and interpretation of the underlying conditions that comprise an experience, was “ineeded to achieve fuller, more meaningful understanding” (Moustakas, 1994, pp.10-11). More succinctly, the researcher’s reflective “[i]nterpretation unmask[ed] what [wa]s hidden behind the objective phenomena” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 10). Thus, the practice of the hermeneutics model allowed the interrogation of participant narratives for explicit as well as implicit meaning.

Phenomenological data analysis. Aside from hermeneutics serving as the selected research method for textual engagement, the data analysis that unfolded in this qualitative study adhered to the structures outlined in Chapter Five of Moutakas’ (1994)

Phenomenological Research Methods. Accordingly, phenomenological research—that is research drawn from the personal experience narratives of those living or having lived a phenomenon—entailed four steps of practice: epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis (Moustakas, 1994). These, Moustakas (1994) reasoned, are the necessary components for conducting phenomenological research since

“scientific investigation is valid when the knowledge sought is arrived at through descriptions that make possible an understanding of the meanings and essences of experience” (p. 84).

First, epoche—the Greek word meaning abstain or avoid (Moustakas, 1994)—is the practice of bracketing (Creswell, 2007), requiring that the researcher set aside

“prejudgments, biases, and preconceived ideas about things” while looking carefully “to see what is really there” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 85). Creswell (2007) suggested it is the means of acquiring “a fresh perspective toward the phenomenon under investigation”

(Creswell, 2007, pp. 59-60). However, the epoche

does not eliminate everything, does not doubt everything—only the natural

attitude, the biases of everyday knowledge, as a basis for truth and reality. What

is doubted are the scientific ‘facts,’ the knowing of things in advance, from an

external rather than from internal reflection and meaning. (Moustakas, 1994, p.

85)

Moustakas’ (1994) further defined epoche as more than a means of acquiring new knowledge; his text articulated the practice “as an experience itself, a process of setting aside predilections, prejudices, and predispositions, and allowing things, events, and people to enter anew into consciousness,” thus allowing the researcher “to look and see them again, as if for the first time” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 85). Moustakas (1994) described epoche as “a clearing of the mind, space, and time, a holding in abeyance of whatever that has been put into our minds by science or society” (p. 86). It mandates that researchers “be transparent to ourselves, to allow whatever is before us in consciousness to disclose itself so that we may see with new eyes in a naïve and completely open manner” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 86). As asserted by Moustakas (1994), “this way of perceiving life” or this practice of data analysis, “calls for looking, noticing, becoming aware, without imposing [researcher] prejudgment on what we see, think, imagine, or feel. It is a way of genuine looking that precedes reflectiveness, the making of judgments, or reaching conclusions” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 86). This form of releasing or letting go requires that the researcher “suspend everything that interferes with fresh vision. We simply let what is there stand as it appears, from many angles, perspectives, and signs” (Moustakas, 1994, 86).

The process of epoche necessitates that no position be taken, that “[n]othing be determined in advance” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 87); nonetheless, the researcher remains present, existing as doubter and negator, using intuition, perception, and understanding to serve as “pointers to knowledge, meaning, and truth” (p. 88). The researcher practices epoche alone; “its nature and intensity” insist upon the researcher’s “absolute presence in absolute aloneness” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 88). Still, “[t]he challenge is to silence the

89 directing voices and sounds, internally and externally, to remove from [the researcher’s self] manipulating and predisposing influences and to become completely and solely attuned to just what appears, to encounter the phenomenon, as such, with a pure state of mind” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 88).

The task of phenomenological reduction, the second step to phenomenological research, “is that of describing in textural language” what the researcher sees, the external as well as the internal, “the rhythm and relationship between phenomenon and self”

(Moustakas, 1994, p. 90). This theoretical reasoning intensely includes the researcher’s self, not just the personage of the studied, but the researcher’s interactions with the studied. In fact, Moustakas (1994) identified this step as a return to self, permitting the researcher to experience “self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-knowledge” (p. 95), while looking and describing, looking again and describing, and looking yet again and describing (p. 90) the phenomenon studied. Understanding and explicating the

“essential nature” of the observed phenomenon, Moustakas (1994) asserted, encompasses the researcher’s perceiving, thinking, remembering, imagining, and judging (p. 91).

Moustakas (1994) contended, “[w]hatever shines forth in consciousness as I [the researcher] perceive it, reflect on it, imagine it, concentrate on it, is what I attend to—that is what stands as meaningful for me” (p. 92). Phenomenological reduction uncovers the nature and meaning of an experience through pre-reflection and reflection (Moustakas,

1994).

Horizontalization, another dimension of phenomenological reduction identified by Moustakas (1994), is an inexhaustive process of encountering new experiences with or new perceptions of a subject. According to Moustakas (1994), new perceptions arise

90 while others recede in an ongoing process, for no perception or horizon lasts indefinitely

(p. 95). In other words, perceptions change and evolve just as the perceiver changes and evolves with each new encounter, and this is to be expected in this step of the analysis process.

Overall, the stages of phenomenological reduction include (a) bracketing, the setting aside of all but the topic and question; (b) horizonalizing, treating every statement or observation with equal reverence until found to be outside the purview of the topic and question; (c) clustering the horizons into themes; and (d) organizing the horizons and themes into textural descriptions (Moustakas, 1994, p. 97). It appears that the last two stages provide the researcher with the beginning work of the data analysis coding process.

The third step of phenomenological research, imaginative variation, attempts a

“structural description of an experience, the underlying and precipitating factors that account for what is being experienced, [. . .] the ‘how’ that speaks to conditions that illuminate the ‘what’ of an experience” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 98). Possible meanings are sought “through the utilization of imagination, varying the frames of reference, employing polarities and reversals, and approaching the phenomenon from divergent perspectives, different positions, roles, or functions” (pp. 97-98). Moustakas’ (1994) research described this step as making the invisible visible, by shifting away “from facts and measurable entities and toward meanings and essences” (98). Moustakas (1994) explained:

The Imaginative Variation process includes a reflective phase in which many

possibilities are examined and explicated reflectively. . . . [Researchers] imagine

possible structures of time, space, materiality, causality, and relationship to self

and to others. . . . [T]he researcher understands that there is not a single inroad to

truth, but that countless possibilities emerge that are intimately connected with the

essences and meanings of an experience. (p. 99)

Imaginative variation provides the creative and critical space for the variance of potential structural meanings lying just beneath textural meanings; the recognition of the underlying themes, accounting for the phenomenon; the consideration of the universal structures that may serve as the source of feelings and thoughts related to the phenomenon; and the search for examples illustrating fixed structural themes, which may assist with structural descriptions of the phenomenon (Moustakas, 1994, p. 99).

Synthesis, the fourth and final step of phenomenological research, “is the intuitive integration of the fundamental textural and structural descriptions into a unified statement of the essences of the experience of the phenomenon as a whole” (Moustakas, 1994, p.

100). Perhaps returning to the ideation of horizontalization described earlier with phenomenological reduction, Moustakas (1994) keenly explained that the essences—the substance that is common or universal—“of any experience are never totally exhausted”; instead, they represent “the essences at a particular time and place from the vantage point of an individual researcher” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 100).

Epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis served as the guide for conducting the post-interview work of the research process, providing the foundation for the researcher (a) to see and hear with an unhampered and revived perspective, (b) to place value to the conscious experience—the internal as well as the external, (c) to respect and honor what the researcher perceives, and (d) to embrace

92 emerging interrelated understandings (Moutakas, 1994, p. 100). Implementing

Moustakas’ (1994) teachings on phenomenological research provided structure for the analysis of the research data and contributed to the coding results emerging from the

NVivo11 qualitative data analysis software.

Participants

The participants in this study, women academically leading while rearing underage children, were drawn from a single Midwest urban community college. The

50-plus-year-old Achieving the Dream Leader and American Association of Community

Colleges (AACC) honored institution—offering AA, AS, and AAS degrees—serves a racially, culturally, and economically diverse student population just under twenty-five thousand on two campuses and at five regional centers in one of the nation’s largest cities. Home to several Fortune 500 companies, the city where the institution is located has been ranked nationally for its business and industry opportunities, which makes the school’s workforce development an essential component to its overall success. In close proximity with the numerical data reported earlier in the study but bearing some notable differences, the female student population, as of Autumn 2014, stood at 54.3%

(institution website), which was slightly lower than the national average of 57% for undergraduate women. Of the nearly 3,100 employees working at the college as of May

2016, 55% were female and 45% were male (institution’s Office of Institutional

Effectiveness), and while Lapovsky and Larkin’s (2009) White House Project Report cited females as 49% of faculty on national average, women made up 54.4% of the faculty at the institution. Further, women hold 59.1% of the executive/administrative/managerial positions.

The participants in this study were be made up of a convenient but purposeful sample of thirteen mothering academic leaders determined through criterion-based sampling. Because “[t]he researcher’s intent [wa]s to describe a particular context in depth”—academic women leading in the community college while mothering underage children—“not to generalize to another context or population” (Bloomberg & Volpe,

2012, p. 104), this was the most appropriate sampling method for this study. The women held (or formerly held) positions of leadership categorized into three subject areas: administrative leadership, faculty leadership, and student services leadership. The women were coordinators, directors, department chairs, and administrators, working in the community college environment, and mothers. To be selected for participation in the study, candidates had to meet the following criteria: (a) be a female employee of the community college, (b) serving or having served in a leadership capacity at the community college, and (c) in the process of rearing underage children. Table 3.1 provides the list of participants, the capacity with which they serve, and the number and ages of their children.

Participants were selected based on the researcher’s awareness of the participants’ position and the presence of children. The initial invite to participate was extended via one-on-one conversations, phone calls, or emails. One participant offered a potential candidate but from outside the environment. This lead was not followed up on. Another selected candidate provided three additional candidates: two fit the criteria, but the third did not. At the time that the non-selected participant held her department chair position, many years ago, her children were still home but had since started adult lives of their own. Women not currently immersed in the act of rearing underage children were not

94 considered for the study as the immediacy of the negotiations of leading while mothering may not be so vivid or raw to them, but this same restriction was not placed upon the act of leading. The reason for this difference lay in the researcher’s desire to understand if balancing the stress- and work-load of leading while mothering may have influenced the decision to no longer hold the leadership position. In this case, the women may have relinquished the leadership position after a brief occupancy.

Table 3.1

Demographics

Years Years at the in Degree Kid(s) Participant Title college position earned ages

Administrative leadership MA-1 VP 5 1 JD 15 MA-2 VP 1 1 PhD 14, 16 MA-3 Asst. to Pres. 8 2 MEd 10, 15 MA-4 Asst. to Pres. 10 3 BA 11, 13

Faculty leadership

MA-5 Dept. Chair 20+ 5 MA 12, 14,18 MA-6 FMR Int. Dept. Chair 16 <1 PhD 14 MA-7 Director 25 3 PhD 13, 14,16 MA-8 FMR Coord. 16 2 MA 6, 6, 16 MA-9 FMR Coord. 15 5 MA 10, 14 MA-10 FMR Int. Dept. Chair 17 3 MA 11, 15

Student services leadership

MA-11 Director 24 15 PhD 10 MA-12 Director 20+ 5 MA 9 MA-13 Director 10 5 PhD 11, 14

Note. Asst. to Pres. = Assistant to President; Coord. = Coordinator; FMR = Former; Int. Dept. Chair = Interim Department Chair; MA = Mothering Academic; VP = Vice President

Desired Research and Research Design

Desired research. Bloomberg and Volpe (2012) described four areas of information needed for qualitative studies: conceptual, perceptual, demographic, and theoretical. For this phenomenological study—exploring how the simultaneous roles of mothering and leading affected the professional development of academic women—the conceptual framework involved conceptual information in that the study was narrowed to the working environment of a specific community college, one thriving and reflecting the gendered leadership numbers reported in the literature. The conceptual framework involved the perceptual, for the participants were asked to describe how they perceived their roles and their professional development. Before the interviews commenced, the conceptual framework involved gathering demographic information. Participants were asked to complete a personal data sheet, asking for ethnicity and background, participant age and dependent children’s ages, highest degree attained, number of years at the college, current and prior positions, and career-oriented aspirations. Lastly, the conceptual framework included theoretical information, by maintaining an ongoing review of the literature.

Research design. The literature review of Chapter Two revealed that, while the female undergraduate student population across the country has grown to 57% and the female graduate student population to 59%, this growth has not been reflected in college and university leadership (Eddy & Cox, 2008; Knapp, Kelly-Reid, & Ginder 2011;

Lapovsky & Larkin, 2009). In fact, as Johns Hopkins University (2002) reported in its study, access to academic leadership for women is often impeded, and recent data on higher education corroborate this conclusion, reporting women are 23% of all the

96 presidents, 38% of chief academic officers or provosts, and 35.5% of academic deans

(King & Gomez, 2008). The community college, however, has been the site of a significant observation, one that marks a phenomenon that has gone remotely observed but largely unstudied: Women hold more leadership positions in this sector than in any other (King & Gomez, 2008). Of the limited research available, hypotheses for the anomaly range from the limited prestige of the institutions to the perception of its family- friendlier structures, but even in the community college, all is not perfect. A few questions of marginalization have risen in the existing literature. “In 2011, 56 percent of community college executive/administrative/managerial positions were women, but they comprised only 36 percent of college CEOs” (American Association of Community

Colleges (AACC), 2014, p. 1). Under other circumstances, perhaps this gender gap within two-year and four-year institutions would not be of such a great concern, but the leadership crisis that now stands at our academic doors renders this a significant issue.

AACC (2014) reported “[r]oughly three-quarters of community college presidents surveyed in 2012 indicated that they plan to retire within the next 10 years” (p. 1). That is 75% of leadership being torn from the top and taking with it organizational knowledge, institutional history, and professional and political savvy. Of the 1,108 community colleges in this country, this amounts to a loss of executive leadership at 831 institutions

(AACC, 2014, 2016). (Community colleges, just like the higher degree-granting institutions, will likely contend with an unfortunate aftermath if a significant portion of the next generation of leadership continues to go untapped and/or under-trained.)

Applying social role theory (Eagly, 1987) to the initiations of matricentric feminist theory (O’Reilly, 2013), the interrogation of feminist critical policy analysis

(Bensimon & Marshall, 1997), and the lived experiences of academic leaders mothering underage children, the conceptual framework for the study was used to guide the data analysis, interpretation, and synthesis phases of the research.

Instrumentation

For this qualitative phenomenological study, the research required gathering experiential accounts in the participants’ own words in order to explore how people understand and make meaning out of particular experiences and how people experience social institutions or cultural phenomena (Josselson, 2013). The data gathering was achieved primarily through the interviewing process. “An interview,” Josselson (2013) explained, “is a shared product of what two people—one interviewer, the other the interviewee—talk about and how they talk together” (p. 1). Even though this, the “co- construction of the interview” (Josselson, 2013, p. 1), might be judged less objectively and not embraced by quantitative researchers, the process captured what van Manen

(1990) emphasized: the commitment of the researcher, as well as the subject, to the world, and in the words of Husserl (1970), to the life-world. As Josselson (2013) further explained, “qualitative researchers recognize that reality is socially constructed and we have a part in creating [. . . ]; yet we aim, through interviewing, to learn something about what is beyond ourselves and our preexisting assumptions” (p. 1-2). “The aim of interviewing” and the reason for selecting the method for this study, “is to document people’s experience, self-understanding, and working models of the world they live in, so that we may later attempt to make meaning of these phenomena at levels of analysis beyond simple descriptions of what we heard” (Josselson, 2013, p. 2)

Before the analysis that Josselson (2013) described got underway, steps were implemented to ensure the most success for the interview. Bloomberg and Volpe (2013) directed researchers to carefully craft the interview questions, being sure to make tangible connections with the study’s research questions. This was achieved through the generation and on-going revision of 12-15 research question-related interview questions

(e.g. Describe what mothering means to you and how you fit in the role.); composition of probable responses or preliminary testing; and question reframing until the final questions or the interview protocol was composed.

After Institutional Research Board (IRB) approval, the researcher piloted the interview protocol with two candidates nearly fitting the criterion sample. One of the pilot study participants served at a different community college, and the other academic leader rearing underage children formerly served at the community college where the study took place. Based on their observations, the interview protocol underwent additional revisions drawing significantly closer to a final draft that best captured the intent of the study.

The interview protocol, shaped into an interview guide, was fine-tuned into a fixed number of open-ended questions, possessing the ability to encompass the specific five suggested by Creswell (2007). So, in the 60-90 minute semi-structured one-on-one interviews, which were audio-recorded and transcribed, the researcher allowed the actual happenings within the interview process to lead. The researcher had the critical space to ponder and adjust for such ruminations as the following: will the response to the first open-ended question suffice or are reiterations necessary to tease out additional experience?

The interview sessions were planned within each participant’s immediate work environment. In this way observations colud be and were drawn from the workspace and from the participant, while in the work space, as part of the triangulation process.

Photographing the setting also assisted with this. Though a separate observation protocol form was not used during the time of the interviews, accommodations for descriptive and reflective notes were made on the interview protocol form (Creswell, 2007). Further, participants were asked to complete personal data sheets before the interview and typed interviews were provided for member checking, asking the participants to go over the transcripts (Josselson, 2013), after the interview. Josselson (2013), however, did not recommend this last step; she reasoned that the accuracy sought after could not be achieved via this means and was of little interest to the interviewee. Josselson (2013) asserted, “The report that the researcher creates from the interview will represent ‘a truth’ rather than ‘the truth,’ and the researcher will assume interpretive authority for his or her understanding of the meanings of the interview material” (p. 178).

Analysis of Data

As this qualitative phenomenological study attempted—through the overlay of social role theory, matricentric feminist theory, and feminist critical policy analysis—an examination of women in the community college sector who hold positions of leadership while rearing underage children, the analysis employed qualitative hermeneutics as the methodological approach in an effort to gather the direct conscious descriptions of an experience as well as the underlying structures that comprise the experience. The initial move toward data analysis began with the formulation of the conceptual framework, which provided the conceptual link between the research problem, the literature review,

100 and the methodology chosen for the study (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2012). What this yielded, then, was theoretical clarification as well as “the theoretical and methodological bases for the development of the study and analysis of the findings” (Bloomberg and

Volpe, 2012, p. 89). Additionally, the conceptual framework guided the analysis of the data, while it became the foundation for the study’s coding legend or coding scheme

(Bloomberg and Volpe, 2012, p. 89). Based on the research problem, appearing in the form of non-reflective female numbers in the community college student population and administrative leadership, and the impending leadership crisis; the literature, primarily focused on completed studies and the selected theories for analysis; and the phenomenological hermeneutic methodology—the coding legend comprised

1. career and leadership,

2. mothering and family, and

3. institutional practices.

Further, this early framing for the study served as the a priori coding template (Fereday &

Muir-Cochrane, 2006) or pre-coding categories as the career and leadership theme covered the territory of the first research question, while the mother and family theme treated the second research question, and the third research question found its place in the theme institutional practices. This step, however, completed before the interviews and their transcriptions, adhered to the instruction of the epoche process and recognized the themes as pre-coding categories intended to guide the study not define its findings.

Nonetheless, these themes were set aside in the practice of bracketing once the analysis of participant narratives commenced.

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After data transcription, engagement of the texts or the interview protocols began with the coding process, which Saldaña (2013) defined as “a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data” (p. 3). The code served as “a researcher- generated construct that symbolizes and thus attributes interpreted meaning to each individual datum for later purposes of pattern detection, categorization, theory building, and other analytic processes” (Saldaña, 2013, p. 4). Moreover, the collected data of the first cycle or initial reading of the coding process “range[d] in magnitude from a single word to a full paragraph to an entire page of text [. . . ], while the data of the second cycle or later reading “can be exact units, longer passages of text, analytic memos about the data, and even a reconfiguration of the codes themselves developed thus far” (Saldaña,

2013, p. 3). The first cycle was completed by hand on Word document printouts of the transcripts, with coding and memoing written in the margins, before the electronic versions were uploaded to NVivo11 qualitative analysis software and the coding and reduction process continued. Within grounded theory analysis and representation,

Creswell (2007) identified the process as open coding and explained that it is the researcher’s search for relevant groupings or categories of information through examination and re-examination of the text. The analysis aimed for the saturation of each identified initial category and then towards manageable consolidation and reduction of the number of categories created, particularly as the coding process moved from first cycle coding to second and third cycles. Creswell (2007) provided as a numerical example a start of 30 categories narrowed to five or six. In an effort to demystify the coding process, Bloomberg and Volpe (2012) asserted “Much is made about coding.

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However, there is really nothing that mysterious about it” (p. 142). The scholars defined coding as a “a system of classification—the process of noting what is of interest or significance, identifying different segments of the data, and labeling them to organize the information contained in the data” (p. 142).

As the transcribed interview transcripts were read and re-read and read yet again, the researcher listened keenly for words and phrases that “call[ed] for bolding, underlining, italicizing, highlighting, or vocal emphasis if spoken aloud” (Saldaña, 2013, p. 92) ever mindful of in vivo—emic (inside the group) or verbatim coding worded in the direct language of the study participants. The use of in vivo honors the voices of the participants (Saldaña, 2013, p. 91) and grounds the study findings in their revealed reality. Creswell (2007) described in vivo coding as the “language of the participants” that guides “the development of code and category labels” (290).

What follows the coding, according to Bloomberg and Volpe (2012) is the reduction and analysis process, which “includes questioning the data, identifying and noting common patterns in the data, creating codes that describe your data patterns, and assigning these coded pieces of information to the categories of your conceptual framework” (p. 142). Fereday and Muir-Cochrane (2006) offered six stages of data coding, informed by the work of social phenomenologist Schutz. The stages included

1. developing the code manual

2. testing the reliability of the code

3. summarizing the data and identifying initial themes

4. applying the template of codes and additional coding

5. connecting the codes and identifying themes, and

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6. corroborating and legitimating coded themes (pp. 84-90)

Similarly, Creswell (2007) described the process through to completion of the analysis in the form of a data analysis spiral as pictured in Figure 3-1.

Though qualitative research depended on the researcher’s “insight, intuition, and impression,” the data analysis process, as a whole, was a “custom-built, revised, and choreographed” (Creswell, 2007, p. 150) series of interrelated and often simultaneously occurring steps involving data collection, data analysis, and report writing. The researcher implemented an adaptation of the steps informed by the research of Saldaña

(2013), Bloomberg and Volpe (2012), and Fereday and Muir-Cochrane (2006), and outlined in spiral form by Creswell (2007). After the triangulation of the transcribed audio-recorded one-on-one interviews, participant observations, and member checking and the aforementioned practice of first and second cycle coding (Saldaña, 2013)—the analysis process continued data managing; reading and memoing; describing, classifying, and interpreting; representing and visualizing. Once the researcher read and reread the data, adding memos—“short phrases, ideas, or key concepts” (Creswell, 2007, p. 151) and reflective notes from the margins on printed sheets to the electronic margins in the

NVivo11 qualitative data analysis software, the researcher “describe[d] in detail, develop[ed] themes or dimensions [. . . ] and provide[d] an interpretation” (Creswell,

2007, p. 151). Additionally, to ensure the validity of the devised coding, the researcher depended on inter-rater reliability, by seeking the assistance of three colleagues to review one of the interview transcripts and test its coding (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2012).

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Figure 3-1. Data analysis spiral for processing qualitative research data. Adapted from Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches, by J. W. Creswell, 2007, p. 151.

Lastly, in the analysis of the data, the researcher contemplated the dangers of excessive coding, for St. Pierre (2013) asserted:

I strongly advise my own doctoral students not to code data because I have seen

too many students, even those who’ve done their hard theoretical reading, become

exhausted after months of tedious coding and never do the theoretical analysis

they could. Their findings are pedestrian, and they produce low-level

insignificant themes; untheorized stories; or extended descriptions that do not get

to the intellectual problem of explaining why things are as they are. (470)

While the analysis process required an understanding of the text on a pedestrian level

(hermeneutics’ direct conscious description), it also required an understanding on a highly intuitive and cognitive level (hermeneutics’ description of the underlying structures). This prevented an analysis that was limited by a lack of depth. Still, St.

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Pierre’s (2013) words cast a pall of concern over the study, particularly when the scholar expressed, “[t]wenty years ago, I did not believe coding data was analysis, and I haven’t changed my mind. [. . . ] The positivism imbedded in qualitative research quickly fails— audit trails can’t capture that work, it can’t be triangulated, and it is never saturated (p.

470). Though at the heart of St. Pierre’s (2013) criticism was the disappointment of

“teach[ing] coding because we don’t know how to teach thinking” (St. Pierre, 2013), she argued that coding is “a relic from the positivist social science of the 1920s and 1930s when qualitative data were handled in a quasi-statistical fashion, when words were considered brute data, when it seemed best to treat words as numbers [. . .]” (p. 471).

Bazeley (2013) similarly noted this fear-based observation.

Ethical Issues

Protection of human subjects was of importance in this qualitative phenomenological study. The project received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval before any research-related interaction began with the participants. Further, each participant retained her autonomy and the ability to judge the risks for participating in the study.

Limitations and Delimitations of the Study

Limitations. The proposed study involved a single Midwestern urban community college, where the researcher is also employed, which may have produced some hesitancy with openness and transparency on the part of participants. Moreover, the researcher has a collegial connection with many of the women who participated in the study. Though epoche or bracketing (setting aside preconceived experiences) (Creswell,

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2007) was used in the study, the researcher is, also, an academic engaged in the practice of mothering underage children.

Delimitations. The study was made up of thirteen women in the community college setting holding positions of academic leadership while rearing underage children.

The participants were not representatives of the entire population, but because the study was phenomenological, its “intent [wa]s to describe a particular context in depth, not to generalize to another context or population” (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2012, p. 104). Its aim was not to measure though it is to reduce individual experiences to universal understandings (Creswell, 2007). The study excluded academic women leaders whose children were not underage dependents and it excluded women academic leaders without children. Also, because this study focused on gender, it did not compare and contrast mothering and leading observations based on race.

Summary

This chapter provided detailed information on the research methodology for this qualitative phenomenological study, providing first an overview of qualitative inquiry and the origins of phenomenology. Largely addressing how the intersectionality of academically leading while rearing underage children influenced professional development and advancement, the employed methodology illustrated the phenomenon.

The study was made up of 13 criterion-based, purposefully selected women from a single

Midwestern urban community college. Data were collected—via one-on-one interviews, participant observations, and member checking—and reviewed in light of existing literature.

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Chapter Four

Findings

Introduction

The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study was to contribute to the body of literature that documents the experiences of women in higher education, more specifically women in leadership in the nation’s community colleges. Few scholarly works have focused on this population of women. This fact, coupled with an imminent paradigm shift in community college leadership, led to the study, which explored the perceptions held by female community college administrators of the influence their rearing underage children had on their academic leadership. The researcher posited that a greater understanding of this phenomenon would assist in preparation for the next generation of leaders. Thus, the research questions framing the phenomenological study were

1. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their role as

academic leader?

2. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional

development?

3. What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of

influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional

advancement?

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Here, the title college administrator encompasses women in community college leadership holding executive and non-executive leadership positions.

This chapter presents the key findings acquired from 13 in-depth face-to-face participant interviews and data analysis completed with the use of NVivo11 qualitative data analysis software. However, before the chapter unfolds into its sections—(a) participant demographics, (b) data collection process, (c) pilot interviews, (d) data analysis process, (e) theme development, (f) research findings, and (g) summary—its major findings were as follows:

1. The majority of participants’ understanding of mothering (rearing underage

children) and their understanding of academically leading overlap; thus, the

qualities of mothering and the qualities of leading often reciprocally inform

each other.

2. The intersectionality of the roles of leading and mothering principally shape a

sense of identity for the majority of the participants.

3. The majority of participants concede limited access to professional

development.

4. The majority of participants did not find professional advancement within the

institution readily accessible under their current family status.

Participant Demographics

The participants in this study were a convenient but purposive sample of 13 women academically leading in a Midwestern community college while rearing underage children. The participants held positions of leadership categorized into three subject areas: administrative leadership, faculty leadership, and student services leadership.

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The women were coordinators, directors, department chairs, senior administrators, and mothers. Four of the thirteen women occupied administrative leadership roles: two vice presidents and two assistants to the president. Of the six women serving in faculty leadership, three held department chair positions, but only one remained in the position at the time of the interviews. The other three faculty leadership positions were made up of two coordinators and one director. Both coordinator positions had been relinquished at the time of the interviews. The three student services leadership positions were composed of three directors. At the time of the interviews, nine held their leadership roles, while four had returned to their former faculty positions. Table 3.1 provides the list of participants, the capacity with which they served, years of service with the college, years of service in position, highest degree earned, and ages of their children.

Data Collection Process

The data collection process included piloting two test interviews, conducting 13 in-depth core participant interviews, working with two transcription companies, editing the transcribed interviews, manually and NVivo11 coding transcripts, and analyzing the raw data. The data collection phase for the pilot participants covered a two-week span, while the collection phase for core participants took five weeks. The interviews ranged from 39 to 110 minutes, averaging 51 minutes. The uploading and retrieval process for the transcriptions covered a six-week period, and the editing took between two and ten hours, per transcript, based on the length of the interview, and ranged from 13 to 54 pages in text. The coding and analysis of the raw data stretched over a five-week period and required a week-long-accompanying NVivo11 webinar and several one-hour webinars to complete. The triangulation was accounted for through the pilot tests,

110 member checks, inter-rater reliability, and use of NVivo11 Qualitative Data Analysis

Software.

Pilot Interviews

Pilot interviews were administered to test early responses to the interview protocol and their (protocol and responses’) alignment with the research questions, theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and research and design strategies. The pilot testing ensured that any of the proceeding work would lend itself to applicable data. The approximately 30-minute long interviews became a crucial piece in evaluating research strategy and design. Interviews were conducted of two mothering academic leaders serving in community colleges—one as a former coordinator at the institution chosen for the site of the study and the other as chair of an academic department for nearly two years and, at the time of the interview, one month into the role of interim dean of the academic division at another institution. First, the pilot studies provided the means for recognition of the study’s descriptors. The pilot participants, both mothers of underage children, furnished potential codes and themes in their interviews, such as guilt, balance, multitasking, careers, influence, power or lack of power, opportunity, time management, primary caregiver, stress, and role modeling. The researcher’s assessment found their terms and expressions validating the first two categories of the a priori coding or coding legend—career and leadership and mothering and family. However, the third category institutional policies and practices did not seem to emerge so clearly, leading the researcher to wonder about the acuteness of the research questions and the effectiveness of the interview protocol. Further, the interview protocol seemed to provide little means for discussions specific to professional development and advancement, central to the

111 research questions, which might have explained their limited emergence in the responses of both participants. The pilot tests yielded that refinement and/or revisions were necessary for the research questions and the interview protocol.

Data Analysis Process

Merriam (2009) described the data analysis process as the search for patterns or

“recurring regularities” in the research data, through comparing, sorting, consolidating, reducing, and interpreting “what people have said and what the researcher has seen and read” in an effort to make meaning and identify responses to the posed research questions

(pp. 175-176). The scholar explained, “Data analysis is a complex process that involves moving back and forth between concrete bits of data and abstract concepts, between inductive and deductive reasoning, between description and interpretation” (Merriam,

2009, p. 176). The data analysis process for the study took its start by this means. The manual coding or first cycle coding (Saldaña, 2013) of hardcopy transcripts was transferred and edited (second cycle coding; Saldaña, 2013) in NVivo11 once electronically uploaded. The open coding process yielded 246 descriptors, which

“represent themes, topics, concepts, ideas, opinions or experiences” (QSR International,

2016, p. 24). The pre-coding categories or a priori coding—drawn from the deductive reasoning attributed to the research problem, literature review, theories under consideration, and the pilot studies (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2012)—provided (a) mothering and family, (b) career and leadership, and (c) institutional practices and policies.

However, not all of the early descriptors slipped so readily under those headings and other categories began to emerge or were so prominent under one coding category they warranted a category of their own. The inductive reasoning implemented during the

112 cataloguing process eventually yielded—in addition to the pre-coding categories or

NVivo nodes—intersections, identity, and work and family balance. Through the axial coding process, the researcher grouped related nodes together, eventually yielding six subcategories or subnodes for career and leadership, five for identity, six for institutional practices and policies, and nine for intersections, while reducing mothering and family and work and family balance to three subnodes each. These subcategories or subnodes began the formulation of node hierarchies, which, according to QSR International (2016),

“is an important part of the analytical process” as it refines ideas, draws connections, and uncovers potential themes (p. 26).

Theme Development

Theme development started with the researcher’s construction of the conceptual framework. The assessment of the literature, theories under consideration, research questions, and research methodology yielded deductive coding or a priori coding in the form of three pre-coding categories: (a) career and leadership, (b) mothering and family, and (c) institutional policies and practices. Inside the qualitative data analysis software

NVivo11, these categories served as the starting “nodes” for the analysis. Table 4.1 provides a comparison between NVivo11’s terminology and standard qualitative analysis research terms.

While the analysis of the 13 interview transcripts in NVivo11 validated the first two categories of the coding legend—career and leadership and mothering and family, institutional policies and practices minimally arose. The researcher made the discoveries during the reducing, reorganizing, and merging of the 246 identified first cycle codes into

NVivo11 “nodes.” The inductive coding, implemented during this cataloguing process,

113 yielded (a) intersections, (b) identities, and (c) work and family balance as additional categories. Table 4.2 gives a visual representation of the categories-in-progress as well as the subnodes (the second tier of the hierarchal coding structure) collected, merged, and renamed within each node. Intersections and identities had been very prominent subnodes categorized under the node mothering and family. In fact, analysis revealed their transcript references were more significant than those of work and family balance.

Additionally, during the reflecting and interpreting process, the researcher discovered the significance of the subnodes professional advancement and professional development.

The emergence and relatedness of these two subnodes prompted the need for an additional category or node: professional access. With these observations in mind and consideration given over to the study’s research questions, the researcher identified the study’s emergent themes as (a) career and leadership, (b) mothering and family, (c) identity and the intersectionality of identities, and (d) professional access.

Table 4.1

Coding Terms and Meanings

Creswell (2007) NVivo11 (2016) Meaning

Themes or categories Themes large groupings for containing related units of data

Codes or categories Nodes (parent nodes) data reduced into meaningful units

Subcategories Subnodes (child nodes) smaller units of data contained within a node

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Table 4.2

Coding Categories in NVivo11

Node Subnodes (category) (subcategories)

Career and Leadership academic leadership, career, certain stage, performance, professional advancement, professional development

Identities “how do you do it?,” identity, office- space, sense of self, “with child”

Institutional culture and practices institutional knowledge, culture, practices, policies

Intersections academic agenda, evening routine, examples, experience-informed action, one-informing-the-other, personal/professional, role conflict, transferable skills, two callings

Mothering and family family, mothering, mother skills

Work/family balance balance, flexibility, time

The themes career and leadership, mothering and family, and identity and the intersectionality of identities provided the findings for Research Question One. The findings for Research Question Two and Research Question Three were embedded in the theme professional access. Table 4.3 provides a synopsis of the research questions, emergent themes, and key terms.

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Table 4.3

Research Questions, Emergent Themes, and Key Terms

Emergent themes Key terms

RQ1: What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of the influence of their role as mother of underage on their role as academic leader?

Career and leadership, academic leadership, certain stages, Mothering and family, and evening routine, experience-informed Identity and the intersectionality action, how do you do it?, identity, of identities mothering, office space, one informing the other, performance, role conflict, sense of self, two callings, “with child”

RQ2: What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional development?

Professional access professional development

RQ3: What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional advancement?

Professional access professional advancement

Note. RQ = research question

Findings for Research Question One

Research Question One asked: What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their role as academic leader? In answer to the question, the data analysis yielded two significant responses. First, the majority of participants’ understanding of mothering (rearing underage children) and their understanding of academically leading

116 overlap, thus the qualities of mothering and the qualities of leading reciprocally inform each other. Second, the intersectionality of the roles of leading and mothering principally shape a sense of identity for the majority of the participants. What follows in this section is a discussion of these findings.

One informs the other. As the first finding to Research Question One revealed, when the majority of the participants in the study described their role of leading, (a) they used language and expression similar to that posed in their descriptions of their role of mothering; (b) they often expressed implementation of the same practices as those they employed in their role of mothering; and (c) they recounted explicit moments of intersection with the role of mothering.

Language and expression. When the majority of the participants in the study described their role of leading, they used language and expression similar to that posed in their descriptions of their role of mothering. For example, two of the participants spoke of their leading and mothering roles in revered language. One pronounced the love she has for her children and her children, themselves, as agape love—the unconditional love that God has for humanity. She explained:

I don’t have every day with my girls anymore and have them half of the week

when I’m used to having them all the time. . . . So, my -- I have to pay more

attention to what I do in those hours [with them] and agape love becomes

increasingly important. . . . I have to be really mindful about how I invest in them

and what I realized is what became most important is not turning parenting of

them into task lists but loving them because I love them. Loving them because the

experience that we have, I always have it. What’s always been there is a love

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because they are love to me, you know. . . . I can just look at them and love them

because they are love to me.

The participant’s heightened awareness of her mothering followed a divorce; work- related crises, partly evidenced in the change in her office space from private and on the most active and visible side of the campus to semi-private and on the less active and visible side; and a more committed practice of religious faith. The second of the two participants using revered language to depict childrearing and academic leading described her children as a gift, and the love she has for them as “no-holds-barred communal love.”

Both participants identified their mothering and leading in overlapping ways, one demonstrating with her hands—the left atop the right. One of the women suggested she was “raising students” just as she was “raising children” and called her dual roles of service “a calling.” She expressed:

This is -- I truly believe this is a calling. This is not a job for me. It is hard wired

into who I am. So, when I think about the commonality, this means being a

mother and the job or the calling that I have here, it's about education and impact.

. . . Not many people get to have jobs or careers like that. And I made peace with

the fact, a long time ago, that I am a working mother.

I could work and could have worked in a community college or an institution of

higher education forever and not been a vice president. I could have made a

choice to not, you know, get in that level of intensity. So when I talk about choice,

that's what I -- I always -- I'm not wired to not work. And I'm not wired to not

have kids, so very fortunate and blessed in that way.

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This participant’s word choice (“a calling,” “a gift,” and “blessed”) resonated reverence.

The other, who identified herself as “highly empathetic,” as a “rock,” and as a college- appointed advocate and activist—readily bearing the stories, discord, and grief of students and employees—crafted (whether intentionally or unintentionally) a messianic- like image in her description of self, and her suffering was quite apparent. Still, she spoke of the advocacy and activism in her leadership role serving first and foremost her girls. She explained of both her leading and mothering roles:

I have the privilege of serving in a leadership capacity which essentially means I

get to go meetings where other people don’t get to go to. Or I get access to spaces

that other people don’t get access to. How dare I know the story about people and

not share them in those spaces? And how dare I have survived things that I’ve

survived and then be in a meeting where I know we’re talking about somebody’s

life that’s turned into minutes or turned into data points. How dare I not share the

story, so the responsibility is far greater than the title.

None of the social justice stuff matters if they don't know that. So this means then

that I've made this turnaround and more conscious effort of remembering that I'm

a mother first and that my greatest advocate and my greatest activism is for

Cooper and Paris. And then the world comes after.

Three participants related their experiences to the act of “growing a child.” One participant in particular, with a gentle voice and meek demeanor, explained eight different times in her 51-minute interview the importance of teaching her daughters how to listen and be heard, while she emphasized how leadership meant “having a seat at the table and making sure that you’re heard. That you have a voice.” Another described

119 nurturing the willingness of her daughter and the willingness of her students toward their own determined growth and development. Still another participant intimated that

“cultivating talent and high standards” in her son was indicative of the “individual cultivation that helps the institution move forward.” Four of the participants specifically referenced “growing people” in the same context as “growing children,” the former referring to students and subordinates. One participant recounted a conversation shared with a staff member: “You’re not growing because I know it. I need you to grow. I need you to understand -- what things can you do differently to improve performance?”

Another participant similarly confided: “I’m all about, how are you growing through this experience?”

Same practices. When several of the participants in the study described their role of leading, they often expressed implementation of the same practices as those they employed in their role of mothering. Three participants stated how they handled their students and staff with the same care they would extend to their children. One participant explained: “I feel like a mom to the students as much as I do my own kids.” This thought was substantiated soon after it was spoken when an unannounced student arrived during the interview process. The mothering academic did not so quickly dismiss the student; instead she stood with a broken leg, hobbled over to the office door, and hugged him. A second participant explained how she weighed situations and her reaction to them for the benefit of her daughter and her employees. She said:

But if it’s a situation with any of the topics and matters that happen on campus,

I’m always thinking about “What is my daughter going to learn from this? What

is my staff going to see?” And so I always try to take the high road to make sure

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that I’m educating, but I’m also maintaining my own professional and personal

views for the sake of my daughter.

The third participant rhetorically asked: “What would I want to have for my child? You know, I would want that for my staff members.” This participant lavished her office and surrounding community space with the words “peace,” “love,” “believe,” and “joy” mounted conspicuously for her staff members’ viewing. In the break room, labeled Café de le PAIX (French for peace), her bulletin board showcased employee-of-the-month photos honoring her team’s accomplishments and encouraging continued success. She confided how this small act of praise or the need to create a nurturing space she would have never provided when she was childless. She said of her past behavior: “I was never really that concerned about how people felt, you know. You got to do your job. You just need to do it, you know.”

Five of the participants conveyed how the labor of leading and instilling values went with them between work and home settings. One participant reported: “You are a leader twenty four seven. You are a leader at your house, you are a leader at your job, and so you are constantly honing that skill from both perspectives.” Another proffered:

“the priority of my work is also a priority that is reflected in my home.” Likewise, a third participant explained: “the values are pretty much the same, and so respect, integrity, things like that are the kind of values --accountability, excellence, those are my key values -- and so I bring that from my mothering into how I lead here at the institution.”

And, a fourth participant shared: “I believe that it is a complete myth, complete farce that we can separate personal and professional. . . . I'm like a conduit between these two

121 spaces.” Another participant captured the inseparable sense of the personal and professional with her use of the team approach. She explained:

I learned so much every day and use what happened here at this institution, my

previous institutions and try to apply it at home and vice versa, right? So, when

we're here and we're problem solving, you know, together, no one person has all

the answers and so we really try, we're not perfect at it. You know, we really try

to come out of it from a team approach. So, I tried really hard, it's not always, it's

a different dynamic but I tried really hard to take that same approach. I'm not

trying to live their lives for them. This isn't my high school we're going to, this

isn't my, you know, this is, it's their lives. So, then how do we take some of what

we do in higher education in the classroom and outside the classroom in terms of

students support and how can I then use that with my kids? It doesn't always

work, as I think I've said to you before, you know, they can be snarky at times and

they have that thing that, you know, "We don't have to change the world every

single day and stop using your higher education stuff on me," you know, and

that's, all of that could happen. So, but, the result of that is they really have

fostered a kind of problem solving and thinking for themselves. So, when we're at

the dinner table, which doesn't happen a lot but we really try, when we're at the

dinner table we really talk about the issue in similar ways that we would talk

about them like in the classroom, right? And I think we just have a wonderful gift

working in education and we then inherently can prepare our own kids to be part

of that, you know, part of the world beyond, you know, their lives now, because

we live and breathe it every day.

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Three participants revealed the sheer influence of their mothering on all aspects of their lives, including their leader selves. One participant remarked:

So me being a parent inform[s] almost everything that I do because I serve always

as a caregiver. But to me, whenever I'm in a space, I'm never not in a space of

Cooper and Paris’s mom. So, I'm bringing all my identities consciously into the

space I'm in.

Likewise, a second participant professed, “This is my most important job that I could ever have. Everything I do, every choice I make is informed by I’m a mother.” What should be noted in this participant’s practice is the underlying precept of mothering that is revealed in her approach to leadership. She further explained:

sometimes leadership is what’s in the front and sometimes leadership is the legs

of the stool or the support or the foundation of a whatever structure or -- and so

for me my comfort with leadership is always supporting the people that need the

support.

The data analysis revealed that seven of the 13 participants associated the act of support as a function of mothering, while three of the participants discussed support within the context of their leadership, as illustrated here. On the presence of mothering within her leadership, the third participant who expressed the influence of mothering on all aspects of her being similarly remarked: “I am the mother of three children and it is my primary identity. . . . It determines much of what I do . . . how I live my life . . . how I see myself kind of existing in the world.” The participant’s acceptance of this reality has bolstered her functionality within the workspace, particularly during the times when she has been met with difficulties from faculty. She stated:

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being a mom keeps me from losing my mind because . . . whatever happens here

at work, I’ll get through it, you know. My kids are safe, they’re healthy, they’re

smart. And, so I know that I’m -- I’m good, you know, that I’ve done good and

that I’m doing good, you know, so that’s kind of like my reality check. I’m all

right.”

The participant asked that some of the specific detail spoken about during this section of the interview not be recorded; however, she clearly conveyed how her children served as support for her after difficult engagements on the job. Moreover, she measured her success not by her performance in the office, but by her performance with her children.

Intersecting moments. When the majority of the participants in the study described their role of leading, they often recounted moments of intersection with the role of mothering. Overall, 10 of the 13 women identified times when the practices of mothering positively influenced their leading. For instance, four detailed their children serving in helping capacities—as a listening ear, respite from the difficulties of leading, or team players offering perspective. These were usually participants with older children, those in high school. Two participants respectively explained:

I get to go home to my family and that keeps me sane -- so, I can turn it off. I can

-- I can turn it off. I can turn off what happens here. . . . And, I think if I had to

go home and --and I didn’t have kids, I didn’t have people needing me for other

reasons, it’d be really -- really hard not to just need some meds.

We operate as a team—Hank, Faith, and I. And so, I often would, you know,

without giving away confidentiality or whatever, I'll say, "Okay, so what do you

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think? What do you think about this situation at work?" And conversely I ask my

colleagues at work. So, I'm going through this situation like mine and so what

ends up happening is work and life blend and for me personally, it doesn't always

work for everyone, but for me personally, it's just this constant learning laboratory

and one informs the other.

Several of the participants claimed raising children provided a human element to their leadership that might have gone missing otherwise. One participant said: “the fact that my team perceives me as motherly, laugh and talk and have time with Ivy, and still make them equally as important when I need to, lets them know that I’m here and that I have a heart.” Two participants respectively recalled:

Humans are not widgets. You can't engineer them down to a certain tolerance and

expect a certain performance. They are humans. So we are constantly scenario

planning. So, it’s been a mixed bag. I'm certain I am not perfect at it. I've just

tried to be honest and say it's a bad day, my kids are sick, but I've also tried to

have a commitment that says if I'm in a position to understand that when it

happens to other people, then I'm not going to say "Well, I don't care you have to

be here."

I had a mentor who shared with me she could always tell when leaders had

children or not. In terms of how they lived, and I say she was absolutely right

with that because I think that there is a difference in terms of really listening and

making sure that people are heard and making sure that there is a level of

flexibility, I guess is probably the word I’m looking for, when you’re interacting

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as a leader. And so you’re not so stringent that it’s my way or the highway or,

you know, it’s black and white. That you understand as a leader and as a parent

that there [are] some things that aren’t black and white, and so and even if they

are black and white, you’ve got to find some gray in there . . . .

Reflecting on earlier behavior, another participant similarly saw her inflexibility, the being strictly driven by the black and white, as a problem quickly remedied by her dealings with her children. She explained:

When I started here, I did things a certain way because those were the rules . . . .

When the administrator made a decision that wasn’t within those rules, it was an

exception, I was frustrated, but now I am the administrator and now I see why

those exceptions were made and I realize it is because he thought about the

person.

All 13 of the participants described a moment or moments when mothering intersected negatively with academic leading. Among their observations, they included tales of illness, childcare blunders, missed games or missed meetings, and the changing emotional needs of their child or children. One participant recounted, with both laughter and a sense of guilt, having her feverish son sleep underneath her desk as she worked.

These negative intersections, the participants did not necessarily count as influences upon their leadership; however, two of the remaining three participants—those in the previous observation whom did not suggest that the presence of children overall positively influenced their leadership—clearly described their children as having a negative impact upon their academic leading. One participant confessed, “it is hard to state the negative, but it [being a mother] inhibits your ability to become one hundred percent committed to

126 your position.” And, after explaining how her children sometimes served as

“distractions,” though “delightful,” the second participant stated: “it wasn’t all that often, but it certainly, you know, every -- a few times a semester where it [mothering] would interfere.”

Intersectionality of roles shaping identity. When the majority of the participants discussed their leading within the context of mothering, nearly all of them shared expressions of identity in their perceptions of self and in their interactions with others from an inwardly reflective or outwardly reflective perspective. Further, they projected common representations in the reconciliation of those identities.

Expressions from within. Most of the participants discussed expressions of identity in their perceptions of self and in their interactions with others from an inwardly reflective perspective. For instance, one participant said mothering is the “essence of who I am, and if I am true to who I am as a -- as an individual, that leadership piece I see is kind of secondary . . . , but it’s still a part of my being.” Two participants who had withdrawn from their leadership roles leaned in the direction of a sharper critique. One of the women confided: “I am not doing it [working in higher education] for a paycheck.

I am doing this because of passion and so I was very conflicted in the leadership role.”

The other spoke of similar conflict brought about by doubt in her identities:

I don’t think that anybody ever thought, you know, when I was in that leadership

position, if things didn’t happen the way they should. I always felt very conscious

with, if things weren’t going well, it must be because I can’t handle the parenting

end.

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Another participant shared her leadership identity specifically within the context of her children. She said:

They get to support me as a leader because that's part of what they respect the

most about me. They've only known me as a leader. They have no recollection of

me in any kind of middle management. They've only known me to lead. They've

only known me to lead. Their only expectation for me is leading.

This participant’s thoughts were deeply personal and self-reflective. It was though she had not spoken them aloud; it was as though she had thought them only and in an effort to convince herself not to depart from her children’s perception of her identity. And, the experiences that she shared during the interview, often innocuous on their own, collectively made departure appear as though imminent.

This commonly held awareness of the role of leading in their personal lives was particularly prominent since six of the participants referenced the importance of being perceived as a person within the leadership role. In fact, one participant explained the need to be seen as multilayered and human. She admitted during the interview, as she does in her interactions with colleagues: “before I'm a vice president, I'm a person and before I'm a person or, you know, that behind that I am a person – individual -- I'm a mom and we all deal with the same issues.” Another participant discussed her regard for how she presents herself through her leadership, explaining: “So I see that influence in a shorter way could go to -- that it influences also making sure that people see and hear the genuine me.” These women appeared to engage in an ongoing process of inward self- reflection and examination as it concerned the roles they assume.

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External expressions. Several other participants talked about the expression of identity in the perception of self and in their interactions with others more externally than internally, as the previous examples demonstrated. What these women noted was the emergence of a relatable self in their leadership because of the presence of children that hinged on understanding. Of her pre-child behavior toward her employees, one participant explained:

So now, here I have a nine-year-old. I didn’t understand being late. I did not

understand not having backup childcare because you just do it. Because

remember, my workload was, all I had to take care of was me and I had it in

order. So I was all, “If you have a child, then you should have backup care! You

make a baby, you be responsible. You have backup care.”

Experiencing change in the expansion of her family ushered in visible changes in her behavior. Where once this participant described her professional performance as “every

‘i’ dotted and every ‘t’ crossed,” in that description’s place now stood something a little less perfect, a little less unyielding. She reported: “having children has softened me tremendously.” A second participant described a similar change:

I became more understanding of the priorities of parents, uh, even within my

workplace. So I don’t think I was ever intolerant, but I was maybe less aware, less

sympathetic and then once I became a mother -- I then -- I realized, yeah this is

the part, this is why you go to work and want to take care of your children and so

now as an academic leader if somebody has a sick child or if somebody is sick

themselves and they have a sick child because that is the worst thing ever -- I can

be not just sympathetic, I can be empathetic. I know what that is like and so when

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you can bring that to the table, I think your employees know, people around you

know, you can have a heart along with your job and if you don’t have that you

really don’t garner a whole lot of respect either.

This participant found in her leadership practices what another participant aptly articulated: she possessed the ability to “be a more understanding supervisor.” A fourth participant remarked: “there is a sense of compassion and understanding that you develop by being a mother that you can infuse into being an academic leader,” while a fifth discovered a strength within her leadership amidst so many places where she found fault. Recognizing the commonality of children between herself and her staff members, she reported:

It was a way we [supervisors and subordinates] could identify with each other . . .

. So if something came up . . . in relation to their own parenting, it was easier for

me to understand and work with somebody because I was in their shoes as well.

Interestingly, another participant intentionally used her identity as mother to benefit her leadership role. She explained: “I always look for opportunities to talk about my kids and ask people about their kids. And, that seems to put you in -- in a relationship that you might not have had otherwise to address other things.”

Expressions of reconciliation. In addition to the observations about identity in the participants’ perceptions of self and interactions with others, the data analysis revealed how the women projected a reconciliation of mothering and leading identities.

Three representations of intersecting identities surfaced in the analysis process: (a) before-and-after with child(ren), (b) pivotal moment with child(ren), and (c) ever-present child(ren).

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Before-and-after with children. In the before-and-after with children representation, participants assessed their professional performance as distinctly influenced by the presence of children. Three of the four study participants having worked at the institution for more than twenty years recited transformative experiences in their work. One participant described the influence of her child upon her leading as the

“opening of her heart, mind, and rigidity.” She related:

What Ross has done is made me a much more patient and not such a high strung

leader. Anyone who’s been here with me for the 15 years that I have been

registrar, will tell you how much I have changed. First of all, when I started this

position I felt that I could not make one mistake. I had to be perfect. I just had to

be perfect. That means in order for my operation to be perfect, the rest of you

guys need to be perfect, and if you weren’t then you had serious problems --

serious problems. I was a very rigid -- very rigid supervisor, and, you know, if

someone made a mistake it was big, even if it wasn’t a big thing. So once he

came along, well obviously I couldn’t do what I used to do and things were no

longer perfect anymore. And I just -- I couldn’t be perfect because I had all of

this extra stuff added to my world, and I think about, you know, one person in our

department. . . . She would just tell you, you know, she [the participant referenced

self in the voice of subordinate co-worker] was like the general, you know. And I

look back, I was. Now I’m not, and also I don’t expect myself to be perfect

because I’m not perfect. Now that doesn’t -- that doesn’t stop me from achieving

excellence. Excellence and perfection are two different things. You know, but

yeah, that’s a bit much. Also just the overall joy and the opening of your heart.

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Another participant, a long-time employee and a student services leader just as the previous, also narrated her before-and-after experience:

It’s made me a lot more patient. I even say to my staff, “It’s a good thing you

know me post-Ivy versus pre-Ivy, oh my god!” Before Ivy, I was really rigid.

Everything had order, everything was step one, two, three, four, five.

A Pivotal Moment with Children. Though the pivotal moment experienced by four of the study participants could be identified as as transformative as the before-and- after with children experience, this moment marked the dawning or the abrupt awareness of the change in their identities and its onset occurred at the time of childcare incident.

One participant related:

I was at my job working and I called my husband at that time and said, “I can't

pick up Hank from daycare. I got too much to do,” and he said, “I can't pick up

Hank from daycare, I got too much to do.” So I thought, Well someone's got to

pick up Hank, and I thought, Holy crap! What am I doing?

A second participant sadly told a similar story, but on her day, she and her husband, having miscommunicated with each other, neglected to pick up their son at the appointed time. It was not until a call from the childcare center that they were made aware of the error. While a third woman regrettably recounted ten hour days in childcare for her twin toddlers, a fourth confessed the moment of intense guilt for taking a sick child to childcare for the sake of a meeting. A fifth mothering academic’s awareness may not have occurred in the immediacy of the event, but she pointed out how “one of the greatest injustices” she committed in her parenting was assuming that her girls would understand

132 how “I almost didn't get you on time from picking you up from Latchkey, but it's because

I was talking with a student about this thing that's really important.”

Unlike the other women in the study, one participant’s pivotal moment in childcare occurred just before she stepped fully into leadership. The woman recalled:

I was working part time. I felt like I was always rushing around like trying to get

as much work done as I could and then rushing to pick them up and then rushing

to take them home. When I started rushing to pick them up from school

[aftercare] and they were like: "I want to stay and play. We got to leave?" I'm like

I can work full time.

She had already been working at the institution but under the status of consultant when her freeing moment occurred.

Ever-Present Children. Nine of the participants identified their children as being present during the entire length of their leadership experience. One participant reported,

“I've always worked while I’ve had kids. I've always worked in a managerial or supervisory and then into a campus leadership position when I've had kids.” Struggling for a pre-child frame of reference, another participant shared, “I’ve always been a mother like I -- when I got married, my child was already present, you know. So, and, I’m trying to think before then, how did I see myself?” Though a third participant recounted working professionally for four years before her son was born, because her “window was really so short in the work world before having a child,” she remarked, “I’ve just started off as a leader with a child.” Further, she described her leading and raising her son as managing twins.

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On occasion, a mothering academic’s narrative fell into more than one of the three representations—before-and-after with child(ren), pivotal moment with child(ren), and with ever-present child(ren)—as shown in Table 4.4. However, in all three, the women projected a reconciliation of mothering and leading identities.

Table 4.4

Reconciliation of Mothering and Leading Identities

Representations with children

Participant Before-and-after Pivotal moment Ever-present

MA-1 x x MA-2 x x MA-3 x MA-4 x MA-5 x MA-6 x MA-7 x MA-8 x MA-9 x MA-10 x MA-11 x MA-12 x x MA-13 x

Note. MA = Mothering Academic.

Findings for Research Question Two

Research Question Two asked: What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional development? The data analysis found that the majority of participants concede limited access to professional development. While they, without hesitance, declared the opportunities before them, they reluctantly acknowledged their personal difficulties in accessing those opportunities. For instance, institutional funding

134 may be available, but time is a rarer commodity. The participants identified professional development in the form of research, publication, mentorships, workshops, conferences, certifications, or the completion of terminal degrees. Of the 13 participants, their responses indicated one of four classifications for professional development: (a) full access, (b) limited access, (c) hopes for future access, or (d) self-determined access.

Table 4.5 provides an overview of participant placement.

Full access. Three participants indicated open access to professional development. One had recently completed her doctorate degree. A second reported earning nine degrees and in the process of completing another. The third was new to the institution and filled with visions of possibility. When she spoke of her candidacy, she remarked:

And so, when this position . . . became available, I was honored enough to

interview and extremely honored to have been selected as a candidate, so that’s

how I’m here. But having said that, the reason I'm here in a vice presidential work

is because all throughout my career, different people have invested in me in

different ways. And so, it's now my opportunity to do that with others.

What the previous participate revealed in her discourse, aside from her desires toward reciprocity, was the professional development she had achieved through partnerships with mentors.

Limited access. Seven of the 13 participants expressed limited access to professional development, and they attributed this inaccessibility largely to the lack of time, childcare, and energy. Only one participant stated emphatically that children and the responsibilities associated with them were the primary barriers to her professional

135 development—though other participants hinted at this in the subtext of their responses.

For instance, one woman talked about the burden of her child’s ADHD, another discussed the impact of her child’s grief (associated with the death of a loved one) upon her performance at work, and still another disclosed the therapeutic effort she exerted to help her child back from the pain of trauma. Thus, the projected sentiment attached to the limited access ranged in spectrum. One participant, for example, merely commented:

“My opportunities are local.” Another said matter-of-factly: “Having the children limits what you can do professionally.” And a third explained: “obviously we have benefit of, you know, professional development. Just those type of benefits, I can’t take advantage of them. I’m going -- I can do day long things. Things that are in [names location], but I can’t go anywhere, and so I -- so there you go.” Sometimes, though, the inflection of their words or their body language—illustrated in the quick darting of their eyes, stiffness in their bodies, or a broken gaze—bore the residue of disappointment, controlled anger, or resigned acceptance. Three participants respectively remarked:

So that has always been for me the rub of trying to find that perfect timing to do

things, and I know that there’s nothing that is going to be perfect that to make

sure you have a balance of I’m getting some professional development for myself.

I’m still maintaining my responsibilities as a mother, you know, wife, leader -- all

of those, but when is there time for me to say, okay. I’m ready to take another

leap . . . ?

There are a lot of things that I would love to do. I love -- every time I see these

conferences, I would love to go. When I think about finishing my PhD, I would

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love to do it. . . .[B]ut I don’t have the time.

I would say there are times when I just can't go to that networking event in the

evening or I can't do the board whatever or fly off for a professional development,

here. I have to be really strategic with that because I have an under-aged child.

Hope for future access. One participant clearly experienced the same sense of frustration as the women encountering limited access to professional development, yet she remained hopeful about future access. She cheerfully stated:

I feel like I -- I have to wait like I’ll be able to do that once they’re out the house

because I’m not really able to do the reading that I want to do and do the writing

that I want to do, but I think it’s all just delayed, but I’m taking notes along the

way.

References to faith, serving perhaps as the source of her hope, emerged in this participant’s talk about her leadership. She explained: “I’m probably more attentive to what it means to be a Christian than I -- than I was before I came into this office. I really had to rely on my faith to maintain the role.” Her encounters with subordinates and superiors, she explained as being exceptionally challenging, but it is the genuineness with which she spoke the following that illustrates her belief in future opportunities. She confided:

. . . this kind of goes back to my faith. I feel like I’m being prepared for

something else and I don’t know what it is yet, but from what I can see, every

time I get through a hurdle, I’ve learned something or I’ve grown . . . .

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Self-determined access. The remaining two participants claimed access to professional development of their own and not the scripted path of development determined by their current position, the institution, or even higher education. They both had their own unique vision for what was next for them.

Findings for Research Question Three

Research Question Three asked: What are the perceptions held by female community college administrators of the influence of their role as mother of underage children on their professional advancement? The data analysis yielded that, while all of the participants acknowledged the opportunity for professional advancement within the institution, the majority did not find professional advancement readily accessible to them while they raised underage children. Starting with their current status, four were no longer in their leadership role and five had settled, sometimes uncomfortably, into the positions that they held. Three of the remaining four participants, seeming to possess a greater drive toward upward mobility within the institution, were calculating the next steps required for that progression, and one appeared to have concerns, but not necessarily ambitions, that stretched far beyond the institution and her role in it. Their take on their future leadership positions, however, revealed surprising results. Of the 13 participants, their responses indicated one of five classifications for the status of their professional advancement: (a) no plans, (b) inhibited, (c) postponed, (d) in preparation, or (e) in progress.

No plans. When the study’s participants discussed the influence of their role as mother on their professional advancement and how they negotiated their future leadership positions, four indicated no plans at all. One participant threw up her arms during the

138 interview process and weightlessly exclaimed: “No plans.” Further, she has not kept this absence of a plan from her children. She explained:

I don't have a plan and it's the most rested I have ever felt, and I'm not worried

about what it looks like. I'm designed to be resilient. I'm designed to think big.

I'm designed to lead passionately, and I'm okay with that. Like whatever God

says, I’m good. I have no idea, and the girls know that I have no idea and they're

down. So, what better way, what more honorable way to lead than that?

Table 4.5

Access to Professional Development

Hopes for Self- Limited future determined Participant Access access access access

MA-1 x MA-2 x MA-3 x MA-4 x MA-5 x MA-6 x MA-7 x MA-8 x MA-9 x MA-10 x MA-11 x MA-12 x MA-13 x

Note. MA = “Mothering Academic.”

Another participant went into similar detail, sharing both her professional and her personal states and her arrival at peace:

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I spent the year of 2015 just wishing things were different. You know, wishing

that I could do things that I used to do or what I thought I wanted to do and

realizing that I couldn’t and then I spent all of 2016, you know, going through the

process of accepting my life. Accepting how things are.

Interestingly, both of these participants experienced divorces and changes in the time spent with their children shortly before the assumption of the no-plans status. One became the full custodial parent because of the ex-husband’s relocation to another part of the country and the other gained the unfamiliarity of new living space and days without her girls.

The other two participants within this classification provided circuitous non- answers or hunched shoulders when approached about future leadership plans.

Inhibited. While the findings for the influence of the role of mother on professional advancement revealed a small degree of overlap—some of the participants exhibiting more than one classification, four clearly expressed being inhibited. One participant, in particular, admitted:

I didn’t feel like I had the ability to be -- you know to stay in a leadership

position. I felt like I had to come back to faculty or risk career suicide. It was a

gamble. It was too much of a gamble, way too much of a gamble for me to stay

in this position . . . .

I would love to have a different job whether it be here . . . or at a different

institution, but . . . I feel like I am inhibited in my movement to pursue anything

else because I have to get them [the children] through school before I ever think

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about going to a further place.

Two of the participants spoke specifically about silence and its use as an inhibitor.

For one it remained the underlying theme as she repeatedly discussed the need to hear and be heard in leadership and the need for her daughters to possess voice. The other participant painfully revealed: “I have personally experienced a block or a bias, being misunderstood, or being pigeonholed or being silenced or something like that.” Her pain was palpable. The sadness expressed in the interview affected the researcher for weeks afterward.

Postponed. Four of the participants shared a sense of postponement when they discussed the influence of their role as mother on their professional advancement. One mothering academic commented on the significance of maintaining stability and balance in her home life. She explained:

I’ve done this -- looked at my career and then kind of put my kids’ ages next to

them in terms of when things could potentially differ, if you will, because there

are certain -- there are certain safety nets that I want to have as a unit and not have

it always be in this chaos of chasing, again, the dollar or the job or title. And so to

me that home life is equally as important or probably more important to make

sure that we’ve got a secure base for our kids . . . .

I’m making a conscious decision to say that my family, my children are more

important in terms of having a sensibility in terms of what our life looks like and

then the career piece. I’m gonna be okay. I’ll be fine with doing this and when

they get older, if I chose then to say, okay, let’s pick up and move here to

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Arizona. You know, we can -- we can do that. Yeah. My husband and I teach or

do work in a different role or different job.

Similarly, several of the mothers alluded to the sacrifices they would make until their children came of age. One admitted how her life would change “socially and professionally” once her son was off to college, and another commented: “I’m gonna get the opportunity to do the things, you know, that I want to do in my career. . . . I’m not gonna be an old woman once some ten years from now.” While one participant professed opportunity, she also reported self-imposed restrictions:

I have been fortunate in that I've had plenty of opportunity within this state. And

so I have not seen that as a limit at all, relative to my career position trajectory.

Geographically, I have said until Faith is out of high school, I'm not leaving. Well

now, I'm not leaving [named city]. Now, I’m not leaving the state. So, before I

came here, I wasn’t going to leave the state. After she's out of high school, then I

can go wherever I want to go, technically.

The balance of career and children was particularly important for these working mothers as they made decisions about what to do next and how. One mothering academic, for example, shared not only the postponement of her professional advancement but the benefits of having a lower profile position while raising underage children. She explained:

I feel if this is as far as got at the college, I would be fine with that. I don’t

particularly want to be a Dean. Well, I’ll say this, I have a lot of flexibility right

now that I don’t think I would have if I was in a higher position. And, for me,

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right now, I need the flexibility. Now, maybe in ten years, I would be interested

in something that was more stressful, high level decision-making, nine to five

expectation, being on-call, but that doesn’t fit in my lifestyle right now. So, I

need to be kind of under the radar.

In preparation. When the participants of the study discussed the influence of their role as mother on their professional advancement, five cautiously indicated being in various stages of preparation for the next phase, and the next phase did not always concern the institution. One participant discussed what she called her encore years, the years when she is “supposed to be retired,” but is instead working to improve the lives of others. A second discussed her non-profit work, and a third described “looking at opportunities for myself that don’t necessarily sit within a position, but it is more looking at me in terms of what interests me.” Two others held their professional advancement goals like cards, a little closer to the chest, but showed the signs of planning for the highest offices—chief academic officer and presidency.

In progress. Only one participant admitted plans in progress when she discussed her professional advancement though she did not explain what those plans were. This participant was driven by the purpose to remain relevant and what might be an excessive need for affirmations of success. What is of most significance about the data analysis surrounding this participant is her admittance that her child bore no influence on her professional advancement.

Table 4.6 visually presents the findings for access to professional advancement.

In three instances, the participant responses revealed a small degree of overlap in the

143 classifications—MA-2, MA-3, and MA-13. Likewise MA-11 gave responses falling into three classifications.

Other observations. In addition to acknowledging the apparent opportunities provided by the college for professional advancement—as evidenced by 55% of college leadership being held by women, the majority of the participants did not speak about any specific barriers erected because of gender or the role of mothering. However, two participants briefly addressed the subtle presence of barriers related to gender and the role of mothering. One participant explained the reason for her departure from leadership in the following way:

It is more the college’s treatment of administrators and I don’t know if it differs

between men and women, um, but they, um, at the end of the job, the position,

they had drafted some pretty, um, limited -- they drafted a set of limitations that I

did not agree with that.

The choppiness in her wording revealed how she wondered if circumstances were different for her male counterparts, but she did not indicate that she had conducted any inquiries. Still, the sudden change in her demeanor indicated that she feared, if only on an intuitive level, that the outcome would have been different had a male been in her position. The second participant spoke candidly about the indirect assessment:

I’ve experienced where I learned that I was told I was questioning my ability to

do something because I was a mother and, I had to -- when I found about it, I had

to address it right away and say you don’t speak for me, I will speak for myself

because I don’t know that being a mother should preclude me from being

considered for any position on campus you know. We now know that that’s

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illegal. You know, but I -- I would not -- I know that it happens even it’s -- even

it’s behind the scenes and unofficially and I tried really hard not to be guilty of it

myself.

Though minimal in its emergence from the data, this unique finding, the presence of gender disparity, warranted noting because of its prominence as a topic of discussion within scholarly research.

Table 4.6

Access to Professional Advancement

In In In In Participant No plans Inhibited Postponed preparation progress

MA-1 x MA-2 x x MA-3 x x MA-4 x MA-5 x MA-6 x MA-7 x MA-8 x MA-9 x MA-10 x MA-11 x x x MA-12 x MA-13 x x

Note. MA = Mothering Academic.

Summary

The emergent themes of the qualitative research analysis were (a) career and leadership, (b) mothering and family, (c) identity and the intersectionality of identities, and (d) professional access. As it concerns findings related to Research Question One,

145 the study found that women living the phenomenon of academic leading in the community college setting while rearing underage children applied language and expression similarly across their roles of mothering and leading. Additionally, the study found that the women of the study applied mothering and leading practices similarly across their roles, thus illustrating how their understanding of mothering and their understanding of academic leading overlap and how the qualities of both roles reciprocally inform the other. The study also determined that, where their mothering and leading identities have intersected (whether positively and negatively), the participants have experienced changes in their perceptions of self-identity. For Research Question

Two, the research findings revealed that the participants experienced limited access to professional development because of rearing underage children. Further, the findings for

Research Question Three, revealed that the women did not find professional advancement readily accessible because of rearing underage children. Though some indication of preparation for the next goal was expressed, the women largely disclosed unformulated plans or feelings of being inhibited or postponed.

The interpretation of the study’s findings will be presented in Chapter 5. Through its discourse on data analysis and emergent themes, current scholarly research, and related theories, the next chapter will present a developing theory of analysis and application, interpret the findings of the study, discuss the implications, and recommend potential measures that could be implemented to prepare community colleges to meet the distinct needs of this population while addressing the impending changes in the current leadership model.

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Chapter Five

Discussion

Introduction

The qualitative phenomenological study was intended to explore the experiences of women serving in community college leadership while rearing underage children. It was hoped that the study would produce an understanding of the participants’ perceptions of the influence of their mothering role on their leadership role, thus providing insight about (a) the non-representative numbers of females in community college leadership, (b) the leadership crisis predicted to soon impact community colleges, and (c) the factors that might contribute to and/or help to improve both. The study found that women living the phenomenon (a) similarly applied practices across their role of mothering and leading, (b) experienced changes in their perceptions of self because of the intersectionality of mothering and leading, (c) endured limited access to professional development, and (d) found professional advancement not readily accessible. What this chapter presents is an interpretation of the findings, based on the nascent Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering

Academics (KTMA), and the implications and recommendations derived from the interpretation.

Interpretation

According to the ACE’s (2017) 2016 Presidents Survey of the American College

Presidents, a comprehensive study of the college presidency and the leadership pipeline of higher education, 54% of college presidents plan to retire in the next five years, and those who remain in leadership are increasing in average age. In 2011, 5% of college presidents were over the age of 70; in 2016, 11% (ACE, 2017). Experience is becoming

147 the much sought after criterion for determining the next leader, and it appears to necessitate the more closely tailoring of the candidacy pool to look like current leadership—white male average age 61.7 years (ACE, 2017). Unfortunately, the pool of experienced leaders is decreasing while the demand for experienced leadership is not, and the results are readily apparent in the shortened tenure of current presidents and the number of prior presidential or executive positions held by current presidents. According to the American College President Survey 2017, 6.5 years is now the average time spent in a presidency when it was 8.5 years in 2006. And, the number of presidents having held prior executive positions has increased from 19.5% in 2011 to 23.9% in 2016 (ACE,

2017). Couple this with changes in student demography and the time is certainly now to start preparing diverse candidates capable of ensuring the future of community colleges.

In recognition of the gap in the literature, this research is a contribution to the scholarship concerning female leadership that could very well contribute to sustainable change and future stability within the community college system. Further, it provides a viable means of assessing the phenomenon of academic leading while raising underage children with the use of an emerging theory, the Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering

Academics, which takes into consideration three existing theories (Eagley’s (1987) social role theory, O’Reilly’s (2014, 2016) matricentric feminist theory, and Bensimon and

Marshall’s (1997)) as they relate to women in the workplace while meeting the gap in theory associated with the specific needs of the women chosen for this study. What follows is an interpretation of the research results as revealed by the themes emerging from the data: career and leadership, mothering and family, identity and the intersectionality of identities, and professional access. The chapter continues with a

148 discussion of the theoretical framework used in the analysis followed by the implications of the study and its recommendations.

Career and Leadership. Career and leadership emerged as a significant theme as the project focused on women academically leading and readily engaged in the pursuit of their careers. It should be no surprise, then, that the researcher assumed that the women participating in the study and serving in leadership capacities while rearing underage children wanted to be in leadership, wanted to remain in leadership, and wanted to advance in leadership. The research drawn from participant demographic sheets and the data, however, proved otherwise. Four participants had relinquished their leadership positions, satisfied with returning to faculty; one left the institution shortly after the interview occurred; three discussed acceptance of their current positions; and the remaining five spoke of other leadership goals and not all were related to higher education. Although the majority of participants described their identity as the unique intersection of their mothering and academic leading roles, within work and family balance, balance was as much a significant component as the individual parts work and family. For balance’s sake they were willing to postpone if not forgo pursuing career opportunities, even if that meant taking a step back or leaving the institution.

Moreover, the study uncovered the uncertainties encountered in workplace leadership and the affect those uncertainties had on balance. The women often did not know and could not anticipate what was next though so much of their operational behaviors centered on fixed schedules and orderliness. One participant remarked: “I feel more productive at home than I do here and I think it’s because I have more control at home than I do here.” The ambiguity experienced in the workplace, unfortunately, stood

149 as a place of discomfort for the female leaders in the study even as their positions honed their ability to (a) wait for action or change—sometimes indefinitely; (b) draw alternate choices, even if that meant withdrawing from the position; and (c) accept situations and circumstances as they were.

Mothering and Family. The majority of the participants in the study were empowered women, unapologetically assuming or rejecting their leadership positions for the benefit of the whole—the whole person and all of her roles, all of her identities. In fact, nine of the women in the study identified their relationships with their children, their maternity, as running the entire course of their leadership tenure, affecting their sense of self, their market work, their impact on the community college culture, and their home culture; thus, a second significant theme emerging from the data concerned mothering and family.

So much of the literature written about professional women centers on the difficulties of balancing the labor and responsibilities of home alongside the labor and responsibilities of work. The work-family research of Rantanen, et al. (2011), for example, discussed the psychological distress of women serving in the roles of paid worker, mother, and wife while adjusting to varying levels of resources and demands.

Similarly, Hochschild’s (2003) Second Shift recorded that 80% of the men in her eight- year study of dual employment marriages did not assist with the housework or childcare.

The sense of relevancy and urgency so present in the literature did not appear to be so in the study. Yes, the participants had afternoon pickups and menus to plan, but they did not discuss how much their husbands, significant others, or children did or did not contribute to the smooth functioning of their households. They did not discuss

150 significantly the number of hours spent physically laboring over household chores and its impact upon the completion of a report or on the time spent planning the agenda for a meeting. It is likely that these concerns did not surface, the researcher postulates, for two primary reasons. For approximately half of the participants, the discussion may not have had any specificity to the questions being asked and, therefore, no relevance within that context. For another five of the participants—those more guarded in the personal of their personal lives (as evidenced in the neutral accounts or vagueness given over to the descriptions of home life), because of the sensitivity of their leadership roles, the barriers that they themselves have erected to protect their personhood, or the need not to disclose their own vulnerabilities, those discussions may not have occurred in much detail. Seven of the study’s participants projected the more aloof stance over domestic details. Five provided innocuous domestic disclosures and two provided superficial ones. One participant, for instance, briefly shared sending out work-related emails through dinner preparation and late into the night, and another explained that her husband thought she could do more, but she did not explain what the more was or how much she engaged in domestic work. Still, both participants confessed the inability to get it all done, but the all they referred to was most often market work. Perhaps the lack of transparency or the lack of a full reveal resided in participants’ grappling with handling it all and the potential any missteps could have with being perceived as the inability to handle any of it. Though not explicitly stated by the study participants, this perception was reinforced by the question repeatedly spoken to many of them: how do you do it? While it might have bolstered the ability for some of the participants to perform proudly at even higher levels, for others, it came with seeds of doubt. It came with less flattering assertions:

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You should not be able to do what you do. There is not enough time. There is not enough energy. So, how do you do it? Where are you messing up? In this regard, the women did not labor over that kind of discussion. The participants pointed their attention toward the positives of their identities and their life choices rather than on places where failure potentially could be identified.

Identity and the Intersectionality of Identities. The intersectionality of the roles of leading and mothering principally shape a sense of identity for the majority of participants. The data suggested that women living the phenomenon of academic leading in the community college setting while rearing underage children possess an understanding of mothering and an understanding of academic leading which overlap in language and practice. Thus, the qualities of mothering and the qualities of leading often reciprocally inform each other. One participant, for example, explained a parallel team approach to her decision-making process. “What do you think about this situation at work?” she reported asking her teenaged children. “And conversely I ask my colleagues at work [about home]. So . . . what ends up happening is work and life blend . . . . [O]ne informs the other.” Indeed, one working capacity (motherwork) informs another working capacity (market work), but more importantly, the participant statement and the overall findings of the study reveal, just as Ruddick (1986) and O’Reilly (2016) determined, mothering is an intellectual activity where mothers think, strategize, and act. They also identify.

The mothering academics participating in this study measured themselves against one of three work representations with their children: (a) the before and after, (b) the pivotal moment, and (c) ever-present children. Struggling to locate a pre-child frame of

152 reference, one participant shared, “I’ve always been a mother like I – when I got married, my child was already present you know. So, and, I’m trying to think before then, how did I see myself?” Even if the mothering academic possessed greater certainty of when one identity grew into another, often the lines of division blurred themselves. One participant provided, “being a parent inform[s] almost everything that I do because I serve always as a caregiver. . . . I'm bringing all my identities consciously into the space

I'm in.” Another reported, “Everything I do, every choice I make is informed by I’m a mother.”

The participants’ identification with mothering is intense. All encompassing and as deep as their very core, this role is not the same as identifying the self as a grocery shopper or auto repairer or book reviewer. It is not temporal.

Professional Access. The women in the study were very much interested in professional development in order to enhance their current positions and in preparation for future positions. However, the third research finding suggested that only three had full access to professional development, while seven indicated limited access and one discussed hope for future access. The remaining two participants discussed professional development that they themselves determined and the training was unrelated to the college and its institutional goals. While this observation might require a moment of critical pause, what should be noted is the source of the limitations. Study participants did not indicate gender-based barriers being erected by their institution—though it may be a gendered organization as the research suggests of community colleges (Eddy 2010).

The limitations to professional development discussed were largely self-ascribed and implemented after careful deliberation by the female academic leaders, themselves. One

153 participant explained: “I’ve done this -- looked at my career and then kind of put my kids’ ages next to them in terms of when things could potentially differ . . . .” Insistence on weighing the short- and long-term costs of career choices on the family, particularly on the children, made every move and every preparation for a move a strategic decision for the majority of study participants.

The results surrounding professional advancement were not much better. The fourth finding revealed that the women in the study did not find professional advancement readily accessible, not under their current family status. The women largely disclosed unformulated plans often due to some of the work and home life challenges identified by Hurn (2013)—lack of adequate or affordable childcare, the absence of sufficient female role models, and balancing career and family. Additionally, they bore feelings of being inhibited or postponed, much like the professional peril described by

Peus & Traut-Matausch (2008). One participant explained:

Just the reality is I think that you get to a point in your career where you know

that there are going to be some barriers . . . . That there are still systems in place

that may prevent you from doing things or getting to level, you know, three or

four. It has nothing to do with me personally, but you kind of understand that

that’s the way the system works.

That’s the way the system works—it appears that much of the statement is loaded with the kind of disparity experienced by female leaders in the community college. Though the participants’ statements did not so much reveal blatant gender-based inequality, the subtext of their statements sometimes pointed implicitly in that direction.

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In alignment with the ideology behind Eagley’s (1987) social role theory, Bussey and Bandura (2004) explained, “Occupation pursuits are extensively gendered” and

“pervasive stereotypical practices of the various subsystems . . . leave their mark . . . ” (p.

100). Figurative marks have been left on many of the study participants even if they could not or would not articulate the origin of the bruises. Regardless of these disappointments, the women in the study exuded the kind of strength that, perhaps, comes along with waiting, making alternate choices, or choosing acceptance in their leadership roles. One study participant expressed the futility of “chasing money, titles, and positions,” the accolades of professional advancement, when her overall happiness—that of the personal and the professional—was at stake, particularly when she had little control over how things could unfold with senior level leadership decisions. She explained, revealing some of her disappointment and subsequent adjustment:

I’ve always kind of prided myself on being able to balance things fairly well . . . .

But then you always ask yourself, is there something different that I could have

done. You know, to make it better for all involved and so I’ve long since gotten

over the got to be here, here, here and that’s just me.

Her step back from her professional achievement efforts placed an emphasis on “all involved,” including colleagues, family, and self. She continued, “So that’s -- it’s always – the rub honestly when you are a female, I think, with children and wanting to move upward -- it’s that whole balance of how quickly do you do it . . . .” Most of the women in the study inevitably chose a less direct path to their professional goals with a lengthier timeline toward achievement.

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Theories

The theoretical framework took on a kaleidoscoped design to address the emergent themes from the narratives of the study—career and leadership, mothering and family, identity and the intersectionality of identities, and professional access—within the context of the selected theories. Imagine Eagley’s (1987) social role theory, O’Reilly’s

(2014, 2016) matricentric feminist theory, and Bensimon and Marshall’s (1997) feminist critical policy analysis serving as the reflecting surfaces of a kaleidoscope, their angles in relation to each other framing the casted view. The lived experiences of the study participants were the colored glass, projecting different illuminations as determined by the intersection of the reflecting surfaces with each other and the motion of the glass.

The researcher, then, was the viewer rotating participant narratives within the scope of the reflecting surfaces and witnessing the illuminations.

The consideration of participant narratives with this theoretical design could be read as matricentric feminist theory emerging as the more dominant reflector, particularly as it concerned the first research question—what influence does rearing underage children have on academic leading? However, the multi-celled projections or patterns cast by the narratives from the reflectors social role theory and feminist critical policy analysis and not in the absence of matricentric feminist theory, illustrated the complexity of operating with multiple identities. The academic leader (worker) rearing underage children (mother) still had to function effectively and efficiently within the structures of the community college (institutional member). Moreover, the multi-celled projections or patterns demonstrated the influence of mothering on professional development and advancement as posed by the second and third research questions.

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What the research revealed through the rich imagery of the thirteen participants’ narratives framed by the intersecting theories in kaleidoscope design was the multi-celled pattern of (a) transference, motherwork/market work flowing between the home and the academic institution; (b) reticence, gender bias and unnamed opposition hinted at sparsely; and (c) absence, the lack of policies and policy-specific discussion centered on the needs of female academic leaders rearing underage children. Moreover, what the research revealed was what Creswell (2007) described as the universal essence or truth of the individuals sharing this lived experience. The sections that follow explain in more detail what the individual cells of the pattern imparted.

Transference. The intellectual and political movement matricentric feminism addresses what founding theorist O’Reilly (2014, 2016) identified as the unfinished business of feminism: motherhood. Feminists, in their struggle for independence during the second wave of the feminist movement, deemed themselves hindered by the burden of children (Gordon, 1990). They reasoned that childless women had a greater chance at opportunity and advancement, so the focus shifted to the needs of those women and the concerns of mothers were directly dispelled from feminist discourse. With the champion of the female perspective working to disassociate itself from membership unable to assimilate easily into gendered structures, compromise and concessions placed (now no longer spoken or mentioned) limitations on mothers in the workplace. Thus, matricentric feminist pedagogy has worked for more than two decades to re-insert itself into the conversation and into positive visibility outside the home sphere. The academy’s emphasis on the intellectual has made it one of the most significant sites for this immersion of both the matricentric body as well as matricentric thought. As one scholar

157 explained, I “became an academic, because my academic identity was harvested through the work of motherhood” (Grasetti, 2013, p. 10). Mothering academics do not forego their academic leading identity once they migrate from paid labor to non-paid labor or from productive work to (re)productive work, as characterized in Gordon’s (1990) scholarship; instead, the very same self-possessed attributes inform both working spaces and their motherwork. As one study participant explained, “You are a leader twenty four seven. You are a leader at your house, you are a leader at your job, and so you are constantly honing that skill from both perspectives.” Another study participant similarly explained how she brought her key values “from my mothering into how I lead here at the institution.”

The study’s findings yielded (a) transferable mothering and leadership skills carried between home and work and (b) enriched identities because of the transference as illustrated in the aforementioned participant excerpts. Extrapolated from Clark’s (2000) border crossing model, Figure 5-1 illustrates the mothering academic, represented by the arrow, carrying the components of motherwork into her productive leadership and the components of market work into her (re)productive leadership.

Whereas Clark’s (2000) scholarship might argue that boarder crossers trade in influence and identification, the trafficking for Figure 5-1 entails the components of motherwork or, expressed another way, the components of O’Reilly’s (2014, 2016) matricentric pedagogy—authority, authenticity, autonomy, agency, and advocacy. These components harbor the ability to grasp and maintain self-empowerment through (a) confidence and conviction, (b) consistent truth and integrity, (c) self-definition and self- determination, (d) power and control, and (e) political and social recognition and activism

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(O’Reilly, 2013). The motherwork of the participants in this study embodied these components.

Border Crossers

Home environment Components Work environment of motherwork

Components of (re)productive leadership market work productive leadership

Figure 5-1. Matricentric transference. Border crossers trafficking components of motherwork (or matricentric pedagogy) to work and home environments. Adapted from “Work/family border: A new theory of work/family balance,” by S.C. Clark, 2000, Human Relations 53(6), p. 754.

Reticence. Taking the less optimistic view of the components of motherwork migrating into the public sphere or the space of market work draws Eagly’s (1987) social role theory nearer to the discourse of the study because of workplace uncertainties. Eagly

(1987) posed that women in the labor force were encumbered by the division of labor within the family unit and the stereotypic expectations and behaviors it generated in the workplace. Further Eagly (1987) observed that women were disproportionately represented in paid labor that stereotypically necessitated communal qualities (i.e.,

159 empathy, subservience, gentleness, etc.), while men were most often positioned to assume the roles that held expectations of agentic qualities (i.e., independence, dominance, authority, etc.). These gender expectations, the scholarship found, influenced the career trajectories of male and female employees (Eagly & Karau, 2002;

Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011).

While most of the women in this qualitative study worded no specific cause and effect relationship between their gender and their leadership, a few of the participants were challenged by queries that they barely dared to ask of themselves. One wondered had male department chairs experienced the same restrictions as those nearly imposed upon her. Another wondered, though the details were off the record, if early expressions of doubt posed as advice had undermined her leadership confidence years later, and a third mused aloud if behind-the-scene practices still penalized women.

The majority of the participants did discuss, however, the uncertainties encountered in workplace leadership and the effect those uncertainties had on the female leaders and their sense of self. The women often did not know and could not anticipate what was next. Like the findings from Hertneky’s (2012) study of women college presidents, which unearthed nonlinear career progression and unintended leadership development, most of the mothering academics of this study revealed having to labor through ambiguity, and though not addressed directly by them, this has had some influence on their workplace identities and professional progress. One participant explained:

I think you can control, you know, doing work, but there are some other realities

that are there that, you know, even with a degree. You know, with the five or

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however many I have, you know, that that doesn’t matter.

Workplace uncertainty and ambiguity, it appeared, are accepted as commonplace in academic leadership; in fact, a leadership position posted at the college at the start of autumn term 2017, requested applicants possessing “[s]trong leadership and comfort with ambiguity.” Unfortunately, this seemed to serve as a place of contention for the female academic leaders rearing underage children, particularly when the unknown posed opposition to their progression.

Absence. The negotiation of motherwork and market work has precipitated mothering academics having to shoulder the added responsibility of only asking for so much in the way of institutional policies and practices geared toward them as not to appear too needy or unable to adequately pursue advanced positions because of home life responsibilities—thus, the unknown opposition casting doubt and the mothering academic rendered reticent; thus, the lack of policies and policy-specific discussion centered on the needs of female academic leaders rearing underage children. These are gendered barriers, whether recognized as such or not, and the internalization or outright acceptance of the inhibitors was evident in the participants. They would just wait until the children successfully launched rather than challenge existing norms and cultural structures.

Critical policy analysis scholars Bensimon and Marshall (2003) discussed re- framed gender policy questions and the contributions they offered toward constructing a culture conducive to female leadership. The scholars determined that the questions community colleges should ask to bring about institutional change, without posing gender

(or the mothering process) as a problem, are

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1. What practices affect specific genders?

2. In what ways does gender impact productivity?

3. In what ways is gender a factor in the socialization process?

4. In what ways is gender embedded in definitions of leadership and merit?

5. What effective change has the institution made for inclusion and acceptance

of female leadership? (p. 345).

The women in leadership should start the inquiry, particularly those who recognize that conformity to existing structures is not always possible. For instance, institutional practices providing access to professional development that require extended stays away from the family are often counterproductive or so it was concluded in this study. Female academic leaders who are rearing underage children have professional access, yes, but often do not have personal access. The disparity is as simple as equity versus equality— the mothering academic may reach the proverbial door but may not have the exact key for opening it—thus the need for variations and accommodations to access and the need for multiple pathways to access.

Kaleidoscope theory of mothering academics. While Figure 1 provided a conceptualization of the theories in kaleidoscoped design—the nascent Kaleidoscope

Theory of Mothering Academics—and Table 2 presented an explanation of the intersecting theories atop the participants’ intersecting identities, Figure 5-2 furnishes the visual resulting from the analysis of the phenomenon of female community college administrators academically leading while rearing underage children. The researcher- conceived Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering Academics (KTMA) captures in linear form the multi-celled illumination that emerged from this study through the

162 kaleidoscoped theories—O’Reilly’s (2014, 2016) matricentric feminist theory, Eagly’s

(1987) social role theory, and Bensimon and Marshall’s (1997) critical feminist policy analysis—revealing transference, reticence, and absence.

projected through Tranference Reticence Absence kaleidoscoped theories

Figure 5-2. Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering Academics capturing the study’s multi- celled illumination.

According to Creswell (2007), a phenomenological study describes a single truth shared by several people. Then, as this phenomenological study has determined, the women academically leading while rearing underage children experienced the effects of that added responsibility within the confines of the institutional structures and culture.

The influence appeared to stall the participants’ pursuance of career advancement.

Lapovsky and Larkin (2009) and Johns Hopkins University’s (2002) study on the status of women in the university similarly discussed the impeded progress of women. As the

Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering Academics (KTMA) yielded, unnamed opposition held a presence, whittling away at the certainty and clear direction of advancement, even as the participants successfully transferred the skills of motherwork/market work between home and the institution and performed efficiently in their existing roles. Reticence, thus, surfaced for the participants in the face of unnamed opposition and limited progress.

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Still, the mothering academics navigated institutional structures in the absence of developed policies attuned to their specific needs.

Implications

In the college’s Policy and Procedures Manual, under the policy for family and medical leave, the language is clear about the institution’s intent: “The college supports a work environment that offers solutions to the complex issues individuals face in balancing their work and family commitments.” First, what this suggests is that the community college that served as the focus of this study and, perhaps, institutions similar to it are aware of the complexities of family-related issues and not just those of the students but also of the employees. Second, the statement suggests, at least in policy, an inclination toward a working environment that will offer solutions to assist with those issues. Nevertheless, in a study of 255 Carnegie-classified universities and colleges,

Hollenshead, Sullivan, Smith, August, and Hamilton (2005) documented associate-degree granting institutions as averaging 0.8 family-friendly policies, the fewest policies of higher education institutions. And, while the idea of fostering a solution-based working environment is more than noble for employees balancing work and family, according to the findings, the institution had not quite arrived at that level of operation.

The findings for this study revealed challenges and barriers to professional development and professional advancement, which the study participants largely attributed to a lack of time, childcare, and energy—when the “lack” could be named.

There were other times, however, when the participants could not (or would not) identify the opposing entities to their progress. Then, it appeared that the “lack” was some thing(s) outside the self that could not be manipulated or controlled, at least not by the

164 participants. And, while the participants provided narratives of their maturation within the institution, they did not contribute stories of those resources in short supply (time, childcare, and energy) being replenished or compensated for by the college.

Implications for practice. In the area of implications for practice, it would be in the best interest of community colleges, in light of the leadership shortages on the horizon, to learn where policy and practice are needed but do not exist. Polling existing female administrators would allow institutions to know where they are currently positioned with this population, while surveying potential female administrators would inform the institutions of where they should head. Moreover, surveying potential female administrators would provide insight for future policymaking and strategic planning. It would afford a greater understanding of what encourages or discourages potential female candidates from leadership positions, while assessing the resources available and necessary for professional development, intentional recruitment, coaching, and succession planning. Additionally, actively finding ways to live up to their stated ideals would serve institutions well; so, if a community college promises to “support a work environment that offers solutions,” then it should. Support groups, professional training, and mentoring would assist with accomplishing this goal. Implementation of these proposals would help institutions grow potential resources, specifically female leadership engaged in the act of rearing underage children, and secure their own leadership pipeline with a population indicative of its employee demographics.

Implications for policy. The study revealed specific implications for policy.

First, changes should start with separating and expanding existing policies in the institution chosen for the study and in other community colleges similarly situated. The

165 needs of the participants necessitated some cross-referencing in that they were workers, mothers, and institutional members. Thus, other policies, aside from family and medical leave, applied to their experiences on the campus. Equal opportunity/affirmative action and non-discrimination/anti-harassment policies bore much relevance to their circumstances. While these groupings might appear to be a practice specific to the studied community college, it is not. Surrounding community colleges have similar policy naming or classifications. Unfortunately, overgeneralizations bury unique perspectives and some unpacking of the policies for the sake of transparency and visibility really is in order. For instance, the women participating in this qualitative study—those living the phenomenon of leading while rearing underage children—may encounter discriminatory practices seemingly unlike those expected in more common anti-harassment cases. Their encounters may take on less identifiable forms, such as having to contend with impeded development because of misconceptions of the good mother and the ideal worker. Also, the disparities that these women encounter may not take the presumed stance of a traditional affirmative action complaint, but missed opportunity—not because of race, gender, age, or religious practices, but because of rearing children—is a reality that some of these women fear. Still, their concerns fall under the huge umbrella of both classifications, compounding the difficulty of placing language to their “lack” or to the opposing forces impeding their progress.

Second, policies and practices could be more accommodating for those rearing children. The women leaders in this study were not selected for participation into the study because of a protected status. Their children were not newly adopted, nor were they under the age of one year (the specifications placed on existing accommodations), so

166 no designated policy, other than sick leave or personal time, makes provisions for the routine needs drawing the mothering academic from the work site during the years between toddler and pre-adulthood. As one participant confessed, her feverish child was often beneath her desk as she toiled away just over his napping body. No specific policy shields women who are academic leaders while rearing underage children from assessments that suggest a mere 40-hour work week precludes access to opportunity.

Certainly, no specific policy protects her from perceptions and judgments of the good mother verses the ideal worker.

Implications for future research. The choice of a qualitative phenomenological study focusing on women in community college leadership rearing underage children was an apt decision because that discussion in its intimate detail has been sorely missing.

Still, significantly more research on the subject of women in community colleges is needed, from more than one academic institution, and in quantitative research form.

These institutions and their constituents have been positioned as a best kept secret, even from themselves. Researchers, scholars, and community college leadership should better understand why women, particularly those rearing underage children, are drawn to community colleges; what the women are experiencing in community colleges; and to what extent women are dis/empowered in community colleges. Conducting large scale quantitative research of this population and in light of the aforementioned points of interest would yield a larger data set and generalizable results. Further, large scale quantitative research surveying this population of women serving in approximately 1,100 public U.S. community colleges could determine what it will take for women leaders and community colleges to thrive in a success-based and performance-driven economy, while

167 providing information based on region (e.g., Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, etc.), type of institution (e.g., urban, rural, suburban, etc.), size of institution, student population served, and other related factors. This research could also determine the necessity for more women to be at the helm during the transitional leadership period.

Additionally, future research should consider the silences formed through policy omission and overgeneralization and their impact upon institutional structures and constituents. As Hollenshead, et al. (2005) explained, associate-degree granting institutions have the fewest family-friendly policies in higher education. Here, what should be studied particularly are the occurrences or interactions that institutional members, particularly women, have no language for.

Future research should also consider the use of the Kaleidoscope Theory of

Mothering Academics (KTMA) and its implementation of intersecting theories—

O’Reilly’s (2014, 2016) matricentric feminist theory, Eagly’s (1987) social role theory, and Bensimon and Marshall’s (1997) critical feminist policy analysis. The Kaleidoscope

Theory of Mothering Academics accommodated, in the absence of a single applicable theory, the experiences and intersectionality of identities of women leading academically while rearing underage children. Still, its testing is in order.

While the findings from this particular study yielded were observations that could be indicative of similarly situated institutions, the multi-celled illuminations could reflect varying outcomes as determined by regional location, institutional size and type, population served, and other related factors. The Kaleidoscope Theory of Mothering

Academics (KTMA) has the potential to accommodate the variance. With the use of

KTMA, the experiences of the studied population can be assessed through the

168 components of the three theories. The magnitude of transference of motherwork/market work between home and work settings and its influence upon the participants in future studies can be evaluated by way of the exercise of matricentric feminist theory’s authority, authenticity, autonomy, agency, and advocacy. The impact of reticence upon the participants of future studies can be assessed by the emerging discussions or survey outcomes on gender-role expectations and their influence upon the division of labor between the sexes, sex differences in social behavior, and sex-typed skills and benefits within the workplace. The presence or absence of institutional policies sensitive to the needs of women can be determined through an evaluation of existing policies and candid discussions with or survey outcomes from future study participants on their institutions’ adherence to the re-framed gender policy questions of critical feminist policy analysis.

Figure 5-3 provides a visual of KTMA, the intersecting theories reflecting the multiplicity of participants’ intersecting identities.

Critical Feminist Policy Matricentric Feminist Theory Social Role Theory Analysis

Gender-role Gender-sensitive-- Authority expectations Practices Authenticity Division of labor Productivity Autonomy Sex differences in Agency social behavior Socialization process Advocacy Sex-typed skills and Leadership definitions benefits Inclusion

Figure 5-3. KTMA supporting the intersectionality of theories.

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Further, the resulting responses in the form of a kaleidoscope illumination could range from containment to transference under matricentric feminist theory; for social role theory, from reticence to openness; and for critical feminist policy analysis, from absence to presence as depicted in Figure 5-4.

Matricentric Feminist Critical Feminist Policy Social Role Theory Theory Analysis

Transference Openness Presence

Containment Reticence Absence

Figure 5-4. KTMA illustrating range of resulting outcomes.

Recommendations

Visibility and recognition of intersecting identities. Hertneky (2012) determined, as perhaps the women in this study, the first and foremost key to successful female leadership concerns loyalty, integrity, and self-understanding. In other words, it entails a recognition of self and an appreciation for intersecting identities. While this may be true of women holding leadership positions in the community college as they raise underage children, this same recognition has not been fully actualized by the institution itself and, as the literature suggests, by institutions like it. These women leaders hold multiple identities, specifically leading and mothering, and neither of the two roles do they check at the door upon arrival—arrival at the institution or at their homes.

More than mere workers of the first and second shift (Hochschild, 2003), they carry their overlapping, intersecting identities with them from work encounter to work encounter.

170

This factor has not been taken into account well, particularly when community colleges possess the fewest family-friendly polices (Hollenshead, et al., 2005; Lee, 2013). How, then, can the institution and other community colleges groom future female leaders when they may not have the capacity to recognize the whole female person?

The one participant who did not remain with the institution shared a unique opportunity that came in the form of institutional support for working mothers. Thinking outside the expected norms, this female academic leader formulated what she called an invisible program. The invisible program was intended to be a program without form and formality. Inevitably, it addressed the institutional invisibility typically surrounding the mothering identity of female academic leaders rearing underage children. She said:

And out of all the things we did that month, that particular year and that particular

herstory month, that was the one that people appreciated the most. An invisible

program. No speaker, no survey afterwards--which we love doing. No music or

people who dance or we’re going to have some moms with little celebration and

pictures--none of that. Nothing visible. Nothing visible.

The invisible program, which lasted a week, provided take-home family meals to women as they exited the campus. The invisible program thought carefully about the needs of female employees rearing children and addressed them in as simple an effort as with evening meals.

If community colleges are to take cue from the invisible program, first, they must make visible and express concern for the whole female person. The need is great for replacement leaders and women possess talent though their identities may be complex and multi-layered. Community colleges could consider the formation of affinity support

171 groups, allowing similarly identifying employees to support each other. While there may be groups ranging from LBGTQ to Employees with Disabilities, one could specifically serve women in leadership rearing underage children. What becomes particularly important for an affinity group of this type bringing about its own visibility will be its capacity to transcend self-serving isolation. The group should have a senior leadership liaison and the means to send its most important concerns through the liaison and onto college decision makers. Second, colleges must understand that one size does not fit all, and accepted, long-standing models are often just that—one size and not designed for women with children. The ability to reconceptualize policies, procedures, and structures—based, perhaps, upon information drawn from the affinity group—will serve institutions well as they address the leadership challenge. For instance, community colleges could provide for leadership or potential leadership the kind of flexibility given to faculty or even the student population. Instructional delivery in the twenty-first century is not bound by physical location or a nine-to-five work schedule, so why should an archaic form bind leadership? Technology allows remote as well as 24-hour access.

Building a culture that provides female leadership access to late afternoon pickups or junior varsity basketball games or afterschool Girl Scouts, without shame or workplace disqualification, changes entirely the being-present dynamic.

A culture conducive to female leadership. AACC (2013) provided criteria for dealing with the leadership crisis, reshaping six identified competencies into five necessary for new and successful community college leadership; they included organizational strategy; institutional finance, research, fundraising, and resource management; communication; collaboration; and community college advocacy—

172 potential benchmarks from which community colleges could train existing talent. Ferri-

Mulligan’s (2013) research followed up on the earlier version of AACC’s (2006) competencies, which included professionalism and unexpanded resource management as components. To the original six competencies, the researcher provided eight higher-level themes with an emphasis on a female presence. Her research yielded people management, communication, self-efficacy, decision making, institutional knowledge, empathy, acceptance of criticism, and appreciation—each theme steeped in institutional concerns and potential female-oriented leadership. In the current community college culture and economy, Ferri-Mulligan (2013) determined that excellent or even effective leadership could not commence without the immediacy of women. Ligeikis (2010) drew a similar conclusion, touting female leadership as a possible solution to the coming crisis.

O’Keefe’s (2013) research examined four generations of community college leadership through the lens of AACC’s (2006) six competencies and determined succession training and university-based community college research programs were necessary if the leadership challenge were to be met. Rice and O’Keefe (2014) explained how community colleges had one of two options: they can identify and train those with the potential to lead from their existing talent, or they can recruit from outside those with little experience in academia. The scholars leaned in favor of internal candidacy and promoted internal leadership training programs that focused on practical leadership development strategies, such as cross-training and internships as well as online, internal web-based modular leadership programs. Similarly, Wise’s (2013) research on “Grow

Your Own” (GYO) succession planning and professional development programs, in light of the need for diversity, yielded a few basic tenets that most community colleges could

173 implement. The steps included (a) developing qualified successors to executive leadership vacancies, (b) designing and providing professional development opportunities for internal candidates, and (c) creating a viable pipeline for internal candidates (Wise,

2013, p. 34-35).

With the aforementioned scholarship in mind, it would be advantageous for community colleges to make professional development locally attainable in the form of internal recruitment, mentoring and coaching, and workshops and seminars.

Additionally, university-based educational programs, featuring community college research and delivered in cohort form, as well as grow-your-own programs or succession training on community college campuses might spark an interest in local talent toward leadership, particularly if the initiatives provided real value and market-worthy training and instruction. Community colleges could bring in experts for training beyond their local skill sets and provide webinars and videoconferencing for professional development that women leaders rearing underage children might otherwise forego. In much of the same way that community colleges accommodate their students, they should accommodate their salaried resources for the betterment of the individual and the institution.

Networking, role models, and mentoring relationships. Moss’ (2014) study, concerning Black female mid-level administrators in the California community college system, identified the need for networking, role models, and informal mentoring relationship if professional progress were to be achieved. More importantly, the research revealed limited access to career advancement because of inadequate exposure to the full context of their academic institutions; in other words, the participants found themselves

174 barred from exposure to higher level positions and the people in those positions. Unlike

Moss’ (2014) participants, the women in this study did not complain about the absence of networking opportunities, role models, or mentoring relationships; they acknowledged these professional tools as essential to leadership development and advancement.

However, they did complain about the time needed to pursue the efforts, specifically the networking. One participant explained:

[T]here are times when I just can't go to that networking event, in the evening or I

can't do this board-whatever or fly off for a professional development, here. I

have to be really strategic with that because I have an underaged child.

While actively partnering with their female leaders rearing underage children, community colleges should recognize the time restrictions placed upon these employees, not in an effort to remove them from the consideration of opportunities and not in an effort to lower expectations for the quality of their work. These women are achievers as one participant remarked:

Mothers of underage children are doers. There's no doubt about that. We are

doers. So, you give any mother who has multiple kids, and also works a task, you

can be dog-on sure, she will get that done. And not only is she going to get it

done, but she's going to get it extra done because the last thing she wants to do is

to have to redo anything because she doesn’t have time!

Community colleges should recognize the time restrictions placed upon these employees to better understand the women and the vantage point from which they operate. Then, they could intentionally partner with their female leaders offering organic and strategic opportunities for interactions with role models and mentors occurring over the course of

175 the workday. For instance, brown bag discussions and trainings could take place during a scheduled lunch hour without too much interruption of the flow of daily events.

Additionally, community colleges should consider exposure to leadership and other critical campus functions. Who is not receiving it and why not? Workgroups, planning and steering committees, academic councils, and college initiatives could be carried out by cross sections of campus leadership (lower, mid-level, and upper management), thus leading to interaction and exposure, informal partnering or mentoring, and cross-training while addressing specific campus goals, i.e. student success. Further, after-hour formal events could serve multiple purposes. While celebrating a holiday or success measures being achieved, the social event can be planned to encourage networking between guests, thus leading to professional collaborations later. As obvious as the last point demonstrates, the ability to nurture and draw from existing pools of talent cannot be achieved without community colleges taking on more inclusive approaches to their constituents. Different spheres of leadership cannot be excluded or treated as though less important to the larger-scaled workings of the institution. Intentional inclusion and involvement are a must.

Summary

In 2011, John W. Curtis, then-director of research and public policy for the

American Association of University Professors (AAUP), acknowledged the absence of trend data to predict the representation of women in future academic leadership (p.3).

This awareness coupled with the knowledge of non-reflective female leadership numbers and imminent shortages in leadership in the community college (Eddy 2002, 2010; Eddy

& Cox, 2008; Keim & Murray, 2008; Shults, 2001; Watts & Hammons, 2002) predicated

176 the importance of this study and its contributions to literature and practice. Its exploration of women experiencing the phenomenon of academic leading while rearing underage children has drawn attention to what has yet to be documented well: how women leaders are actually faring in the two-year academic sector. While Thanacody,

Bartram, Barker, and Jacobs (2006) suggested, “Western universities are moving away from the Anglo-European male management profile” (p. 537), as though the shift is voluntary and not due to shifts in demography, the leadership crisis is largely upon us and must be handled astutely to ensure the sustainability and success of higher education.

Shults (2001) warned nearly two decades ago: “To address the [leadership] gap effectively, community colleges must identify new leaders and give them the opportunity to acquire and practice the skills they will need to lead colleges in the 21st century” (p. 3).

How those new leaders will be defined will likely determine the future of community colleges and higher education as a whole. According to AACC’s (2014, 2016) 2012 survey, community colleges will experience a 75% loss in CEOs as early as 2022 due to an aging population and retirements. ACE’s (2017) 2016 Presidents Survey of the

American College Presidents, identified the loss at 54% in the next five years. Though one finding may not be nearly as alarming as the other, the problem is real and one that has to be addressed.

The look to new and different sources of leadership comes with it the responsibility of attending to the concerns of more diverse populations (i.e., recruitment, training, mentoring, and retention; work-family balance; gender and racial biases; ostracism and isolation; career development and mobility, etc.). As current academic administrations begin the search to replace those exiting or soon to exit, the community

177 college, with its higher percentage of female leadership in comparison to other tiers of the academy, should become the research grounds for assessing the complexity of female leadership and for apprehending the barriers to female leadership.

Much like the research intended, this study, documenting the experiences of women leading in the community college while rearing underage children, provided insight into issues that affect female leadership (i.e., conflicting and complementing identities; gendered policies and practices; competing work and family demands; nonlinear, non-strategic ascension, etc.). Further, the study contributed a means for assessing the experiences of this population through the Kaleidoscope Theory of

Mothering Academics and concludes that in order for productive, institution-supporting change to occur, potential leadership not typically identified for grooming or coaching should be considered, despite challenging barriers. Community colleges should forge paths to successful executive leadership with the use of recommendations outlined in this study, which include

1. intentional recruitment;

2. coordinated mentoring, coaching, and networking;

3. local professional development;

4. succession planning and “grow your own” training;

5. campus-wide cross training and internal internships; and,

6. the creation of policies and practices sensitive to the needs of women leading

or with the potential to lead while rearing underage children.

These recommendations coupled with AACC’s (2013) revised competencies—now five instead of six, mindful of the stages of leadership development (newly appointed, within

178 the first three years of leadership, and after the first three years of leadership), and including

1. organizational strategy;

2. institutional finance, research, fundraising, and resource management;

3. communication;

4. collaboration; and,

5. community college advocacy would bring about visibility and the recognition of intersecting identities, a culture conducive to female leadership, and support that encourages and stimulates growth.

Then, waning leadership would have a viable replacement solution and women leading in community colleges while rearing underage children would find their talents less deferred.

The narratives of the women in the study have been in a place of scholarly silence, and while this research has afforded the opportunity for some semblance of their voices to be heard, there are factors that still negate their presence. Community colleges have another historic opportunity—to be the face of academic leadership remediation.

The leadership crisis has already started to manifest itself; it is just a question of which tools the institutions will use to address the challenge. Will the choice be to continue recycling aging practices and aging personnel with no thought to sustainability? Or, will community colleges forge new methodology and tap existing pools of talent for a 21st century economy? This study suggests that women leaders rearing underage children in partnership with community college administration possess the ability to tackle the leadership crisis.

179

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Appendix A

Permission to Reproduce Figure Percent of Women in Leadership Positions by Sector

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Appendix B

Permission to Reproduce Figure 2-2 Work/Family Border Model

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Appendix C

Pre-Interview Information Survey

Thank you for agreeing to participate in the study Mothering Academics: Women’s Perception of the Intersectionality of Academic Leading and Rearing Underage Children in a Midwestern Urban Community College. I am so glad that you are willing to take part, for you have a perspective that matters.

Please complete the survey below and return it to me at your earliest convenience. I have provided a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Also, note that the information collected in this questionnaire is completely confidential and will only be used for the purposes of this research study.

Demographic Data Sheet

1. Age: ____ 25-30 ____ 31-40 ____ 41-50 _____ 50+

2. Race/Ethnicity:

a. ____ African American

b. ____ Asian

c. ____ Hispanic

d. ____ Native American

e. ____ Bi/Multi-racial

Please explain:

f. ____ White

g. ____ rather not identify

3. Number of dependent children:

age: gender:

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age: gender:

4. Highest degree attainment: ______

5. Years at the college ____ 0-5 ____ 6-10 ____ 11-15 ____ 16-20 ____ 20+

6. Job Title: ______

7. What are your job duties? ______

______

8. Prior position at the college? Years from prior position to current position? ______

______

9. Where are you from? How/why did you make the choice to work for Columbus State Community College? ______

______

10. Goals or career-oriented aspirations: ______

______

Thank you for completing this questionnaire. Your time and participation are very much appreciated, and, it’s my hope, will contribute to the growing knowledge base on the experiences of women in leadership in the community college environment.

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Appendix D

Research Consent Form

Educational Leadership Department HH 1300J, Mail Stop 119 University of Toledo

Toledo, Ohio 43614 Phone#: 419.530.2666

Fax #: 419.530.4912

ADULT RESEARCH SUBJECT - INFORMED CONSENT FORM

(Mothering Academics: Women’s Perception of the Intersectionality of Academic Leading and Rearing Underage Children in a Midwestern Urban Community College)

Principal Investigator: David L. Meabon (faculty), Associate Professor, 614.419.2666

Purpose: You are invited to participate in the research project entitled, Mothering Academics: Women’s Perception of the Intersectionality of Academic Leading and Rearing Underage Children in a Midwestern Urban Community College, which is being conducted at the University of Toledo under the direction of Dr. David L. Meabon. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the body of literature that documents the experiences of professional women in the academy. It will address a gap in the literature on women in the community college holding positions of leadership while engaged in the act of mothering underage children; for little has been written about community colleges, professional women in community colleges, and mothering academics outside of the faculty perspective. With a leadership shortage predicted to soon reach a point of crisis because of impending retirements, the study will explore how academic leaders mothering underage children perceive their development and advancement in the community college.

Description of Procedures: This research study will take place in the office or workspace of each participant during a 60-90 minute, one-on-one, audio-recorded interview. Photos will be taken of the work environment as the space may provide evidence of leading and mothering. Additional time, approximately an hour, will involve the pre-interview demographic data sheet, any follow up for clarity, and the participant’s review of her recorded transcript.

Permission to record: Will you permit the researcher to audio record your responses and photograph your office/workspace during the interview?

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YES NO Check Here Check Here

After you have completed your participation, the researcher will debrief you about the data, theory, and research area under study and answer any questions you may have about the research.

Potential Risks: There are minimal risks to participation in this study, including loss of confidentiality. You may experience discomfort, displeasure, or anxiety recalling past experiences. If these emotions or those similar should occur, you may stop the interview at any time.

Potential Benefits: The only direct benefit to you if you participate in this research may be that you will provide data that over time will benefit the working experiences of women in higher education.

Confidentiality: The researcher will make every effort to prevent anyone who is not on the research team from knowing that you provided this information, or what that information is. The consent form will not require your signature and will be left with you at the end of the interview. Although the researcher will make every effort to protect your confidentiality, there is a low risk that this might be breached.

Voluntary Participation: Your refusal to participate in this study will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled and will not affect your relationship with The University of Toledo or the college of your employment. In addition, you may discontinue participation at any time without any penalty or loss of benefits.

Contact Information: Before you decide to accept this invitation to take part in this study, you may ask any questions that you might have. If you have any questions at any time before, during, or after your participation or experience any physical or psychological distress as a result of this research, you should contact a member of the research team Dr. David Meabon, 419.530.2666 or Crystal Clark, 614.287.5451.

If you have questions beyond those answered by the research team, the Chairperson of the SBE Institutional Review Board may be contacted through the Office of Research on the main campus of the University of Toledo at 419.530.2844.

After reading this form, please ask any questions on any aspect of this study that is unclear to you. You may take as much time as necessary to think it over before agreeing to participate.

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This Adult Research Informed Consent document has been reviewed and approved by the University of Toledo Social, Behavioral and Educational IRB for the period of time specified in the box below.

Approved Number of Subjects:

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Appendix E

Interview and Observation Protocol

Interview and Observation Protocol: Mothering Academics: Women’s Perception of the Intersectionality of Academic Leading and Rearing Underage Children in a Midwestern Urban Community College

Time of Interview:

Description of Place or Context of Observation:

Interviewer: Crystal R. Clark

Interviewee:

Position of Interviewee:

Brief Description of Project: The qualitative phenomenological study examines women’s perception of the intersection of academic leading and mothering underage children, by exploring (1) how female academic leaders in the community college sector perceive their role as academic leader and their role as mother of underage children, and (2) how female academic leaders in the community college sector perceive the effects, if any, of mothering underage children on their professional development and advancement.

Observations Analysis Overall meanings

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Interview Guide:

1. Describe what mothering means to you.

2. Describe how you fit in the role of mothering.

3. Describe what being the mother of underage children means to you in the context of your role as an academic leader.

4. Describe what being an academic leader means to you in the context of your role as mother of underage children.

5. How do you balance the responsibilities of academic leading with the responsibilities of rearing underage children?

6. How do you think others (supervisors, subordinates, husbands/partners, children, co-workers, peers, other mothers, etc.) perceive your ability to balance the responsibilities of academic leading with the responsibilities of rearing underage children?

7. Describe a time when you role as mother of underage children intersected positively with your role as academic leader.

8. Describe a time when your role as mother of underage children intersected negatively with your role as academic leader.

9. How does your role as mother of underage children influence your capabilities as academic leader?

10. How does your role as mother of underage children influence your opportunities as academic leader?

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