Women in campus leadership

The percentage of women holding leadership positions in UGA's administration has remained flat for more than a decade, even as the proportion of female faculty has grown steadily. This is reflective of national trends in higher education and in the private sector, and UGA is taking several steps to increase the representation of women in leadership roles:

In spring 2015, UGA President Jere W. Morehead and Provost Pamela Whitten launched the Women's Leadership Initiative. Whitten charged a 10-member planning committee with assessing what barriers were preventing the university from developing, recruiting and hiring qualified women for campus leadership positions. The committee identified three areas of focus where reimagined policies and targeted programming could advance gender equity at UGA.

The three areas are:

• Recruitment, Hiring and Retention
• Leadership and Career Development
• Work-Life Balance

Greater gender equity among decision-makers will lead to more equitable policy decisions, though the situation is a bit more complex than just that. Demographic trends, the legacy of unequal pay, child care responsibilities, paid maternity leave... the list of prevailing facotrs that brings us to today is long and deeply woven into our societal norms. So we're not talking about a few tweaks here and there. And that's one reason why this high-priority initiative from the upper administration is a welcome development. Culture change (in a culture that is changing) requires deliberate steps to identify the most pressing challenges and design sustainable solutions, especially acute in the realm of human resources. And this is where our Institute for Women's Studies plays a very important role. Our faculty in this interdisciplinary unit representing every corner of campus have been working for years to help us better understand womens' roles in society. The great scholars and scholarship in this area will help lead us in the best directions, just as they help young women on campus today prepare to become the leaders of tomorrow. We look forward to futher developments as this initiative grows and UGA advances in helping our campus and society at large function at full strength.