Nevertheless, she persisted: A critical feminist inquiry of executive women’s ascension to leadership at small colleges

Abstract

This dissertation explores experiences of ascension to higher education leadership among women executives. While academic women have made gains in representation, women remain underrepresented in executive leadership. Moreover, they experience barriers within gendered organizational constructs, ideal worker norms, and the intersections of sexism and other identity-based oppression. The research asked how women experience gender within small colleges, what barriers they encountered, how they made change, and the costs and benefits of ascension. Using narrative inquiry, this study re-stories experiences of academic, executive women for a rich narrative about ascension related to gender and intersecting identities. Findings affirm higher education is a gendered organization with cultural constraints for women, and modern manifestations of traditional barriers. Findings of the study extend the literature on how women maneuver within gendered organizations. Women performed acts of resistance by using sexism against itself through resistant performative contortions. From experiences of dehumanization, women developed skills that enabled the success of resistant performative contortions, often at great cost to themselves, their friendships, and their families. This study offers renewed hope for change-making in the academy and expansion of inclusion.