Transforming Leadership: Women of Color Use Cultural Identity As A Tool
By Rusty Barceló, PhD
Vice President for Minority Affairs, University of Washington, Office of Minority Affairs

Patricia M. Lowrie, M.S.
Director, Women's Resource Center, Michigan State University

Nationally, women of color often report their frustration about the lack of applicability of current leadership models, which generally exclude cultural identity factors. At the recent Annual National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, for example, it became clear during our workshop discussion that many women of color survive as leaders in predominantly white institutions because they retain a strong sense of self. However, many also indicated that their experiences generally do not include discussions of their cultural attributes as important tools for survival and for leadership. The National Initiative on Women in Higher Education (NIWHE) believes we must redefine leadership models accordingly in order to support leaders who are women of color and guarantee there will be more of them.

Cultural Identities and Institutional Traditions
While current literature examines the leadership progression of women in general, studies about women of color in leadership seldom examine the role that specific, culturally related behavior has in their success or the lack thereof. Nor do studies examine the idiosyncratic results of individuals from similar backgrounds. Even women of color themselves typically do not methodically separate the complexities of gender, race, oppression, and cultural traditions from organizational systems thinking or behaving.

In The Dance of Change, Peter Senge and his colleagues provide some focus on the intent of systems and raise issues about individual attitudes and learning styles. However, the context of race at the intersection of gender is not discussed from a marginalized person's perspective. Like others, they deal with "diversity" as an organizational issue, i.e., managing diversity.

Debra Meyerson in her book Tempered Radicals talks about "leveraging" identities into opportunities. She discusses how people of color resist traditions of white communities when trying to "fit in" or "selling out" by sustaining pride in personal cultural values. She further clarifies the resistance in three areas: psychological, self-expression (dress, office decor, language, leadership style, etc), and behind-the-scenes resistance in order to reinforce the self.

Women of color know from experience how difficult it is for them to reconcile their cultural identities, institutional traditions, and personal values. Often, this institutionally driven misalignment results in women of color leaving their best selves "at the door" or adopting behavior that is not consistent with their identities. In either instance, their competence and self-esteem are affected by the disjuncture.

Even among institutions that might be sensitive to creating opportunities for women of color, little is available in the way of culturally inclusive program designs. Nor have asset-based models been developed. Mentoring, coaching, faculty and/or administrative development programs do provide tools. However, these tools are often derived from working with white males. Feminist models, while generally more supportive, also offer "safe places" for critique and dialogue. As such, they assist in providing the possibility for the coexistence of academic traditions and cultural or personal values. Nonetheless, too little attention is given to the specific identification of culturally based behaviors as tools for success. New models that intentionally engage an awareness of individual cultural assets need to be constructed, and the use of those models need to be appropriately and prudently applied.

What the Numbers Say about Women of Color
The need for these new models is underscored by recent data about women, and particularly women of color, in leadership and middle management positions in higher education. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education's 2003-4 Almanac, women accounted for only 21.1 percent of all college presidents in the United States. Presidents by racial groups were 1.1 percent American Indian, 1.2 percent Asian American, 6.3 percent Black, and 3.7 percent Hispanic.

When one considers the following table with respect to the pipeline, women of color are not well represented in the professorial ranks either. For example, there were a total of 161,309 full professors in 1999. Of these, women accounted for only 33,625, and within this category, Black women accounted for 4,784 professors and Latinas represented 2,913 of the total. Comparable data demonstrates that women of color are also underrepresented in the middle management ranks in higher education.

Clearly the lack of representation in middle management and all levels of the professorate will limit the representation in key senior posts well into this century. Leadership needs to address a sustained pipeline for women and people of color that insures the representation at the professional and faculty levels so that they can assume senior leadership positions in the future.

Number of Full-time Faculty Members by Sex, Rank, and Racial and Ethnic Group, Fall 1999

In the recently published book Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America, Charisse Jones and Jumea Shorter-Gooden report that African-American women change the way they think, their outer appearance, and their speech to survive in the corporate sector. "They shift in one direction at work each morning, and then in another at home each night."

The approach for system change must focus on how cultural attributes have contributed to shaping professional roles and how women of color must negotiate the academy. Ultimately, the academy must begin to regard cultural experiences as leadership assets. Continued discussions must include how to work across differences so that diverse cultural attributes are valued and promoted as important tools for leadership.

References
Jones, Charisse, and Jumea Shorter-Gooden. 2003. Shifting: The double lives of black women in America. New York: HarperCollins.

Meyerson, Debra E. 2001. Tempered radicals. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Senge, Peter, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, George Roth, and Bryan Smith. 1999. The Dance of change: The challenges to sustaining momentum in learning organizations. New York: Doubleday.