The National Council for Research on Women

In 2006, the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) released two crucial reports examining the status of women in the United States and throughout the world. Although these reports are nearly two years old as this issue of OCWW goes to press, they are critical enough to merit our readers’ consideration as we examine women’s status and education around the globe. What follows is a brief overview of each of the two reports, “Gains and Gaps: A Look at the World’s Women” and “Leadership in Higher Education: A Path to Greater Racial and Gender Diversity.”

“Gains and Gaps: A Look at the World’s Women”

At the urging of NCRW’s Corporate Circle members, the Council compiled “Gains and Gaps” as a follow-up to “World’s Women 2000.” Like the earlier report, “Gains and Gaps” attempts to answer the general question, “Where are women today?” Not surprisingly, the Council found that while women have made significant gains worldwide, they continue to face momentous challenges as they struggle for safety and equality.

In examining Women, Education, and Literacy, the report found that while 74 percent of girls throughout the world are now literate, 64 percent of all illiterate adults are women. Women are increasingly likely to pursue higher education, although access often remains limited to “the elite of both sexes.” In the United States and throughout the world, women dominate the ranks of primary teachers, but are less likely to hold upper-level university teaching positions.

Women’s Health and Health Security continues to be threatened by the lack of access to contraception (201 million women cannot obtain “effective contraception”), unsafe abortion practices (19 million “unsafe abortions” are performed each year), and the continued practice of female genital mutilation (approximately 6,000 instances occur each day). Other areas of continued concern include HIV/AIDS, lack of access to clean water, breast cancer, tobacco-related illness, disability, mental health, and eating disorders.

Women’s Citizenship, Leadership, and Civic Status continues to improve around the globe, with women still lacking suffrage in only three countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (where neither women nor men can vote), and Brunei. While women held 48.8 percent of parliamentary seats in Rwanda in 2005, they occupied only 15 percent of congressional seats in the United States following the 2004 election.

The report also presents statistics related to Women and the Economy, Violence Against Women and Girls, and Women on the Margins (including refugees, imprisoned women, and girl soldiers).

As the report reminds readers, “we must continue to press for the collection and analysis of data that are broken down by gender, race, and class….if a problem cannot be named and quantified, it is more difficult to identify solutions.” The report not only calls for more data disaggregated by race and ethnicity, but also challenges its readers to take personal and collective responsibility for pursuing proactive responses to that data.

To order the full report, visit www.ncrw.org/publications/worlds_women.htm.

“Leadership in Higher Education: A Path to Greater Racial and Gender Diversity”

In 2006, the National Council for Research on Women published the results of a Ford Foundation-funded study on how leadership affects the climate for diversity in higher education. Researchers intended “to identify best practices for enhancing diversity,” “to identify leadership models…that create and sustain greater diversity,” and “to analyze the institutional architecture necessary to support those practices.”

In order to reach these goals, researchers examined eight institutions that had variously succeeded in creating inclusive climates and diverse campuses--schools that were “welcoming, sincere, and ready” to embrace diversity (not those whose demographics simply reflected a diverse community). While originally considering diversity in terms of race and gender, researchers soon discovered that various other aspects of identity, including religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and (dis)ability, are of increasing import, and that the definition of diversity was highly contingent upon “local context.” Researchers also discovered that leadership appeared at all levels and locations throughout the institution, not just in the upper echelons of the administrative hierarchy.

The eight participating institutions were Duke University, La Guardia Community College, Mount Saint Mary’s College, the University of Arizona, the University of Maryland--College Park, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas--Brownsville, and Wesleyan University. When compiled, the qualitative research produced eleven key findings (quoted from the report headers):

1. The definition of diversity is contested.
2. Presidents have unique roles as leaders.
3. Certain leadership is embedded in the formal institutional hierarchy.
4. Formal and effective systems of accountability can be built into the formal institutional hierarchy, but in general they are not seen as effective in terms of diversity.
5. Other formal institutional structures, including diversity offices, officers, and task forces, can be effective in providing leadership for diversity, but with varying degrees of effectiveness.
6. There are tensions between different loci of power in a shared governance system, with real implications for leadership.
7. The leadership and personal commitments of individuals differently located across campuses seems critical for successful diversity work.
8. Effective leaders tend to work through coalitions.
9. Interdisciplinary education and research programs provide special sites for leadership, coalition building, and intellectual diversity.
10. External factors create special imperatives and challenges for leaders.
11. The information needed by leaders to further diversity agendas internally and address external pressures is sometimes lacking.

The report concludes by delineating some pivotal questions designed to propel the work of diversity into the future, where definitions of diversity and structures of power will have shifted in yet-unseen directions.

To download the full summary, visit www.ncrw.org/research/diversity.