The prospects for women working in the dean's office.

So you've been approached to apply for associate dean. Is it a rung on the ladder from chair to academic dean, provost and president? Or is a byway where you'll learn new skills and make new contacts before escaping sideways and out?

Dr. Patricia Bowie Orman has been studying women academic deans and associate deans since 2001-2002. Their job patterns don't follow a traditional model, she said at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) meeting in San Diego in April. With different patterns, motives and prior experiences, she described a diverse group who share a nurturing leadership style.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Portrait of a woman dean

Except for deans of women, a few decades ago women deans were almost unheard of outside women's colleges. As recently as 1996, just one in four academic deans was a woman. They were the majority only in health fields, home economics, nursing and special programs. In dentistry and veterinary medicine, they didn't exist.

For men, being a dean is often a steppingstone to upper administration. Several researchers have studied the roles and struggles of academic deans but few have focused on women. Still less is known about associate deans, whose career paths are choppy and unpromising by traditional standards.

"Is there a fit here for women to move up in higher ed, or is it hit or miss?" Orman wondered. She used informal interviews and Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory to identify themes and patterns. Issues emerged around leadership, power, communication, decision-making and career hopes.