Lay women leaders are change agents at Catholic colleges.

A growing number of women are changing the culture of Catholic colleges founded by priests and brothers. "All the gains that have been made have been because individual women have stood up, often by themselves," one said.

Dr. Mary Lou Jackson recorded the voices of six women in high-level positions in six Catholic schools of that type. She conducted in-depth interviews with them in schools ranging from small colleges to large research universities. They formed the basis for her dissertation at Boston College and a presentation at the National Association for Women and Catholic Higher Education (NAWCHE) conference in July at Santa Clara University CA.

In their own words

Jackson investigated how these women led in the male-dominated environments, capturing their thoughts on how to succeed by using nontraditional strategies at very traditional schools. Well aware of their roles as change agents, the respondents often used small words and behaviors to make big statements.

"Mary" said: "The policies that we have in place now, or the procedures that are women friendly, did not come through inspiration of our male colleagues, who said, 'Golly, gee whiz, we want to make this... a family-friendly place. We're a father-friendly place, is what we are.'"

"Elizabeth" cited many examples of having to call her male colleagues on their exclusive language:

"Once in a while when they're talking about everyone and they use the pronoun we when they refer to men, I'd say, 'and women,' and when they use the pronoun he, and I'd say 'and she' and they kind of catch themselves. When somebody questioned me about why I was saying this, I said, 'Because when you say men, I don't see myself in there, and I don't see the women of this campus in there."'