re the status of women in administrative positions in higher education with what we have seen in the nation’s school systems. Let me start with a local women’s college, Saint Mary’s College of Notre Dame, Indiana. This is a college founded some 155 years ago exclusively for women by women religious of the Holy Cross Congregation. All major administrative positions were held by the Sisters of the Holy Cross up until 1967. This college was also the sister institution of the larger University of Notre Dame, across the road, founded about the same time exclusively for men by the Priests of the Holy Cross. In 1967, when the then president of Saint Mary’s died and another well-qualified nun was not available to fill the role, the sisters appointed Saint Mary’s first male president, a priest. In 1970, Notre Dame proposed a merger with Saint Mary’s. Fearing the total absorption of Saint Mary’s into larger Notre Dame, the sisters withdrew from the merger. However, they inadvertently entered into another dangerous situation, the male domination of the school. This happened when they appointed the first layman president of the college, hoping that would bring Saint Mary’s in tune with the modern age. For the next 29 years, the administration of the college passed into almost exclusively male hands. Only in 1999 did they appoint a woman president and a female administrative team, after three decades of male domination.While Saint Mary’s College’s link with the Holy Cross Sisters made it easy for its board to revert to its traditional administration by women, what is happening nationwide in higher education is quite different. A 1982 study by Kathryn M. Moore documents the low status of women in administrative positions in higher education. Moore studied the career issues, educational concerns and the professional, educational and personal backgrounds of 2, 896 senior college a...
