Women Making Progress as College and University Presidents: But Still a Long Way to Go

A new report from the American Council on Education finds that college and university presidents in the United States remain older, White, and male. Women made up 32.8 percent of all college and university presidents in 2022. The good news is that progress is being made. In 2011, women were 26.4 percent of all presidents.

Some other highlights from the report relating to women:

In 2022, presidents had been in their position an average of 5.9 years, 2.6 years less than in 2006. On average, men had been in their current position about one year more than women presidents.

Women generally indicated that their first aspiration, application, and appointment to the presidency occurred later in life than those same milestones for men. On average, women were generally appointed within one and a half years of their first application, while men were appointed about two years later.

Women were more likely than men to feel they did not receive a realistic assessment of the challenges facing the institution during their search process.

Women were more likely than men to report that they did not receive a clear explanation of the board’s expectations for their performance.