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		The Female Advantage: Creating Strategies to Assist Mid-level Women On their Journey to Success Submitted by Deb Schmidt-Rogers, Director of Residential Education, DePaul University; & Ann Marie Klotz, Assistant Director of Residential Education, DePaul University Why research this topic? How do women in senior positions on our campuses feel about their work? Who helped them along their paths to success? Do they believe they lead differently as women than do their male counterparts? Were there hurdles they jumped along the way? All of these questions came up when we presented in November 2007 at the annual GLACUHO conference. Our program presentation was on women and family issues and during the presentation we were deluged with additional questions and requests for more information on the topic of women in leadership. Upon returning from GLACUHO we were fortunate to attend a luncheon keynote by Sally Helgesen, author of “The Female Advantage.” The book focuses on how women use their “female advantage” in the workplace and what benefits to the organization come from having skilled female leaders in the workplace. As women aspiring to be senior leaders, we were intrigued. After reading the book, we wondered how senior and executive level women have used their “female advantage” in the workplace in a higher education setting. Did their “female advantage” assist them in their career path? Did it hinder them in any way? We decided to try to find out more about this topic. We created a list of questions that we wanted to ask women in leadership. We focused on discovering the strengths and challenges they faced along their professional path, ways they used their “female advantage” and concluded by asking what advice they would give to younger professionals. After discussing what we wanted to know about women in leadership, we came up with the following ten questions. What personal characteristics do you identify with your professional success as a manager? Of those characteristics, do you identify any of them as specifically female? Which of your “female characteristics” have most assisted you in your professional roles? How do you believe you have used your female characteristics to advance your career as a manager? Have you ever felt negative backlash for your female leadership characteristics? In what way? What obstacles in your career path have you faced as a woman? What challenges do women in higher education face as they advance? Have you been able to respond to those obstacles by using any of your female characteristics? Have you had any female professional mentors that assisted you in career? If so, what did you learn from their professional journey? What advice would you have for young professionals about their female advantage in the work place? After constructing the questions, we emailed over 40 women in our region who hold senior or executive levels within higher education. We asked for volunteers to be a part of our documentary project. We interviewed those women who expressed an interest in being videotaped for our presentation. Each woman we interviewed was unique. Each woman arrived to their destination by way of a different path, and yet we discovered similarities in the journeys. We value their stories and respect their right to tell them. We think they all share an important message for women aspiring to be senior leaders. Please watch the 28 minute documentary (click the link that follows) and then return to this article for the discussion. Link to documentary Program Discussion What are your initial impressions after viewing the documentary? What common themes related to women’s leadership did you find in the documentary? What common challenges did you hear in the documentary? After watching the documentary what questions would you like to ask the interviewees? After showing the video at the GLACUHO conference our attendees had wonderful insights about their own paths and how they have maximized (or under-utilized) their female advantage in the workplace. Next we discussed the common themes that we, the presenters found in our documentary. Common Themes Identified in the Video Women are relationship focused Women value collaboration Women possess a passion for what we do in Higher Education These women are very strong problem-solvers and this skill has served them well in their careers Our interviewees believe you should maximize your “Female Advantage,” don’t hide it Our interviewees self-identified as nurturing/caring both in their home and professional life They stressed the importance of making connections and building allies at work They advocated for building community at work within their own departments and in the institution as a whole Our interviewees acknowledged that they have seen their share of challenges in their professional journey and encouraged younger professionals to learn from their stories and experiences. After reviewing the footage we found many common challenges reflected in their discussion of difficult situations. These include: Common Challenges Participants discussed how “Kindness should not be interpreted as weakness”. Our participants felt that women often take things personally and this can hinder their ability to move past difficult situations. Their vulnerability can sometimes be perceived as un-steadiness in the workplace. Sometimes women have a difficulty with being ‘yourself’. Trying to fake who you are typically fails. Women need to build a tougher skin so they do not take things personally. Separating person from role/position can be a challenge for women. Breaking into the political structure—particularly when they feel unwanted is a challenge. As presenters, this project was a personally fulfilling opportunity to meet with women who have succeeded in obtaining the top positions of their respective universities. We learned that women want to tell their stories and share their experiences with others. These women want to mentor younger professionals but also recognize that not all mentors have to be women. We learned that there may be a scarcity of women of color at top leadership levels and that (despite the stereotype) many of our participants identified as introverts and are very successful despite not being outgoing by nature. We were pleasantly surprised that faith-based institutions were not as patriarchal as we previously assumed, as several of our participants currently work at one. Finally, we learned that being a senior leader can be lonely, particularly at the levels where there are no peer counterparts (i.e. President, Provost, etc.). Our documentary encouraged us to continue studying the unique contributions of our female practitioners and faculty. Below, we have compiled a list of additional resources that we encourage professionals to check out in the hope of continuing this discussion on your own campuses. Other Resources Helgesen, Sally. “The Female Advantage: Women’s Ways of Leadership”. Doubleday, (1990) Frankel, Lois P. “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage their Careers”. Warner Business Books, (2004) Frankel, Lois P. "See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work“. Business Plus Publishing (2007) Kellerman, Barbara & Rhode, Deborah L. (Editors), “Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change”. Jossey-Bass, (2007) Renn, Kristen & Hughes, Carol (Editors). “Roads Taken: Women in Student Affairs at Mid-Career”. Stylus Publishing, (2004) Journal about Women in Higher Education, NASPA, Volume I, (2008) “Women’s growing experience in the workplace has made them more confident about asserting the value of what they have to bring…” Sally Helgesen, Author, “The Female Advantage” About the Authors Ann Marie Klotz is an Assistant Director in the Department of Residential Education at DePaul University in Chicago IL. She is the current Women in Student Affairs (WISA) Knowledge Community Chair for the NASPA IV-East region and the current Social Justice Education Committee Chair for the GLACUHO association.   Ann Marie earned her B.A. from Grand Valley State University and her M.A. from Michigan State University.  Deb Schmidt-Rogers has been active in the higher education community for the past 25 years.  She currently serves as Director of Residential Education at DePaul University in Chicago.  She holds a B.S. in Biology, and an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology and Higher Education from Loyola University Chicago.  Her previous positions include Assistant Director of Residence Life at The Catholic University of America, Assistant Dean of Students at Trinity College and Director of Residence Life at Rosary (Dominican University) College.