Diverse – Issues in Higher Education
By Liann Herder
Since 2018, the percentage of women of color who are presidents of higher education institutions in the state of Massachusetts has doubled from 6% to 12%. But none of those women identify as Latinx or Indigenous, and overall, there has been minimal progress for women in positions of leadership.
Women presidents make up just 34% of the 88 sitting presidents in Massachusetts, climbing just one percentage point in four years. That’s according to the latest progress report issued by the Women’s Power Gap (WPG), a campaign created to increase the number of diverse women as CEOs and institutional leaders. WPG is a part of the Eos Foundation, a private, philanthropic group working for a more equitable society.
“We’re understandably disconcerted at the fact that the number of women presidents hasn’t increased, really,” said Andrea Silbert, president of the Eos Foundation. “We have a pool of about a third of our positions that we can allocate among women. So, we just need a bigger slice of the pie.”
