03.08.18

Women in university administration fight to be taken seriously

Lauren Fisher / Asst. News Editor

Ohio University’s female leaders know firsthand that occupying high-up positions in a male-dominated field doesn’t necessarily mean equal treatment.

In a 2013 column for The Student Affairs Feature, OU Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones said she had never had sexist attitudes directed at her until she became a dean of students. Although she “knew it existed,” sexist discrimination was always on the outside — beyond the walls of her home and office.

Hall-Jones remembers giving a presentation to a group of incoming students during orientation. It was, as she wrote in 2013, “a disaster.”

OLIVER HAMLIN | FILE

Jenny Hall-Jones poses for a portrait in her office on April 6th, 2016.

Students tweeted about her clothing during the presentation, making fun of her red shoes and her Wizard of Oz outfit.

“Does anyone else want to bang her?” one incoming student wrote a few days later. Another inappropriate comment soon followed. When Hall-Jones tweeted back to challenge it, she was greeted with a swift and crude reply.

“F--- you,” the student tweeted.

Those types of comments and experiences, Hall-Jones said, simply didn’t happen to the former dean of students, who was a man. Five years later, the disastrous presentation is in the past, but Hall-Jones said the day-to-day microaggressions persist.

While women tend to come to her office to talk about leadership and mentoring opportunities, Hall-Jones said men are more likely to come in looking for a maternal figure. It’s an observation that Hall-Jones shared with former Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi, who one student said was like “the cool uncle” to students. Hall-Jones, meanwhile, was “like our mom.”

“It is interesting, from a research perspective,” Hall-Jones said. “It’s not my job to ‘mom’ anybody.”

For interim Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Sayrs, a history of research and work in feminist theory and gender studies would present themes that came into play in her career.

“I’ve had the same experiences many women in academia have had,” Sayrs said in an email. “For example, people sometimes assume I am the administrative assistant instead of a professor or a dean, or I will have a series of meetings where I am the only woman in the room.”

Only about a quarter of college presidents in the U.S. are women, according to a 2011 report by the American Council on Education. In its 214-year history, OU has never had a woman serve as president.

And despite accounting for more than half the total workforce, many women employed at OU make less than their male counterparts. The average salary of a male tenure-track professor is about $94,000. The average female tenure-track professor makes about $7,400 less, according to a previous Post report.

Vice President for Finance and Administration Deborah Shaffer — once a first-generation student with a passion for numbers — is the first woman to hold her current office at OU. It was a similar story in her previous position at Carnegie Mellon University, where Shaffer was the school’s first female vice president for finance and chief financial officer.

“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be a part of executive teams, and to have served under presidents, where I felt respected and where gender was not a factor,” Shaffer said in an email. “However, it would be disingenuous for me to suggest I have not encountered gender bias.”

Shaffer said she has found that gender bias and cultural expectations can present special challenges to women, especially when it comes to direct communication — a trait she said is “often admired in men.”

Sayrs credits “strong mentorship” from her OU colleagues, who she said have helped her navigate difficult issues.

“Be the best mentor you can be, especially to each other,” Sayrs said in an email. “Finding an effective and authentic way to lead takes practice and a lot of feedback, so having a close group of colleagues you can trust and share ideas and questions with is really helpful.”

Development by: Megan Knapp / For The Post