It is often said that we are the sum of our experiences. If that is true, then it is both the little and the big events that create our persona. As humans, we often find that big events can change us - how we perceive ourselves, how we act and react in certain situations, and how we navigate our world. These circumstances can be pivotal in our lives and development. In many ways, they are defining moments in our lives. Moments, events, and circumstances that are so impactful that they change the very essence of who we are and how we see ourselves. Life has shifted on its axis and we are redefined at our core.
While these defining moments clearly impact us personally, they can also impact us professionally. Particularly for women, and those who identify as female, the personal and the professional are intertwined, often inextricably, whether we want them to be or not. We are a whole, more than the sum of our parts. This phenomena is never more real than for women in higher education, and women in leadership in higher education. So the defining moments in our lives can affect us in equal measure, both personally and professionally. These moments can cause us to dig in and push forward stronger and harder. They can nudge us to pivot and choose a related path, or swerve, as Michelle Obama says, and follow a new path. Or we can walk off the path altogether until we figure out in which new direction we want to go. A hiatus is ok. So is a full-stop. Defining moments can do that to us, and these stories are important.
This volume hopes to capture those pivotal, defining moments, events, or times in the lives of women in higher education and women leaders in higher education. We want to represent the fascinating experiences and moments that define powerful women and women leaders in higher education and discover how they became who they are as people and as leaders.
The proposed volume informs readers and expand their understanding about specific challenges, issues, strategies, and solutions that are associated with women leaders in higher education, and the particular implications of the moments that define us, as women, as leaders and as people. The book includes a variety of emerging evidence-based professional practice and narrative personal accounts as written by administrators, faculty, staff, and/or students - anyone in a position of leadership who is keenly aware of the challenges faced by women leaders in the academy. This work is of value to instructors, administrators, professional staff, and graduate students.