Iowa State falls short of its peer institutions in terms of women in administrative positions, but officials have become more active in promoting the roles to women and other underrepresented groups.

There are only nine department chairwomen out of 66 department chairpersons at the university.

Three of the university’s nine dean positions are filled by women, either on a permanent or interim basis.

“The administrators are aware of the problem,” said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center.

Bystrom said there have been many reports concerning the role of women in leadership positions at Iowa State.

She said many of those indicate the university is lagging behind its peer land-grant universities in terms of the number of women leaders.

Despite the university’s understanding for the need to diversify, there have not been a significant number of female candidates applying for some of the top leadership positions on campus, she said.

Many faculty do not want to take leadership positions, said Susan Carlson, associate provost.

It’s a sentiment, Carlson said, is even stronger among women, because of how time-consuming the job can be, which can take time away from their families.

In the past few years, there has not been much change in the percentage of female administrators, she said.

However, in July 2003, Judy Vance was named chairwoman of the department of mechanical engineering — the first time a woman was named a department chairwoman in the College of Engineering, she said.

Even with a lack of significant change, the provost has kept diversity in mind with future dean searches, as search committees for deans in the College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Engineering have been pressed to strongly consider female candidates, Bystrom said.

In May 2003, the Women’s Leadership Consortium submitted a report to the provost outlining a number of steps to counter the lack of women in administrative positions.

One of the issues that was advocated was promoting the role of the Shared Leadership for Institutional Change program. The program was designed to train women and minority faculty for leadership positions at the university.

Claudia Baldwin, associate professor of veterinary clinical sciences, has participated in the Shared Leadership for Institutional Change program in 2002 and said “it was a very valuable experience.”

The program ended in 2004 due to budget cuts. It was funded by in part by the WK Kellogg Foundation and the provost’s office, she said.

The program consisted of many different workshops dedicated to teaching faculty about effective leadership, Baldwin said. Many of the activities were centered around observing people in administrative positions or listening to administrators speak, she said, as well as working closely with a mentor from the university.

At its next meeting, Baldwin will become the president-elect for Faculty Senate, which she said was a way of giving back to the shared leadership program.

“It’s a time where women and minorities need to be supported,” she said.

Members of the program did not get any hands-on experience, but another program that is currently being tested will train women and minority faculty on how to be effective administrators.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Baldwin said.

The program was a recommendation from the provost’s office to increase the number of women and minority administrators in the university, she said, and was inspired, in part, by the report submitted by the Women’s Leadership Consortium, Carlson said.

The program is an administrative internship that allows the faculty to spend half their time in the internship and the other half with their usual duties, she said.