There have been many efforts in recent years to draw more women into STEM fields. While women have made gains, they are still far less likely than men to major in such fields, especially engineering and computer science. Why? This article presents the responses and the thoughts of a group of scholars and experts.

According to a new survey by a leading higher-education group, women represent a significant share of the senior campus administrators whose jobs are most likely to lead to a college presidency. However, when it comes to members of racial minority groups, the supply of such potential leaders is much smaller. The survey, which was conducted by the…

Denice Denton made a rapid rise to become a university chancellor. Ms. Denton was well known for her larger-than-life personality. She was creative, aggressive, and unerringly self-assured. Although her talents at times intimidated colleagues, she was also skilled at boosting the confidence of those who worked with her. Many say she was a master…

In this article, the author profiles Drew Gilpin Faust, a career academic who has risen to the top job at Harvard University and has been named president of Harvard after six years as leader of its small Radcliffe Institute. Ms. Faust, who is 59, grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, raised by a father who bred Thoroughbred horses and a…

Since joining her city's first flat-track roller-derby league more than a year ago, the author relates that she discovered some surprising, interesting things about her university's tolerance for its employees' "second lives." To be taken seriously, the author relates that she offsets any possible concerns about her professional legitimacy by…

This article reports on the findings of a study of college presidents released by the American Council on Education. Although more members of minority groups and women lead higher-education institutions today than in the past, the study shows the rate of diversification in the president's office has been slow, particularly since the late 1990s.…

Japan's higher-education system is the second largest in the world, after the United States, but it fares much worse than the United States when it comes to gender equity. Just 7 percent of Japan's 750-odd colleges and universities are run by women, compared with 23 percent of those in the United States. While four out of the eight members of the…

Nannerl Keohane became president of Duke University in 1993, one of the first women to lead a top research university. This article details some of the changes that have taken place during her tenure as president. (JM)

Describes how women who lead colleges are forming networks to find moral support and develop their own strategies for solving professional problems and addressing the issues of juggling work and private demands. (EV)

A conference of 200 women college presidents focused on a variety of issues of interest to women, such as peace, poverty, children, and the environment and also on the complications their gender creates in their administrative roles. Lack of personal privacy emerged as a primary concern. (MSE)

Three charts present trends in graphical form, including (1) pension funds invested in common stocks by the College Retirement Equities Fund (1989-92); (2) number of female college presidents (1992) by type of institution (public or private, two- or four-year); (3) faculty pay and cost of living compared to the Consumer Price Index (1985-92). (DB)