Women Administrators in Academic Libraries: Three Decades of Change

Abstract

From the 1960s until the 1990s, gender equity was a topic of great interest in library workforce studies. In the almost forty years since affirmative action law was made applicable to institutions of higher education, efforts have been made to increase the number of women administrators in academic libraries, and it is now assumed that women have achieved parity. However, there is little hard evidence available about their representation in all types and levels of academic libraries. A follow-up study was done to two earlier studies of the status of women in academic libraries. Using the American Library Directory as a source, the gender of individuals holding the positions of director, associate or assistant director, or department head in ARL and Liberal Arts I libraries in 1972, 1982, 1994, and 2004 were studied. Although women have not yet achieved parity at all levels, the percentage of women administrators has increased significantly over the years. There is still a substantial gap at the director's level in the Liberal Arts I and a smaller one at ARL libraries, however, the results show that since the 1970s, women have succeeded in almost erasing the gender gap in academic library administration.

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