State House News Service
By Leah Fulton
June 14, 2021
Eos Foundation’s Women’s Power Gap Initiative’s three-year review of diversity
among presidents shows intentionality works; women of color presidents have more
than doubled, overall women making slow but steady progress.
BOSTON, MA (June 14th, 2021): When it comes to higher education leadership in
the Commonwealth, there is good news: the number of female college and university
presidents is increasing, women of color have more than doubled over the past three
years, and six institutions have welcomed their first women presidents. It’s evidence
that intentionality is working, according to the Massachusetts College and University
Presidents Progress Snapshot, which followed the hiring of presidents from 2018 to
2021. The update was issued today by the Women’s Power Gap Initiative of the Eos
Foundation.
“We cannot emphasize enough how significant these gains are,” said Andrea Silbert,
President of Eos. “Bringing attention to the underrepresentation of women and
BIPOC leaders in 2018 and working in partnership with a dedicated group of college
and university presidents over the past three years has led to significant gains,
particularly for Black women leaders. We are trending in the right direction, but
there is still much work to be done.”
Today’s progress report is an update from the Women’s Power Gap first report which
ranked all colleges and universities in Massachusetts according to gender and racial
representation in top leadership positions.
