Nine Guiding Principles for Women in Higher Education

Highlighting the nine guiding principles to help women succeed in their academic careers.

Although there are more women in higher education than ever before―and increasingly in leadership positions―their paths to success are more difficult than those paved for men. Nine Guiding Principles for Women in Higher Education is a concise and accessible resource aimed at helping women faculty succeed in their academic careers. Karyn Z. Sproles offers guidance, humor, and courage to women in higher education, paying particular attention to those with children and women of color.

Based on a wide range of scholarship, stories from dozens of women, and Sproles's personal experience from 34 years as a professor, department chair, and dean, Nine Principles offers advice on
• facing down impostor syndrome,
• avoiding social isolation,
• building networks of mentors,
• preparing for tenure,
• balancing teaching, scholarship, and home life,

and more.

Practical and visionary, the nine principles guide readers from the beginning of their careers through to leadership roles. Women in academia―including adjuncts, graduate students, and tenure-track professors―will find the tools they need to balance success with the rest of life's demands. Each chapter ends with a quick list of advice for easy reference and suggested reading to explore more on the chapter's topic. Rounding out the book is a workshop section that can be used by individual readers or as a guide for conducting workshops and faculty development programs.

Karyn Z. Sproles (ANNAPOLIS, MD) is the dean of faculty development and director of the Center for Teaching & Learning at the United States Naval Academy. She is the author of Desiring Women: The Partnership of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West and Reflective Reading and the Power of Narrative: Producing the Reader.