This revealing volume examines the current role and status of women in higher education — and suggests a direction for the future. Judith Glazer-Raymo and other distinguished scholars and administrators assess the progress of women in academe using three lenses: the feminist agenda as a work in progress, growing internal and external challenges to women's advancement, and the need for active engagement with the challenges at hand.

Drawing on the latest research, the contributors explore issues faced by women as newly minted Ph.D.s, as faculty members, as administrators, and as academic leaders. They describe women's struggles with the multiple and often conflicting demands of productivity, accountability, family-work responsibility, and the subconscious dance of identities within a variety of cultural contexts.

Shedding light on the past, present, and future of women in higher education, this authoritative book concludes with recommendations for meeting new and ongoing gender challenges in the next decade.

Contributors: Ana M. MartA-nez AlemAn, Boston College; Rita Bornstein, Rollins College; M. Kate Callahan, Temple University; Judith Glazer-Raymo, Teachers College, Columbia University; Steven Hubbard, New York University; Kimberley LeChasseur, Temple University; Amy Scott Metcalfe, University of British Columbia; Anna Neumann, Teachers College, Columbia University; Tamsyn Phifer, Teachers College, Columbia University; Becky Ropers-Huilman, University of Minnesota; Kathleen M. Shaw, Pennsylvania Department of Education; Sheila Slaughter, University of Georgia; Frances K. Stage, New York University; Aimee LaPointe Terosky, Teachers College, Columbia University; Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner, Arizona State University; Kelly Ward, Washington State University; Lisa Wolf-Wendel, University of Kansas

How far have we come from the lone female faculty member in a department? Not quite far enough, note the contributors of these 11 papers, and in specific areas, almost not at all. Although women's enrollment as a percentage of overall attendance continues to grow, particularly in graduate schools, new holders of doctorates as well as those who have been in academe for some time continue to struggle with multiple and pervasive demands ranging from conducting their own research to accountability to the institution and family life. Complete with practical recommendations, contributors address the "work in progress" nature of the feminist agenda, the construction of self and privilege, challenges in research, academic capitalism, the development of women scientists, faculty productivity and gender, the college presidency, women on the board, the community college setting and the choices and discourses of family work and academic work. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)