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The work-life balance pursuit: challenges, supports, and strategies of successful women senior student affairs officers

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The work-life balance pursuit: challenges, supports, and strategies of successful women senior student affairs officers

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THE WORK-LIFE BALANCE PURSUIT:
CHALLENGES, SUPPORTS, AND STRATEGIES OF SUCCESSFUL WOMEN
SENIOR STUDENT AFFAIRS OFFICERS

by

Carolyn C. Stirling

_______________________________________________________________________

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

May 2012

Copyright 2012 Carolyn C. Stirling

ii

Acknowledgements
I would like to sincerely acknowledge those who made this dissertation possible
due to their support and encouragement. First, a big “thank you” to Dr. Kathy Stowe and
Dianne Morris for believing in me. Without your encouragement, I would not have
entered the Ed.D. program or have grown so much professionally. To Kathy, my
supportive chair who constantly challenged me to be better, and to Dianne, who listened
and provided positive affirmations, I extend my deepest thanks.
I would also like to share my appreciation for my committee members, Dr.
Courtney Malloy and Dr. Denzil Suite, whose suggestions contributed to the robustness
of this work. Courtney, you are a favorite professor and I was thrilled to access your
expertise. Denzil, you are a significant mentor whose insights and friendship I have
come to value very much. Thank you both for your contributions to this work.
I am also sincerely grateful to family, friends, and colleagues who have supported
me during this journey. I have appreciated your investment in my success and your
patience and understanding during the busiest times. Your support and encouragement
has sustained me.
And finally, I would like to thank my parents, to whom I owe a deep debt of
gratitude for being my ever-present chief cheerleaders, role models, therapists,
comforters, and friends. I could not have been successful without your unwavering belief
in me. Thank you for always believing that I can accomplish anything and encouraging
me to try.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract vii
Chapter 1: Overview of the Study 1
Introduction 1
Statement of the Problem 5
Purpose of the Study 8
Research Questions 9
Significance of the Study 10
Limitations, Delimitations, Assumptions 12
Glossary of Terms 13
Organization of the Study 14

Chapter 2: Literature Review 16
Historical Context 17
Societal Expectations 20
Gender Stereotypes 21
Social Role Theory 23
Perceived Barriers to Advancement 24
Women Leaders 29
Work-Life Balance 35
Struggles and Conflicts in Achieving Balance 40
Supports and Strategies for Work-Life Balance 45
Summary 53

Chapter 3: Methodology 55
Research Questions 55
Research Design 56
Sample and Population 57
Overview of Participants 58
Theoretical Framework 59
Conceptual Framework 60
Data Collection 61
Instrumentation 63
Data Analysis 67
Ethical Considerations 68
Summary 69

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Chapter 4: Findings 70
Participant Profiles 71
Reporting of Findings by Research Question 77
Summary 120

Chapter 5: Summary 122
Summary of the Findings 125
Implications for Practice 128
Recommendations for Future Study 130
Conclusion 134

References 136

Appendices
Appendix A: Participant Recruitment Letter 143
Appendix B: Interview Protocol 145
Appendix C: Interview Protocol for Participant Referrals 148
Appendix D: Participant Activity Log Protocol 149
Appendix E: Office Observation Checklist 151
Appendix F: Matrix of Interview Protocol to Research Questions 152

v

List of Tables

Table 1: Research Questions as Instrumentation 67

Table 2: Participant Overview 72

Table 3: Participants’ Transformational Leadership Characteristics 118

vi

List of Figures

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework 61

Figure 2: Creswell’s (2003) Model for Qualitative Data Analysis 68

vii

Abstract
Women educational leaders struggle to achieve and sustain success in senior
positions due to their attempts to manage societal expectations for balancing work and
family. Societal expectations of being the primary caregivers result in working women
attempting to navigate multiple professional and personal roles. Those who have attained
the highest levels of leadership are tasked with being effective leaders in their workplace
while at the same time successfully managing a home life and family.
The purpose of this study is to determine how women leaders in education
successfully balance work and family roles. While there is no “right way” to negotiate
work-life balance, the study’s aim is to identify strategies that successful women leaders
employ to effectively balance their work and family domains. This study also reveals
challenges that women may face in achieving and sustaining a student affairs leadership
position, along with support systems that address these challenges.
Four women Vice Presidents for Student Affairs, or senior student affairs officers
(SSAOs), participated in this qualitative case study. Data collection occurred via a series
of in-person and telephone interviews, interviews with colleagues referred by the
participants, office environmental scans, examination of resumes and institutional leave
policies, and activity log entries over a five-week period. The study’s results are of
interest both to aspiring and current women leaders as they aim to successfully integrate
their work and family roles, as well as to policymakers who desire to retain these
effective leaders.

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Chapter 1
Overview of the Study

Introduction

Women leaders in education struggle to achieve and maintain success in senior
leadership roles. Historically, this struggle stems from women’s attempts to manage
societal expectations for balancing work and family. The notion that women cannot
achieve top leadership status in their professions due to their traditional role in society as
primary family caregivers has prevailed through the years. Even though they have made
great strides professionally over time, women continue to struggle to break free of
limiting expectations for their behavior (Valian, 2005). Currently entering the workforce
in ever increasing numbers, women seek top leadership positions and strive to advance in
their field while facing stereotypes influenced by these traditional gender roles (Eagly &
Karau, 2002). Despite women’s substantial gains, gender equity remains elusive in U.S.
society.
The lack of gender equity in the workplace is a problem that has existed for
decades and continues to be pervasive today. Throughout history, a majority of women
have found it difficult to advance a leadership agenda in the patriarchal U.S. society.
Women in academia have faced challenges similar to those of women in other fields as a
result of persistent gender schemas. Scholars in the 1800s perceived women as incapable
of handling academic life on their own or apt to tempt males away from their studies, so
female students were supervised by female faculty members that became, in the 1890s,
deans of women (Drum, 1993).

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The advent of the student affairs profession in the 1950s and 60s and the
subsequent women’s movement of the 1960s and 70s brought increased opportunities for
women’s voices to be heard and acknowledged both professionally and personally. Yet
women’s exclusion from high-level administrative positions continued, illustrating “an
underlying assumption that women occupied a special domain and filled special but
limited roles in student services” (Drum, 1993, p. 6). Societal stereotypes, then as now,
continue to undermine women’s efforts to be viewed as leaders on a par with men, even
in the female-dominated field of student affairs. In the 1980s, only 22% of senior student
affairs officers were female (Tull & Freeman, 2008). Gains have been made since then
and that number has increased to almost 45% (American Council on Education, 2008),
narrowing the gender gap in leadership. Among college and university presidents, the
proportion of women has doubled in the past 20 years to 23%, yet the rate of change has
slowed since the mid-1990s (American Council on Education, 2007). While it is clear
that women are advancing in the profession over time, the growth in the number of top
female leaders in higher education continues to be outpaced by that of men.
Social role expectations persist despite significant advances in the women’s
movement over the past few decades. Stereotypical gender expectations of men as
agentic, commanding leaders and women as communal, nurturing caregivers (Eagly &
Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001) have the potential to limit the aspirations of young women.
The over-representation of men in top management positions sends a message that
women are not perceived to be capable of handling high-level leadership roles. Without
more female role models in positions of power, young women may increasingly opt out

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of the leadership pipeline prematurely, resulting in a dearth of women leaders in all
fields.
The importance of encouraging women’s leadership aspirations cannot be
overstated. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (2009), women make up almost
half of the labor force, and the U.S. Census Bureau (2009) indicates that women now
slightly outnumber men in the United States. As this trend continues, women are likely
to soon outnumber men in the workforce. Despite their growing presence, however, the
share of women working in high-level management positions accounts for only 5% (U.S.
Department of Labor, 2009), and there remains a paucity of qualified female leaders in
the upper echelons of government and the private sector. In the education field in
particular, an arena traditionally dominated by women, only 45% of women inhabit the
highest administrative positions in the arena of student affairs, serving as chief or senior
student affairs officers (SSAOs) (American Council on Education, 2008). SSAOs
comprise a variety of different titles, including dean, director, vice president, or vice
chancellor, and are typically responsible for oversight of the areas of student affairs,
student services, or student life (Tull & Freeman, 2008).
The problem of women’s underrepresentation in education leadership is
particularly acute when considering the number of female workers advancing through the
education pipeline. Increasingly more women earn bachelor’s degrees than men, and
women currently account for 61% of all Master’s degrees and 51% of all doctoral degrees
awarded (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010). In the education field in
particular, more than three times as many women as men earn education Master’s

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degrees, and twice as many women earn doctorates in education (National Center for
Education Statistics, 2010). Women are exiting graduate programs and entering the labor
force at an ever increasing rate and with higher levels of educational attainment, yet they
can expect to make only 80% of the salary that men earn (Bureau of Labor Statistics,
2010), and their career ascent may be halted at mid-level positions (Cheung & Halpern,
2010).
Along with the leadership gap for women in modern U.S. society exists a
persistent gap in gender equity. Women are earning advanced degrees and entering the
workforce at higher rates than men, yet they are mostly relegated to mid-level positions
in the education field. In the arena of student affairs in particular, although women make
up fully 63% of student affairs entry and mid-level administrators, men still inhabit most
of the senior-level positions (Tull & Freeman, 2008). Those women who have attained
the highest levels of leadership in student affairs are tasked with the challenging dual role
of being effective leaders in their workplace while also successfully maintaining their
home life, whether that means managing children, supporting elderly relatives, or
assisting siblings.
Women leaders are faced with balancing multiple roles and responsibilities and the
often competing demands of work and family life. They attempt to “do it all”- be an
effective leader, colleague, and mentor to others at work, while also successfully
managing home and family relationships. At four-year colleges and universities, women
senior student affairs officers in particular experience this struggle to balance their
personal and professional spheres. Due to the intense nature of student affairs work,

5

these women are tasked with negotiating family time amidst frequent all-consuming work
commitments (Guthrie, Woods, Cusker, & Gregory, 2005). The demanding nature of
student affairs work dictates that administrators be available for events occurring at times
convenient to college students, which frequently results in after-hours, evening, and
weekend commitments in addition to a regular full workweek.
SSAOs are expected to spend additional hours at their institutions, leaving little
time to devote to family or other relationships. Beeny, Guthrie, Rhodes, and Terrell
(2005) report that 80% of SSAOs’ employees expect their supervisors to attend evening
and weekend work events, and 85% of the SSAOs themselves believe their own
supervisors expect this commitment of them. Weighed down with expectations, lacking
many peers in similar top positions, and with little downtime to develop support
mechanisms and networks, women in these senior-level roles can burn out and leave the
profession, choosing instead to focus completely on the family domain.
Statement of the Problem
A shortage of women leaders in senior administrative roles at colleges and
universities presents a significant leadership gap. In the absence of effective women
successfully balancing the SSAO position with family life, the limited number of women
SSAOs will lack peer role models, and aspiring young women may decide to opt out of
the leadership pipeline altogether. Role models of effective balance demonstrate what is
possible to achieve and, lacking these, young women may believe work-life balance to be
a myth and opt to stay in a mid-level position or work part-time rather than sacrifice their
personal lives.

6

Yet these younger women professionals in the education pipeline are critical to
the advancement of women leaders in the profession. Marshall (2009) reports that many
key college and university administrative staff are aged 61 or older and set to retire
within 10 years, making the transition in leadership “one of the most significant and
pending challenges confronting higher education” (p. 189) and opening the door for
talented women to advance into senior-level roles and make their mark on the profession.
Increased numbers of female SSAOs balancing work and family life provide evidence for
aspiring women leaders that it is possible to successfully manage a family and an
organization.
The desire to balance work and family roles is not limited to women, certainly,
but since society views them as primary caregivers, the greater burden of home
management tends to fall on women. For married women with children who are fully
employed, these increased responsibilities can be overwhelming and stressful (Guthrie et
al., 2005). In 2009, almost 70% of married mothers were part of the labor force (Bureau
of Labor Statistics, 2010). As increasing numbers of women take on full-time
employment and aspire to positions of leadership, the attainment of work-life balance has
emerged as an ideal to strive for (Marcinkus, Whelan-Berry, & Gordon, 2006). Although
there are a handful of detractors that believe work-life balance to be unattainable
(Hammonds, 2004), the bulk of the literature in this area focuses on strategies employed
by successful women leaders to achieve this sought-after state of equilibrium. Common
themes include integrating work and family activities to improve balance (Cheung &
Halpern, 2010) and identifying social support systems (Marcinkus et al., 2006).

7

The domains of work and family are often viewed as separate spheres, but their
integration appears necessary for the successful balancing of both. Cheung and Halpern
(2010) report that women who involve their families in their work life tend to feel better
balanced, as do those who periodically work from home. Personal and professional
supports, such as family relationships, friends, and time for personal reflection, as well as
mentors, networks, role models (Astin & Leland, 1991), professional affiliations
(Wolverton, Bower, & Hyle, 2009), and supportive institutional family leave policies
(Seay, 2010), also aid women in balancing their multiple roles.
Work-life balance continues to be lauded as a goal for women professionals, yet
not much literature to date has focused specifically on women SSAOs and balance.
Women SSAOs continue to be disproportionately underrepresented in their field, with
less than half of senior level student affairs positions being held by women (American
Council on Education, 2008). When this percentage is compared with the increasing
numbers of women earning advanced degrees, the gap in leadership grows wider.
Reasons cited in the literature for the limited number of women in these top leadership
positions include lack of support, gender role schemas (Cummins, 2005), sex
discrimination (Christman & McClellan, 2008), old boy networks (Searby & Tripses,
2006), and glass ceilings (Baumgartner & Schneider, 2010).
Most literature on leadership explores the general differences in styles between
men and women, with very little research focused on leadership in academia. Further,
there is a dearth of research on how women SSAOs in particular manage work and family
roles. Given that increasing numbers of educated women are advancing their careers in

8

student affairs and weighing the issue of work-life balance, it is necessary to add the
voices of women SSAOs who are successfully managing multiple roles in order to
supplement the current research. The issue of how women SSAOs successfully balance
work and family life remains under-studied and unresolved, necessitating further
examination.
Purpose of the Study
Modern women SSAOs are defying many expectations- of society, of gender
roles, and of themselves. They are achieving what their early predecessors were unable
to do, lending credibility to women’s leadership styles and advancing women’s interests
in the workforce. They are attempting to simultaneously balance their work life with the
family domain, juggling multiple roles in both spheres. Work-family balance, though
affecting both men and women, is a challenging paradigm particularly for women, given
society’s tendency to view women as the primary family caregiver.
The purpose of this study was to discover how female SSAOs fare in balancing
their multiple roles and responsibilities. How do women senior student affairs officers at
four-year public and private universities successfully balance work and family life? To
answer this salient question, the study’s goals were as follows: to highlight challenges
women SSAOs face in balancing work and family life, to examine support that women
SSAOs perceive to be helpful in achieving and sustaining balance, and to identify
strategies employed by women SSAOs to successfully balance work and family life.
Identifying challenges and supports and sharing the strategies these women utilize to
successfully navigate their multiple roles provides a roadmap for other current SSAOs.

9

This study may also be viewed as a guide for aspiring women leaders, offering successful
role models of women achievers to emulate.
While there is no “right way” to negotiate work-life balance, the goal of the study
was to determine a set of strategies employed by successful women leaders that are
accessible to others, empowering young women to pursue their dream careers in spite of
any obstacles they may encounter. To that end, this study also revealed obstacles that
women SSAOs may face in achieving balance. These obstacles are shared for the
purpose of cautioning aspiring young women about potential pitfalls they may encounter
as they strive to achieve their career goals while maintaining balance. In turn, the study
also shares supports and support systems that facilitate successful work-life balance for
women, several of which emerge as strategies that may be employed by any working
woman in her own quest for work-life balance.
Research Questions

In an effort to gain insight into the experiences of successful women SSAOs, this
study sought to obtain responses to the following research questions:
1) What challenges do women senior student affairs officers face in balancing
work and family life?
2) What types of support do women senior student affairs officers perceive to be
helpful in achieving balance in work and family life?
3) What strategies do women senior student affairs officers employ to balance
work and family life?

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Significance of the Study

Scholars have addressed the topic of leadership from many different perspectives.
Common research themes have included leadership style, gender schema, sex
discrimination, and social roles. A substantial amount of this literature examines women
who are leading organizations, but there is very little research on women leaders in senior
student affairs positions at colleges and universities. Most of the existing education
leadership research is focused on female college presidents, to the exclusion of senior
women administrators. Balance for women leaders has been an increasingly popular
topic in recent years, but few scholars examine how women navigate work-life balance in
the education profession. Even fewer studies focus specifically on women senior student
affairs officers and their struggle to balance work and family roles. It is critical that the
experiences of this population be examined and shared widely to provide inspiration for
future educational leaders. Young women advancing in their professional careers need
role models of what is possible for them to achieve (Astin & Leland, 1991; Basow &
Howe, 1980).
This research is instructive for women on the verge of leadership success, but also
for those women currently serving in high-level positions of education leadership who
desire to learn from the experiences of their peers. Since there is no one formula to
achieving balance, it will continue to be viewed as a sought-after and sometimes elusive
objective. The strategies and recommendations shared by the women in this study will
aid both those aspiring to leadership and those already in SSAO positions in the
increasingly common quest for work-life balance.

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Female college and university administrators aspiring to an SSAO role will find
role models in this study and discover strategies to aid them as they climb the career
ladder. Women currently in an SSAO position may find a sort of kinship in these results.
The strategies offered here by their female peers may help SSAOs to better balance work
and family roles. Recognizing similar experiences to their own, SSAOs may find that
this research validates the challenges and successes they face, thereby reducing the sense
of isolation that can stem from being one of the only women at an institution in a senior
leadership role. Male SSAOs should similarly find this research to be instructive,
providing awareness of the shortage of women leaders in senior student affairs positions
and promoting methods for supporting their female colleagues.
These findings will assist policymakers by pointing out the struggles women face
as they attempt to be successful in both work and family domains. The results should
prompt colleges and universities to examine their family leave and hiring policies to
ensure that they are equitable for male and female employees. If they find discrepancies
in hiring practices or policies that are not supportive of equity, institutions may feel
compelled to address these and adjust them as a result of a heightened awareness due to
these and other similar research findings. For scholars, this research contributes to the
wider literature on women in senior-level positions. Data from this study highlights
issues unique to women in student affairs and their attempt to balance work and family
life, supplementing the existing leadership and balance literature. The study enhances the
current research on student affairs professionals and adds the extra dimension of work-
life balance strategies and recommendations.

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Limitations, Delimitations, Assumptions
This study’s limitations were beyond the control of the researcher, but they may
have affected its results. Although efforts were made for the study to be applicable to a
larger population, the small sample size of four women prevents any broad
generalization. It is also important to note that the experiences of these women may be
unique to their individual institutions.
Due to the qualitative methodology of this study, the interview process and
activity log entries elicited reflective responses from participants. It was expected that
the participants would respond to interview and activity log questions with candor;
however, there is no means to guarantee or confirm that they were completely truthful in
their responses. The same is true for the additional personnel interviewed to obtain their
perspective on the participants’ experiences.
A final limitation of this study was time. Due to time constraints, the researcher
was limited to a three-month span for data collection. The short timeframe had an impact
on the size of the sample.
In terms of delimitations, the researcher selected several parameters for the
sample. Participants were four women senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) at
different four-year public and private non-profit universities in various regions across the
U.S. Three of the SSAOs represented public institutions, with the fourth being a private
university. Institutional enrollments ranged from 9,000 to 64,000 students. Altogether,

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the women have worked 62 years in SSAO positions throughout their career, and
individually, their tenures in their current SSAO role range from four to 24 years.
In this study, it was determined by the researcher that each participant is
successful in her SSAO position and in her personal life. For the purpose of the study,
success was measured by the perceived achievement and effective execution of a senior
student affairs officer position at a university, while simultaneously capably balancing
multiple responsibilities in the family sphere.
No specific definition of the concept of family is provided in this study, as it is
difficult to define what constitutes a family due to the many iterations existing in
contemporary society. The concept of family for this study was therefore explored in
relation to the specific participants selected for the sample and their family structures
rather than pre-defined by the researcher. Examining family from this emerging
perspective allowed connection to the study’s theoretical framework, the assertion of
social role theory that the division of labor determines women’s caregiving behavior in a
family structure. This theory will be discussed more in Chapter 2.
Glossary of Terms
Many terms are relevant to and referenced in this study. For the purpose of the
study, these terms are defined as follows:
a. Balance- meeting and fulfilling the demands on a woman’s personal
and professional life in alignment with her needs, values, and priorities.

14

b. Glass ceiling- an artificial barrier that has halted or prevented the
advancement of women and minorities in the workplace.
c. Labyrinth- an updated version of the glass ceiling, it is the circuitous
route to top leadership positions that some women must navigate,
encountering obstacles, dead-ends, detours, and unexpected routes
along the way.
a. Mentors- influential people who help others reach their life goals.
b. SSAO- Senior Student Affairs Officer, which encompasses the roles of
dean, vice chancellor, and vice president.
c. Support system- a network of people, relationships, associations,
family, mentors, supervisors, friends, and others who take an interest in
the success of an individual and provide assistance to help ensure her
success.
Organization of the Study
This study examines work-life balance of successful women senior student affairs
officers at four-year colleges and universities. Chapter 1 provided an overview of the
study and established its importance for women in the student affairs field. Chapter 2
offers a review of the literature, focusing on women’s history in U.S. society, examining
gender roles and leadership style, and featuring studies of work-life balance and the
barriers and supports that, respectively, prevent women from attaining and enable women
to successfully achieve balance. This chapter also describes a theoretical framework for

15

the study. Chapter 3 discusses the research methodology and the reasons for selecting a
qualitative approach. It also provides further information about the sample and how
participants were selected, as well as details about the study’s instrumentation and
framework for data collection and analysis. A conceptual framework is also presented.
Chapter 4 reveals the findings of the research, answering the research questions posed in
Chapter 1 and discussing the results related to existing literature. Chapter 5 ties all the
chapters together and addresses the implications of the study’s findings. This final
chapter also offers recommendations for future research.

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Chapter 2
Literature Review

Women leaders in college student affairs strive to successfully balance work and
family life. Those that attain senior student affairs officer (SSAO) positions need support
from their institution and their family in order to effectively execute multiple roles in
both domains. Women currently represent only 45% of SSAOs despite holding 63% of
all entry and mid-level student affairs positions (American Council on Education, 2008;
Tull & Freeman, 2008). Yeagley, Subich, and Tokar (2010) assert that gendered
leadership gaps, such as the one that exists in the field of student affairs, occur as a result
of the challenges women experience as they attempt to advance. These challenges may
include sex discrimination, the glass ceiling, or family responsibilities. With support
systems in place, including mentors, role models, networks, professional associations,
and family-friendly workplace policies, more women may view balancing a senior
leadership role with home life as manageable and aspire to or continue on in SSAO
positions.
The purpose of this study was to discover how female SSAOs fare in balancing
their multiple roles and responsibilities as professionals and caregivers. To that end, the
study highlights challenges women senior leaders face in balancing work and family life.
It examines the types of support that women SSAOs perceive to be helpful in achieving
and sustaining balance, and identifies strategies that women SSAOs employ to
successfully balance work and family roles. Essential to this inquiry is an examination of
existing literature addressing social roles and expectations for women, women as leaders,
and the paradigm of work-life balance. Although it is noted that women are not unique in

17

their efforts to balance work and family roles, they are the main focus of this study
because of the challenges they face due to their gender. The experiences of male SSAOs
were not examined with any depth, particularly since institutions of higher education
have historically been male-dominated (Blackhurst, 2000).
This research review examines scholarship addressing the concept of work-life
balance and the ways in which women senior student affairs officers approach and
manage this task. First, the topic is situated in a historical context to illustrate the status
of women in U.S. society and academia since the 1800s. The overview of history and the
student affairs profession is followed by a review of the literature related to societal
expectations, gender stereotypes, and leadership styles, and an examination of how
gender can be a limiting factor for women leaders. Social role theory is advanced as a
theoretical framework in this section.
After reviewing women’s status in society and as leaders, work-life balance
literature is examined, both in general terms and those specific to the field of student
affairs. The review then addresses barriers to and supports for work-life balance. Next,
strategies are shared for balancing personal and professional domains. Finally, this
chapter concludes by connecting existing scholarship to the present study.
Historical Context
The history of U.S. women in education is one of struggle and the pioneering
spirit. Nineteenth-century era women were viewed as second-class citizens lacking the
intellectual capacity to succeed academically (Nidiffer & Bashaw, 2001) and were
therefore discouraged from becoming educated. Women who countered the prevailing

18

notion of the time and sought formal education were deemed incapable of monitoring
their own behavior, thus requiring chaperones in the form of female faculty. Female
professors were charged with the task of keeping women students away from the men and
helping them to handle academic life (Drum, 1993). These female faculty members were
predecessors to the more modern deans of women, whose role had evolved by the 1900s
from that of monitor to educator of women students (Drum, 1993).
As colleges and universities became more complex and began to cater to students’
social development, faculty relinquished their supervisory roles and deans replaced them
in an administrative capacity to manage student services (Drum, 1993). The position of
dean of women was a double-edged sword, however. Although it provided women with
a visible leadership position within the academy, it also suppressed their efforts to gain
credibility as educational leaders by keeping them in an undervalued administrative role
(Nidiffer and Bashaw, 2001). In increasing numbers, women were allowed to fill certain
entry-level positions in student affairs, yet they were largely prevented from accessing
the higher ranks of administration through the 1950s (Drum, 1993).
The next two decades after the 1950s brought change for women in the academy,
as well as in the greater U.S. society. National legislation enacted in the late 1960s and
early 1970s instigated a new focus on women’s issues, including Title VII, prohibiting
sex discrimination in the workplace, and Title IX, prohibiting sex discrimination in
education. The advent of Title IX prompted institutions to combine the “sex-restricted”
titles of dean of men and dean of women into the more gender-neutral title senior student
affairs officer (SSAO) (Earwood-Smith, Jordan-Cox, Hudson, & Smith, 1990). Equity

19

for women at home and in the workplace became increasingly accepted (Nidiffer &
Bashaw, 2001), if not completely embraced.
Women began to be recognized for their potential as leaders throughout society,
with more women elected to the U.S. Congress during this time than ever before (Nidiffer
& Bashaw, 2001). Women also experienced small but significant gains in academe, with
a few appointed to senior leadership positions in the field of student affairs (Drum, 1993).
Around this same time period, the student affairs profession began to gain more respect,
rendering the position of dean of student affairs more credible than in the past (Drum,
1993). It was also in the 1970s that respected national organizations began to take note
of the needs of women in academia, forming programs to support aspiring women
educational leaders.
According to Nidiffer and Bashaw (2001), of the two professional student affairs
associations that have offered and continue to offer programming for women leaders,
more senior student affairs officers tend to join NASPA- Student Affairs Administrators
in Higher Education. In 2011, NASPA reports that 64% of its 12,179 members are
female, and 537 of these women are SSAOs. This indicates a slight 6% increase in
female student affairs leadership over the past 18 years (Drum, 1993). Despite a majority
of NASPA’s membership being female, only 4% report serving in an SSAO position
(NASPA, 2011).
Women continue to be underrepresented in senior student affairs officer roles. It
is true that women’s leadership representation has increased over the years, advancing
from holding 17% of SSAO positions early in the 1980s to 33% by the mid-1990s

20

(Nidiffer & Bashaw, 2001). Tull and Freeman (2008) report a higher percentage of
female SSAOs in 1984 at 22%, increasing by 2008 to 45% (American Council on
Education, 2008). The discrepancy in the total number of women SSAOs at any given
time could be accounted for by the fact that position titles have changed over the years
and what constitutes an SSAO has differed (Tull & Freeman, 2008). It has also been
documented that over the past 20 years, from the late 1980s when there were 31,000
more men than women in higher education managerial leadership positions, to 2009
when almost 17,000 more women than men held these positions, women have become an
increasing leadership presence (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010). This
data seems to indicate that the gap is closing for women in education leadership roles;
however, they continue to remain disproportionately underrepresented in student affairs
leadership compared to their male counterparts.
It has been established that women are an increasing presence in the American
workforce and in the student affairs profession in particular, so it elicits the question of
why they are not more strongly represented in senior student affairs leadership roles. An
examination of literature regarding stereotypical gender roles and the workplace, as well
as leadership and gender, sheds some light on the status of women in U.S. society and
their struggle to gain credibility as leaders in the field of student affairs.
Societal Expectations
Since the late 1960s, a considerable amount of research has focused on
stereotypes and gender roles (Dasgupta & Asgari, 2004; Duehr & Bono, 2006; Eagly,
1987; Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Wood & Eagly, 2002; Schein, 1975; Valian, 2005). It is

21

necessary to consider stereotypes when examining women leaders, as women and men
are viewed in a gendered way due to societal social roles and schemas (Valian, 2005).
Stereotypes emerge from observations of behavior that are witnessed on a regular basis,
and people’s actions tend to be determined by their particular social role in society (Eagly
& Steffen, 1984). Social roles that prompt stereotypes are externally viewable positions
in society, whereas schemas operate at the level of the unconscious (Valian, 2005), but
both can serve to limit women’s ability to be effective leaders.
Sex differences disadvantage women due to the fact that society is made up of
patriarchal social structures in which men have the majority of the power and authority
(Wood & Eagly, 2002). Researchers note that the division of labor historically emerged
from women’s reproductive ability and men’s size and strength, roles that solidified as
the years progressed (Wood & Eagly, 2002). Women occupied the domestic sphere in
their role as caretakers of children, resulting in the stereotype of women in the caregiver
role and men in the provider role. According to Wood and Eagly (2002), this
socialization process may constrain women to the role of caregiver, making it difficult for
society to view women as leaders in the workplace.
Gender Stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are advanced due to observations of women in positions of
lower status than men in society (Eagly & Steffen, 1984). The majority of leaders in
positions of power are men, causing the leader stereotype to be male. Beliefs about men
and women in society based on observed social roles conclude that men are agentic-
assertive, authoritative, and confident leaders, while women are communal- nurturing

22

caregivers primarily concerned with the welfare of others (Dasgupta & Asgari, 2004;
Eagly & Karau, 2002). Eagly and Steffen’s (1984) research documents that occupational
roles underlie beliefs about women and men and influence perceptions about their social
roles in society.
More recently, Dasgupta and Asgari (2004) examined the effect of gender
stereotypes in their study of college women. Findings support the researchers’
hypothesis that exposure to female leader role models results in automatic association of
leadership qualities with women and the activation of counter-stereotypic perceptions,
which allow women to envision themselves in leadership roles. The researchers learned
that the social environment makes a difference in women’s beliefs about leadership and
gender. Frequent exposure to women leaders in college was found to mediate gender
stereotypes, revealing the importance of role models in reducing stereotyped beliefs.
Based on Dasgupta and Asgari’s findings, the more frequently that women are exposed to
female role models, the greater the likelihood that they will abandon limiting gender
stereotypes and schemas and recognize possibilities for themselves to take on leadership
roles.
Gender Schemas
Gender schemas, like stereotypes, can also disadvantage women by influencing
perceptions of what makes an effective leader. Societal schemas are organized patterns
of thought that operate on an unconscious level, causing many to view men as more
effective in leadership roles (Valian, 2005). Valian (2005) asserts that “simply being
female exacts a clear cost to women” (p. 207), as schemas prevent women from being

23

perceived as competent leaders due to their gender. As a result, women tend to be
offered mostly low-status, low-paying positions, preventing their advancement (Bolman
& Deal, 2008).
Schemas and stereotypes can influence societal perceptions to the detriment of
women in all professions, including the historically male-focused realm of the academy
(Cummins, 2005). Investigating literature on female academics, Cummins (2005)
discovered that married women who work fewer hours and spend more time with their
families are considered to be on the “mommy track” and are therefore thought to be less
serious by their male colleagues, a plight also shared by single female faculty. The
experiences of female faculty are similar to those of SSAOs in terms of the level of
professional demands experienced, as well as the isolation and exclusion that may be
experienced by women who assume a leadership role. The next section will advance
social role theory as a foundation for the present study due to its emphasis on the
influence of social roles in determining perceptions of women leaders.
Social Role Theory
Social role theory provides a theoretical framework for this study due to its salient
focus on gendered social roles and how they impact work and family domains. Noting
that societal norms prescribe behaviors and activities for men and women, Eagly (1987)
posits that it is the division of labor between the sexes that causes men to act agentically
and women to act communally, with social roles guiding “behaviors more than the gender
we inhabit” (Dulin, 2007, p. 105). As a result, those in domestic roles are viewed as

24

communal and those in the workforce are considered agentic. Stereotype studies
conducted by Eagly and Steffen (1984) and Dasgupta and Asgari (2004) support Eagly’s
(1987) social role theory.
The theory’s relevancy is apparent when examining the male and female division
of labor still very much in existence today, with women primarily expected to manage
family and work roles (Wilson, 2007). Social roles do appear to be dynamic, along with
stereotypes and schemas, so it is possible that they may shift and that women will
someday be viewed more on a par with men. In the meantime, the implication of social
role theory is that women in leadership positions have to work harder than men in order
to be deemed effective in these roles (Dulin, 2007; Valian, 2005).
Social roles, stereotypes, and schemas can work against women by limiting access
to leadership positions and setting a higher standard for leader effectiveness (Eagly,
2007). These role constraints can serve as barriers to women’s advancement by
promoting sex discrimination (Barnett & Hyde, 2001; Blackhurst, 2000), preventing
access to support (Halpern & Cheung, 2008; Wilson, 2007), excluding women from
networks of power or “old boys’ networks” (Dean, Bracken, & Allen, 2009; Searby &
Tripses, 2006), and creating glass ceilings (Baumgartner & Schneider, 2010; Kuk &
Donovan, 2003; Scanlon, 1997). The following section will examine how societal
expectations for women’s roles can become barriers to their leadership potential.
Perceived Barriers to Advancement
Social role theory reveals a prejudice against women as leaders through its
assertion of a gendered division of labor (Eagly & Karau, 2002). This prejudice can

25

serve to reduce women’s perceived effectiveness as leaders or limit entry into leadership
roles. Women who act differently than expected by society are thought to “violate
standards for their gender… by those who endorse traditional gender roles” (Eagly &
Karau, 2002, p. 575). Social role expectations thus impact women who attain leadership
positions, but they also affect those hoping to advance through the pipeline. With women
currently earning 61% of all Master’s degrees and 51% of all doctoral degrees (National
Center for Education Statistics, 2010), increasing numbers of women will be aspiring to
top leadership positions. Perceived barriers such as the glass ceiling, perpetuated by
gender stereotypes and the perception of role incongruity, could result in a shortage of
women leaders as women attempt to avoid these barriers by opting out of the leadership
pipeline altogether (Hewlett, 2007). This is a challenge facing corporate America, as
well as the higher education arena (Nidiffer & Bashaw, 2001).
Glass Ceiling
The glass ceiling is constructed from sex discrimination and prejudicial beliefs
that form a barrier preventing the advancement of qualified women into top leadership
roles (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Eagly and Carli (2007) note that prior to the 1960s, women
could not even fathom being leaders on a par with men because they did not have the
same opportunities to earn the needed credentials, a situation the researchers term the
concrete wall. During the following decade with the women’s movement in full swing,
women were offered limited access to leadership positions at lower levels in
organizations, but still prevented from advancing to senior leadership roles. They
experienced a barrier, in the glass ceiling, that had previously not been visible. Women

26

during this era were “misled about their opportunities because the impediment was not
easy for them to see from a distance” (Eagly & Carli, 2007, p. 4).
The 1980s brought more educated women ready to advance their careers, yet
halted due to their gender (Scanlon, 1997). In 1991, the problem had become widespread
enough that a Glass Ceiling Commission was created by the U.S. Congress to examine
the difficulties women were experiencing in attempting to attain leadership roles and
recommend ways to remove the barriers blocking access to top jobs (Cheung & Halpern,
2008; Eagly & Carli, 2007). The Commission’s reports confirmed that women were
prevented from accessing senior leadership positions due to gender discrimination (Eagly
& Carli, 2007).
Since that time, women have made significant advances in leadership, but the
number of recent articles and studies referencing the glass ceiling (see Baumgartner &
Schneider, 2010; Halpern & Cheung, 2008; Trinidad & Normore, 2005; Wolverton,
Bower, & Hyle, 2009; Yeagley, Subich, & Tokar, 2010) indicate that it remains a
relevant perceived barrier for women. According to Nidiffer and Bashaw (2001), the
glass ceiling phenomenon in student affairs administration is a “constriction of the
leadership pipeline with fewer women advancing to senior-level positions than numbers
in the pipeline warrant” (p. 235). Access to senior student affairs officer positions for
women is increasing, but not in proportion to the pipeline, which holds an estimated 63%
of women entry and mid-level administrators (Tull & Freeman, 2008).

27

Labyrinth
Though it appears to be relevant today due to the number of current studies on the
topic, Eagly & Carli (2007) contend that the glass ceiling is an outdated idea that needs
revamping for women in today’s workforce. Arguing that the glass ceiling shattered in
the 1990s when women began to find ways to the top, and that “barriers to women’s
advancement are now more permeable” (p. 1), they propose an alternative metaphor of a
labyrinth. Eagly and Carli (2007) claim that the path to the top is not direct and that the
glass ceiling metaphor does not address the various strategies that women have devised to
successfully navigate the obstacles, detours, and unexpected paths they encounter en
route to top leadership positions. Supporting the labyrinth notion, 58% of highly
qualified women report following a non-linear path to top leadership positions (Hewlett
& Luce, 2005).
The labyrinth metaphor suggests a process of leadership attainment that more
accurately reflects the journey women leaders take and the barriers they may experience
along the way, including discrimination and stereotypes (Eagly & Carli, 2007). Eagly
and Carli (2007) assert that unlike the glass ceiling phenomenon, the labyrinth allows for
the “possibility that women can overcome barriers and become leaders… [and] that
thoughtful problem solving can facilitate women’s paths to leadership” (p. 7). The
labyrinth concept is positive in that it credits women for their successful navigation of
obstacles and eventual attainment of leadership. Upon becoming a leader, however,
women may have to contend with two further potential obstacles: the old boys’ network
and queen bees.

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Old Boys’ Network
For women who navigate the labyrinth and achieve a senior level leadership
position, the challenge becomes retention. Old boys’ networks still exist in some
workplace environments, perpetuating gender discrimination for women (Searby &
Tripses, 2006) and preventing access to the social capital and support relationships
needed to be effective leaders. These networks of established male leaders who have
reached senior level positions only mentor aspiring male leaders to achieve a similar
status. Old boys’ networks emerged out of early stereotyped social roles and attitudes
toward women (Baumgartner & Schneider, 2010) and function invisibly, marginalizing
women by ignoring their capabilities.
Queen Bees
In addition to some male leaders’ lack of support for women, Searby and Tripses
(2006) discovered that some women in leadership roles are also lacking in providing
guidance to help younger women advance. Baumgartner and Schneider (2010) further
note that these negligent “queen bees” have achieved top leadership positions and yet
make a conscious choice not to help aspiring women leaders. Whether this is done out of
jealousy or out of a belief that top positions should be earned, this neglect disadvantages
promising women.
Social role expectations, glass ceilings, labyrinths, old boys’ networks, and queen
bees can serve as barriers for women as they attempt to progress in their career. The
situation for women leaders is not completely bleak, however. In addition to barriers to
women’s advancement, supports are also available, including role models, mentors, and

29

networks (Searby & Tripses, 2006). Literature related to support systems will be
discussed in reference to balance later in the chapter. First it is necessary to review
literature related to leadership and gender. Accordingly, the next section segues from an
examination of stereotypes, social roles, and barriers and focuses on how women function
once they have achieved a leadership role.
Women Leaders
An extensive amount of research on leadership exists, including discussions of
leadership styles and gender (Baumgartner & Schneider, 2010; Dulin, 2007; Eagly, 2007;
Eagly & Carli, 2003; Eagly & Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001; Trinidad & Normore, 2005).
Yet scholarship on leaders in the higher education field is limited. Much of the existing
education leadership research is focused on college presidents, with very few studies
offered on women in these roles (Wolverton, Bower, & Hyle, 2009). Even fewer studies
examine the leadership styles and experiences of senior student affairs officers. The little
existing research on women SSAOs examines their ability to balance leadership positions
with other roles and responsibilities (see Nobbe & Manning, 1997) rather than addressing
leadership styles and effectiveness. The dearth of research on women SSAOs as leaders
presents a gap in the existing scholarship.
Historically, leadership has been couched as a gendered term (Bolman & Deal,
2008; Schein, 1975). The societal expectation of leaders as male results in a “double-
bind” for women: if a female leader displays communal traits, she is deemed not agentic
enough to be a leader, and yet if she behaves with authority, she is perceived negatively
for displaying masculine attributes (Stelter, 2002). Women’s social role as society’s

30

caregivers often causes them to be overlooked for top leadership positions and instead
considered solely for supporting roles (Trinidad & Normore, 2004).
Women leaders also experience the added burden of having to work harder and
meet higher standards than men in order to justify their leadership capability (Dasgupta &
Asgari, 2004; Eagly & Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001), while at the same time being
expected to adhere to their conventional stereotype. In an early study of women, Schein
(1975) investigated perceptions of leadership and sex role stereotypes and learned that
female managers ascribed male characteristics to leaders such as self-confidence,
aggressiveness, and ambition. The implication is that at the time of Schein’s research,
women believed that they needed to exhibit male characteristics in order to be effective
leaders.
The organizational climate has progressed since Schein (1975) studied women
managers, and modern studies indicate a change in stereotypes in women’s favor. Jones
(1986) observed less discriminatory attitudes among male managers and an increasing
awareness of women’s potential as leaders in higher education. A more recent study by
Duehr and Bono (2006) also revealed a significant change in attitudes toward female
managers, more supportive of their leadership advancement. Further, the study notes that
women are characterized as having more agentic and fewer feminine behaviors than in
previous decades. On the one hand, it is encouraging that women are being perceived as
authoritative and “leader-like.” On the other hand, these results suggest that women are
not being appreciated for their own style of leadership and instead for modeling traits
formerly attributed to male leaders.

31

Accordingly, Trinidad and Normore (2004) assert that women need to develop
their own leadership style, incorporating masculine attributes in order to be deemed
credible as leaders but also maintaining their femininity so that they do not “deviate from
the gender role expectation” (p. 577). Duehr and Bono’s (2006) research revealed an
expectation for these social roles: in spite of male managers’ progressive views about
their female peers, male college students were found to hold gender stereotypes similar to
those of male managers of the past two decades. Thus, even though stereotypes may be
changing, they do not appear to have changed much among those who will be entering
the workforce, which could impact the experiences of aspiring women leaders in the
pipeline. The implication of this research may be that women who develop their own
leadership style may have a better chance at success than those who try to replicate men’s
qualities. A review of literature on women and leadership styles will shed some light on
how women tend to behave as leaders.
Women’s Leadership Styles
Literature on leadership tends to categorize leaders into three types:
transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire (Bass, 2000; Eagly, 2007). Whereas
transactional leaders reward or penalize the work of subordinates and laissez-faire leaders
simply fail to manage, transformational leaders engage, empower, motivate, and mentor
others (Eagly & Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001). Contemporary scholarship on leaders
seems to favor the transformational style in the current era of change, as it encourages
acting for the good of the whole organization rather than for individual gain (Bass, 2000;
Eagly, 2007; Eagly & Carli, 2003). While aspects of the transactional leadership style

32

are considered useful due to its focus on the basic work needs of employees, “research
has demonstrated the utility of transformational leadership for increasing organizational
satisfaction, commitment, and effectiveness… in learning organizations” (Bass, 2000, p.
21).
Transformational leadership. Transformational leaders are future-oriented
(Eagly & Carli, 2003), seeking to empower subordinates and develop their potential.
This approach makes it an effective style for student affairs administrators, whose goal is
to facilitate college student development. Eagly (2007) advances the modern notion of a
good leader as someone who is a coach or educator. Like Eagly, Bass (2000) also
examines leadership in educational terms, asserting that transformational leadership is
needed in order to address and eradicate problems facing the K-12 education system. He
calls for educational leaders to be change agents, an increasingly common theme found in
contemporary education. Bass’ argument may be similarly applied to student affairs,
where transformational leaders are needed in order to better support the development of
college students in a fast-paced organization characterized by changing demographics
and limited resources. Organizations that harness transformational leadership styles will
be well positioned to meet these challenges.
Women are uniquely suited to be effective in student affairs leadership roles due
to their tendency to practice transformational styles of leadership. In a study of women
student affairs professionals, McEwan, Williams, and Engstrom (1991) demonstrate that
the nurturing, empowering, and participative characteristics typically affiliated with
women and transformational leaders fit well with the facilitative and developmental

33

nature of student affairs work. Women bring a female advantage to leadership, one that
is transformational, communicative, and nurturing (Bolman & Deal, 2008; Eagly & Carli,
2003; Wilson, 2007). This female advantage manifests itself in interactive leadership
characteristics such as information- and power sharing (Rosener, 1990). Women’s
collaborative and inclusive styles of leadership are especially appropriate in the field of
education, where the culture of shared decision-making and influence allows
administrators to act in the best interests of their main constituent: students (Trinidad &
Normore, 2004).
Eagly and Carli (2003) conducted meta-analytic reviews of gender and leadership
studies and confirmed that gender roles may influence women’s propensity toward
transformational styles of leadership. Their research suggests a small advantage to
women’s leadership style, yet the authors note that this may be “offset by disadvantage
that flows from prejudice and discrimination directed against women as leaders” (p. 818)
as shared earlier in this chapter, that may limit women’s ability to advance. Eagly and
Carli assert that the negative double standard women experience does have a positive
outcome, though: by forcing them to work harder than men in order to prove their
competency as leaders, women become more highly-skilled leaders. However, the
researchers’ review also indicates that leadership success depends on context, so women
leaders may be less effective in male-dominated positions or those with a high proportion
of male subordinates (Eagly & Carli, 2003). Since the field of student affairs is female-
dominated, from these results one might surmise that women in SSAO positions would
likely be effective in these roles. Yet due to the fact that women SSAOs are still in the

34

minority, senior positions continue to be dominated by men, potentially rendering women
SSAOs at some institutions less effective in the position.
Eagly and Carli (2003) argue that transformational leadership may be an ideal
style for women because it encompasses aspects of the female social role and thus “may
resolve some of the inconsistencies between the demands of leadership roles and the
female gender role and therefore allow women to excel as leaders” (p. 825). It appears
that women have found a leadership style that allows them to reconcile their societal
stereotype with agentic behavior. Despite Duehr and Bono’s (2006) finding of male
students’ stereotypic perceptions of women managers noted earlier, overall attitudes in
today’s workplace seem to be supportive of women’s transformational style of leadership
(Cheung & Halpern, 2010; Eagly, 2007). Contemporary employers should heed recent
scholarship noting that leaders with a transformational style are inspirational and positive,
characteristics well-suited for today’s dynamic organizations (Bass, 2000; Bolman &
Deal, 2008; Eagly & Carli, 2003), and consider the female advantage that women
provide. As a Business Week article asserts, “after years of analyzing what makes leaders
most effective and figuring out who's got the Right Stuff, management gurus now know
how to boost the odds of getting a great executive: Hire a female.” (Sharpe, 2000, p. 74).
Female leaders seem to manifest the ideal leadership style for contemporary
organizations, including the field of student affairs, where the transformational style is
most congruent with the tenor of the profession. The question then remains as to why
there are more male SSAOs than female. Could it be that women are not advancing far
enough professionally to meet eligibility standards for these positions? It has been noted

35

in this study that more women are earning advanced degrees than men, so lack of
education should not be an issue, but perhaps barriers such as the labyrinth are
discouraging women from successfully attaining leadership positions. Barriers have been
established to be a contributor to the leadership gap, but another reason women may not
reach the SSAO level could be due to family responsibilities and commitments. The next
section will consider work-life balance issues and how they affect women leaders.
Work-Life Balance
The number of married mothers in the workforce increased significantly between
1948 and 1995, enlarging their representation from 17% to 70% (Bush, Mentzer, Grisaffi,
& Richter, 2011). More recent reports indicate that 64% of mothers with children
younger than 6 and 78% with children aged 6-17 are working (U.S. Congress Joint
Economic Committee, 2010). The slight decrease in the past decade of women in the
labor force with young children is thought to be a result of real or perceived difficulties of
work-life balance among women.
The concept of balance related to personal and professional domains became a
popular topic in the 1980s, when increasing numbers of women had entered the
workforce and dual-career families were becoming more the norm (U.S. Congress Joint
Economic Committee, 2010). Women’s salaries were needed to supplement the family
income and pay for expenses such as childcare. As more women took on professional
roles in addition to their role as primary caregiver, work-life balance became an
increasingly salient issue. In the 1990s, scholars and employers took notice and began

36

developing policies and benefits to help employees handle this balancing act (Kerka,
2001).
Work-life balance issues continue to be salient in the current decade, with women
close to surpassing men in the workforce, holding 49% of jobs in the U.S. (Cheung and
Halpern, 2010). Among working mothers with young children, 66% are part of a dual-
income family, while more than a third report being the sole breadwinner (U.S. Congress
Joint Economic Committee, 2010). Despite the increasing number of women in the
workforce, however, two in five employees report supporting stereotypical gender roles
(Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2008).
In 2008, 67% of working women reported having primary responsibility for
childcare (Galinsky et al., 2008). Although this number has decreased from 73% in 1992,
suggesting an increase in men’s involvement, it still highlights a high percentage of
women trying to balance work and family roles. Work-life balance increases in relevance
particularly in professions such as student affairs that demand regular evening and
weekend work.
SSAOs and Balance
Prior to the 1980s, very little research existed on senior student affairs
professionals. This gap has been partially remedied with a few studies focusing on
SSAO characteristics (Tull & Freeman, 2008), yet very few researchers have examined
senior student affairs officers and balance. Earwood-Smith, Jordan-Cox, Hudson, and
Smith (1990) appear to be among the first researchers to highlight strategies for aspiring
women SSAOs, which include earning a doctorate, becoming a student affairs generalist,

37

leaving the institution to increase promotion opportunities, developing professional
networks and management skills, and developing a sense of humor. These prescriptive
ideas only include one related to life outside of work, to participate in hobbies, and this
recommendation is made solely so that the woman will be viewed by her colleagues as “a
competent, well-rounded human being” (Earwood-Smith et al., 1990, p. 303) and not for
her own benefit. No mention is made of any of the women having family responsibilities
or multiple roles to juggle, with the unrealistic presumption being that women in senior
leadership positions do not have family responsibilities to manage.
There is a paucity of research on women SSAOs and balance, even though the
importance of this topic is growing as the number of women entering the field of student
affairs increases. Many of these women are contributing to the economic welfare of their
families, either along with their spouse or as the primary or sole breadwinner (Bush et al.,
2011). Women SSAOs experience heavy job demands that include regular evening and
weekend work, making it even more difficult for them to balance these demands with
those of family.
The heavy job demands experienced by women in SSAO roles make the gap in
research on this population even more pronounced. A few studies focus on balance and
women college presidents or faculty, and more scholarship focuses on women outside of
academe and balance, but very little has been studied related to women in senior-level
positions in student affairs. The experiences of women in this field merit attention due to
the demanding nature of their jobs coupled with the demands of the family domain.
Increasingly, women are deciding against choosing “either a baby or a briefcase”

38

(Cheung & Halpern, 2010, p. 183) and are instead opting for both. The choice to be both
a mother and a senior leader is becoming more popular despite the challenges women
leaders may face due to these multiple roles.
Research indicates that multiple roles may actually be beneficial for women
(Barnett & Hyde, 2001), as long as they are balanced effectively. The present study
aimed to demonstrate that balance, although challenging to attain, is achievable for
professional women in some form. Before examining research related to balance,
however, it is important to note that not everyone believes that balance is achievable. In
fact, there are a few detractors who believe that balance is not the best solution for
everyone.
Balance Cynics
Very few articles are critical of the notion of work-life balance, yet it is worth
mentioning that some writers do not view balance to be an admirable goal. Caproni
(1997) asserts that striving for work-life balance may actually undermine attempts to live
a happy and successful life. She further argues that the notion of balancing work and life
roles indicates that one has control over what happens in those domains, which is untrue
in an unpredictable world. Instead of striving for balance, Caproni advocates creating a
new discourse in which contribution matters more than success and replaces the need for
achievement.
A similar theme is offered by Hammonds (2007) in Balance is Bunk!, contending
that the concept of balance is not simply unattainable, but is actually unhealthy in its
demand for success in all areas of life. Hammonds argues that embracing imbalance is a

39

preferable way to proceed in order to avoid feeling stressed by not effectively managing
all aspects of life. Instead of trying to balance work and family life all at once,
Hammonds advocates a continual process of “rebalancing” roles and responsibilities so
that work is a focus for a period of time, and at other times, more attention is paid to
home life.
These different philosophies of balance are worth considering as the topic is
further explored. Similar to what Hammonds (2007) advocates, there is support in the
literature for different approaches to balancing work and family. Some scholars support
the consideration of work and family domains as integrated, overlapping, and intersecting
spheres (Halpern & Cheung, 2008; Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004; Wilson, 2007), an
approach that seems more facilitative of balance than viewing life roles as separate and
distinct. Although Caproni (1997) argues that attempts to balance can lead to frustration,
integrating work and family life allows women to more successfully manage and even
find enjoyment in both domains, which this next section will explore.
Job Satisfaction and SSAO Balance
Related to the concept of integrating work and family domains, Josselson (1996)
notes that some women choose certain careers specifically because these positions allow
for and support the overlapping of work and family life. In her longitudinal study of
women’s identity formation, Josselson found that working mothers are happier than those
who are not working, and that balancing multiple roles actually causes women to feel
proud and accomplished. Thus, job satisfaction appears to be a factor in the successful
retention of women leaders.

40

In their review of literature analyzing factors influencing satisfaction among
student affairs administrators, Anderson, Guido-DiBrito, and Morrell (2000) discovered
that earning an advanced degree, having many years of professional experience, and
being married are all contributors to job and life satisfaction for women SSAOs. On the
flip side, however, another study showed that women SSAOs have high levels of role
conflict that are negatively related to life satisfaction (Blackhurst, Brandt, & Kalinowski,
1998). Based on the latter finding, if the SSAO is not happy at work, she will not be
happy at home and may leave her position in an attempt to resolve this role conflict.
Additional conflicts for women attempting to balance work and family roles are
examined in the next section.
Struggles and Conflicts in Achieving Balance
Women’s job and life satisfaction can be affected by the degree to which they feel
they can successfully balance multiple roles. Balancing work and family roles does not
come easy for working women, and work-family conflict can prevent the successful
achievement of balance. Galinsky et al. (2008) report that fully 45% of working mothers
in dual-income families experience work-life conflict, a percentage that has increased
since the 1970s as more women have entered the workforce. There are many
contributors to work-family conflict cited in the literature, complicating the successful
balancing of personal and professional roles. These include the number of hours worked,
the real or perceived lack of supportive workplace policies, the motherhood penalty,
stress and strain, guilt, and isolation. Literature related to these struggles will be explored
in the next section.

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Work hours and time management. In their study of predictors of perceived
work-family balance, Keene & Quadagno (2004) reveal that women who limit their work
hours perceive improved work-life balance. The number of hours worked can create a
time conflict for those striving toward work-family balance (Astin & Leland, 1991;
Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2008; McEwan, Williams, & Engstrom, 1991). The unique
challenge for student affairs professionals is that the nature of their work involves
students, whose events and activities occur on evenings and weekends, resulting in
frequent overtime hours. Women SSAOs are called upon to balance these long work
hours with family commitments. Nidiffer and Bashaw (2001) call this the “hidden
workload” of student affairs, a real issue for female SSAOs due to the social role they are
also expected to fulfill at home.
The extra time women spend on domestic and caregiving duties upon returning
home after working a full day is what Wilson (2007) calls the “second shift,” noting that
in four out of five marriages, women are still expected to be the primary caregivers
despite the fact that many are working full-time. In a national study, Galinsky, Aumann,
and Bond (2008) discovered that mothers spend more time than fathers on an average
workday caring for their children. Even in dual-income families, social role expectations
for women dictate that they will oversee child-rearing and household responsibilities
(Bolman & Deal, 2008). Balancing a more than full-time student affairs position with a
more than full-time domestic role can impede women’s ability to be successful in either
role.

42

Halpern and Cheung (2008) note that many researchers focus on time from a
scarcity perspective: there is not enough time available to spend on work and family, so
one domain always suffers. To remedy this, Marcinkus et al. (2007) assert that women
should assess their balance goal and recalibrate work and family responsibilities when
necessary. Strategies developed to reallocate time include scheduling and prioritizing
activities (Galinsky et al., 2008; Halpern & Cheung, 2008). Sequencing is another
strategy mentioned by Halpern and Cheung (2008), where women focus on their career
when they are young, opt out to have children, and return to work later when their
children are grown. The downside to this strategy is that it can backfire, preventing
women from accessing top leadership positions. An additional strategy for managing
time is to get less rest, with Halpern and Cheung noting that working mothers receive five
to seven fewer hours sleep each week than non-working mothers. Hewlett (2007) adds
that exercise also suffers, which she discovered was true for half of the working
professionals she surveyed.
Opting out. Sleep and exercise are just two of the sacrifices women make when
trying to find more time in which to balance their multiple roles and responsibilities.
Another decision referenced previously that women may face is whether to exit the
workforce to raise a family. Whether called opting out (Halpern & Cheung, 2008),
forcing-out (Bush et al., 2011), the motherhood penalty (Galinsky et al., 2008), trade-offs
(Maume, 2006), or off-ramps (Hewlett, 2007), the result is the same: leaving full-time
positions to be full-time caregivers can negatively impact a woman’s career. Hewlett

43

laments the 2004 Hidden Brain Drain Task Force survey’s report that 37% of qualified
women voluntarily stop out of the workforce at some point in their lives.
In his study of dual-earner couples with and without children, Maume (2006)
discovered that women experience more work trade-offs for the sake of family than do
their male partners, suggesting that women achieve balance by adapting to the needs of
their family and working part-time or leaving their profession altogether. In doing so,
they run the risk of halting their career progression (Halpern & Cheung, 2008) and
finding it difficult to later reenter the workforce (Hewlett & Luce, 2005). Women who
opt out of their careers also suffer diminishing lifetime earnings of up to 20 to 30% (Bush
et al., 2011) or 37% across sectors when they spend more than three years away from
their job (Hewlett & Luce, 2005). The longer a woman opts out of her job to focus on
family, the more negative the impact on her career.
Stress and role strain. For women who do remain in the workforce, the stress,
strain, and guilt of struggling to manage multiple roles and responsibilities can pose an
added burden (Elliott, 2003; Guendouzi, 2006; Wilson, 2007). Higher education
administration is reported to be among the top 12 most stressful occupations, with a high
risk for burnout (Guthrie, Woods, Cusker, & Gregory, 2005). Long days and the
challenge of setting limits in a helping profession contribute as stressors. In a study by
Beeny, Guthrie, Rhodes, and Terrell (2005), 57% of respondents actually indicated that
they attempt to hide stress related to work-family responsibilities so that they will be
perceived to be successfully managing work-life balance.

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Stress-inducers revealed by Nobbe and Manning (1997) include colleagues’
scrutiny for taking time away from work, abandonment of academic pursuits, and few
female role models. Notably, their study also observed that having children actually
moderates stress (Nobbe & Manning, 1997), a positive outcome for women struggling
with multiple roles. Yet Elliott’s (2003) study of role strain, a chronic source of stress
due to social role expectations, reports that working women experience more role strain
than men. Married women report less role strain, however, emphasizing the importance
of support as a strategy in mediating stress, which will be discussed later in the chapter.
This finding also seems to support Nobbe and Manning’s (1997) observation that family
members can moderate stress.
Guilt. Struggles to successfully balance work and family can cause stress as well
as feelings of guilt for women who are unable to spend adequate time or focus fully on
both spheres (Wilson, 2007). Nobbe and Manning’s (1997) study reveals that women
administrators are scrutinized by colleagues for taking time off related to family, echoing
what Wilson (2007) terms the “national pastime of mother blaming” (p. 59). Similar to
the aforementioned mediating effect of children and spouses, Guendouzi (2006)
discovered that the workplace actually serves to mediate guilty feelings among
professional women, allowing them the opportunity to express their stressors related to
mothering and balance in a neutral environment. It seems that having a family and
working may both cause and relieve stress and feelings of guilt, depending on the support
systems one can access.

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Isolation. Other professional women in the workplace lending support proved
helpful for the teachers in Guendouzi’s (2006) study who work in a field dominated by
women, but women SSAOs at colleges and universities are in a more precarious position
due to fewer female peers at their level with which to commiserate. Thus, isolation is an
issue faced by women SSAOs. As women move up the leadership ladder, fewer women
are in senior positions, making it lonely at the top (Astin & Leland, 1991; Wolverton,
Bower, & Hyde, 2009). A support system is needed in order to surmount this and all
other perceived barriers to balance. Possible supports and strategies for balance will be
advanced in this next section.
Supports and Strategies for Work-Life Balance
Examining the struggles women leaders face in attempting to successfully balance
work and family life, it may seem impossible to achieve this goal. Yet researchers
demonstrate that balance is indeed possible (Beeny, Guthrie, Rhodes, & Terrell, 2005;
Cheung & Halpern, 2010; Guthrie, Woods, Cusker, & Gregory, 2005; Marshall, 2009;
ten Brummelhuis & van der Lippe, 2010). The literature on balance specifically in the
student affairs field is very limited, with almost no studies focused on SSAOs. Studies
that discuss work-life balance from a broader perspective may inform this conversation,
so the most pertinent research is examined next, followed by a narrowing of the
discussion to the student affairs field.
General Studies of Work-Life Balance
Cheung and Halpern (2010) conducted a qualitative study of 62 top women
leaders responsible for caring for children, elders, or siblings and working in government,

46

education, and business. Their study examined how women in diverse fields and societal
contexts balance work and family life. Especially pertinent to the current discussion is
that the women participating from the education field were college presidents, so the
findings may be applicable to the experiences of senior level women in higher education.
Cheung and Halpern’s research advocates for the integration of work-family roles by
working remotely from home and involving children in work-related activities. The
study’s participants suggest that women let go of trying to do it all to balance multiple
roles and instead outsource domestic work. In doing so, “they alter their internal
conceptions of the demands of their work and family roles and define these roles in ways
that are meaningful and important to them” (p. 185). Redefining roles gives women a
sense of control over their responsibilities and aids them in achieving balance on their
own terms. An additional study outcome referenced the importance of the social support
of family, the workplace, and networks in helping women leaders succeed (Cheung &
Halpern, 2010).
ten Brummelhuis and van der Lippe (2010) also found social support to be
integral to work-family balance for couples in their study of Dutch employees. Their
results indicate that singles fare less well on measures of work performance than couples
and parents, presumably because singles do not have the same type of support networks.
Supervisor support was found to be helpful for both couples and singles. The most
helpful work arrangement for working parents was revealed to be a family-responsive
organization that respects family life and commitments. Interestingly, the researchers
found that the use of flexible working arrangements, a strategy that surfaced in Cheung

47

and Halpern’s (2010) research as well as in other studies, did not improve work outcomes
for parents in this particular study (ten Brummelhuis & van der Lippe, 2010). It is noted
that the cultural context of the study, having been conducted in The Netherlands, may
have had an impact on the outcome that caused it to differ from the experiences of U.S.
workers.
SSAO Studies of Work-Life Balance
In the field of student affairs, Guthrie, Woods, Cusker, and Gregory (2005)
studied 11 administrators perceived to exemplify work-life balance. Six were SSAOs
and six were women, but the researchers do not stipulate the number of SSAOs that were
women. Interviews yielded strategies for balance that include: sharing caregiver
responsibilities, integrating work and family activities (also advocated in Cheung &
Halpern’s 2008 study), being intentional with self-care, delegating and multi-tasking,
accessing mentors, and having faith or spirituality. The researchers note that there are
multiple strategies for balancing and the best strategy varies from person to person. They
urge student affairs professionals to consider their position as role models for other staff
and college students in living a balanced life (Guthrie et al., 2005).
In another study of work-life balance among SSAOs, 93% stated that the
demanding nature of student affairs work makes it difficult to achieve balance (Beeny,
Guthrie, Rhodes, & Terrell, 2005). Almost half of the SSAOs surveyed reported working
60-hour workweeks, and only half rated their current level of balance as better than
average. More than one-third of the SSAOs indicated that an expectation of the field of
student affairs is to devote oneself completely to the profession. These behaviors and

48

expectations could be major stressors, and yet the study revealed that stress does not
seem to have a negative impact on SSAO job satisfaction, with 92% of SSAOs noting
they would not choose differently if they were entering the career now knowing about its
time demands. In contrast, 67% of SSAOs reported knowing at least one person who left
the field due to an inability to balance work and family roles. Beeny et al. (2005) report
several balance strategies emerging from their study, including utilizing mentors and role
models and accessing flexible schedules or flex-time.
Perhaps most salient to the present study of female SSAOs and work-life balance
is a recent study conducted by Marshall (2009) to determine how women administrators
with children negotiate their personal and professional roles. Seventeen participants with
children school-aged or younger participated from several institutional types. Different
from previous studies, in addition to interviews with participants, the researcher also
collected and examined campus mission statements and leave policies. Marshall
categorized responses into Professional Compromises and Personal Trade-offs, which
include limiting involvement in professional associations, foregoing educational
opportunities, and earning a lower salary due to less mobility, along with limited personal
time, marital strain, and feelings of guilt; and Personal Benefits and Professional
Benefits, which encompass a good income, professional satisfaction, a positive impact on
society, and role-modeling possibilities for children. Marshall (2009) identifies the need
for mentors to support SSAOs, but also for SSAOs to mentor others into similar
leadership positions. She also notes the importance of learning to effectively delegate
work responsibilities and having supportive supervisors. Common themes reported in the

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literature as facilitating work-life balance include support systems, mentors, role models,
professional associations, and networks. These strategies will next be explored in greater
detail.
Support systems. Marshall (2009) advocates “the need to develop a supportive
culture” in academe in order to facilitate balance for women SSAOs (p. 216). It appears
from a review of the relevant literature that balance is indeed possible through the use of
support systems and thoughtful employment of strategies. Astin and Leland (1991)
learned from their longitudinal study of women leaders that support systems mediate the
loneliness and isolation that women often experience in senior-level positions. In a more
recent study of midlife career women, Marcinkus, Whelan-Berry, and Gordon (2007)
report that personal and professional social support is needed for working women to be
successful in balancing work and family. The authors conceptualize social support as
“the structure of relationships as well as the flow of resources provided by relationships”
(Marcinkus et al., 2007, p. 88). According to their study, multiple sources of support
from women’s personal and professional spheres are necessary in order to build a
network of support.
Nobbe and Manning’s (1997) study also reports the use of support systems to
achieve work-life balance. These support systems may incorporate supervisors,
childcare, and a spouse or partner. Mentoring relationships and networks of professional
peers and senior-level administrators also contribute to the social support needed for
successful balancing of roles. A supportive workplace is instrumental to promoting and
facilitating work-life balance for women leaders. Supportive supervisors offering

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flexible schedules enable women SSAOs to more easily balance work and family
responsibilities (Seay, 2010). Universities can help by ensuring that women SSAOs
know about and understand their workplace leave policies.
Nobbe and Manning (1997) reveal that unclear institutional policies place women
at a disadvantage as they strive to balance work and family roles. Many women in their
study report not knowing what their organization’s policies allow in terms of leave or
flexible work opportunities, resulting in some of them leaving the field in order to care
for their family (Nobbe & Manning, 1997). If organizations want to hire and retain
successful women leaders, they should take note of these findings, also echoed in recent
studies (see Halpern & Cheung, 2008), and provide clear policies and flexibility to
support women’s success both at home and at work (Galinsky et al., 2008). Workplace
policies that recognize women’s double burden of work and family roles should be
designed to support these multiple commitments.
Mentors. In fields such as student affairs where the majority of senior leaders are
male, female mentors are especially needed to encourage and support women aspiring to
senior-level positions. Blackhurst (2000) studied women student affairs administrators
and discovered that mentoring reduces role conflict at work and increases women’s
commitment to their institution, an indicator of satisfaction. In spite of the benefits of
mentoring, though, Blackhurst notes that only one-third of the women in her study had a
current professional mentor and suggests that in order to improve the standing of women,
male SSAOs should be encouraged to take on mentoring roles. In a later study, Brown
(2005) examined women college presidents and the effects of mentoring, finding that

51

more than half reported having a mentor as they were advancing in administration. Two-
thirds of these mentors were male, which is understandable considering that men make up
the majority of college presidents. A positive outcome of this study for future women
SSAOs is that over 64% of women college presidents surveyed reported being a mentor
to others.
Role models. Wilson (2007) advocates for the importance of role models by
citing Marian Wright Edelman: “You can’t be what you can’t see” (p. 123). Research on
role models confirms that women are significantly affected by the presence of female
leader models and may look to other women when making career decisions (Basow &
Howe, 1980). McEwen, Williams, and Engstrom (1991) in their examination of the
student affairs profession argue that its current makeup, with women congregated mostly
in entry and mid-level positions, could have a negative effect on women aspiring to
senior levels in administration. More recently, Carbonell and Castro (2008) examined
leader models among college students and uncovered a slight gender gap in leader
emergence: 60% of college women emerged as leaders in the presence of a female leader
model, while 80% of male students did. The implication of these studies is that without
women in senior leadership positions modeling work-life balance, aspiring women may
not recognize that they can be successful in the SSAO role and may therefore decide not
to pursue it.
Professional associations. Professional associations provide networking and
professional development opportunities that help women balance their work and family
roles. Yet, in a study of professional association involvement among student affairs

52

administrators, Chernow, Cooper, and Winston, Jr. (2003) discovered that in spite of the
benefits, involvement in professional associations decreases as administrators’ position
level increases. Thus, SSAOs do not take advantage of the benefits offered by
professional associations to the same extent as younger professionals. The researchers
surmise that this may be a result of SSAOs having already reached the top of their
profession and not viewing the association as a resource in their current position.
Wolverton, Bower, and Hyle (2009), through their qualitative study of women
college presidents and their success strategies, found more positive support for
professional associations. Their research revealed that among female presidents,
professional associations were viewed as beneficial because of the opportunities offered
to network with other women college presidents. For women in positions traditionally
dominated by men, these networks of support can be invaluable.
Networks. Networks are in fact another support strategy noted in the literature
for facilitating balance. Networks may be formal or informal and include fellow
professionals, senior administrators, personal friendships, or family members. In their
study on college presidents and balance, Havice and Williams (2005) cite both
professional and personal networks as key supports for providing feedback, advice, and
guidance to senior leaders. In Astin and Leland’s (1991) study, women leaders identify
personal and professional networks as having been critical to their leadership success.
Networks, along with mentors, role models, and professional associations, are strategies
that have proven to be helpful to women and SSAOs in balancing their work and family
roles.

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Summary
Support systems and strategies to overcoming barriers to leadership and work-life
balance issues for women are identified in the literature examined in this review. Yet
there is a deficiency of scholarship specific to the work-life balancing experiences of
women SSAOs, and none of the existing research surveys the perspective of those living
or working alongside these women leaders. Additionally, only one study examined
institutional workplace policies in the context of whether they are supportive of working
women (see Marshall, 2009). The present study aimed to remedy these research gaps and
to demonstrate that work-life balance is achievable for women SSAOs.
In the student affairs profession, the demanding nature of the work of an SSAO is
an extra burden for women in addition to their social role of primary caregiver. If women
leaders struggle with balancing multiple roles in the absence of viable strategies and
support, aspiring women leaders may opt out of senior-level positions rather than have to
experience this struggle themselves. A recent study by Bush, Mentzer, Grisaffi, and
Richter (2011) reveals that female college seniors are already anticipating having to work
part-time or take time off from their future careers in order to raise a family, and that
male students do not plan to adjust their careers in response to family. This outcome is
indicative of how social roles continue to limit perceptions and impact women’s career
decisions. Role models of women SSAOs balancing work and family life show young
college women that it is possible to be a woman and a leader and a mother and a leader;
and that these roles need not be mutually exclusive. Research on women SSAOs and
balance is limited, however, and deserves additional study.

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This literature review has established that work-life balance for women leaders,
although not easy to attain, is feasible with the aid of support systems and strategies.
After a thorough analysis of available research, it is apparent that balance has been
studied primarily from a deficit perspective. Much of the existing scholarship dwells on
limiting stereotypes and conflicts rather than focusing on strategies for women leaders to
overcome these obstacles. The present study attempted to fill these gaps and provide a
positive perspective of women SSAOs balancing work and family life. The next section
will address the research methods employed to determine the challenges, supports, and
strategies experienced by the four women SSAOs participating in this study.

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Chapter 3
Methodology

The intent of this study was to discover how women senior student affairs officers
(SSAOs) successfully negotiate work-life balance. Women leaders struggle to balance
their work and family responsibilities due to their social role as society’s primary
caregivers. This study examined women SSAOs to determine their challenges in
achieving and sustaining balance, highlight support systems they perceive to be helpful in
facilitating balance, and identify strategies they employ for successful work-life balance.
The strategies women leaders utilize to successfully navigate their multiple roles and
responsibilities serve as a guide for other SSAOs and aspiring women leaders seeking
successful female role models in student affairs to emulate.
This chapter outlines the research design of the study and provides an overview of
the participants and sample selection. It also re-introduces the theoretical framework and
depicts the conceptual framework that together form the foundation for the study. Data
collection procedures are examined, along with the instrumentation utilized. Finally, the
format for data analysis is delineated, along with the ethical considerations made to
ensure the safety and confidentiality of the participants.
Research Questions
In order to determine how senior women leaders in student affairs fare in
balancing work and family roles, the following research questions were posed:
1) What challenges do women senior student affairs officers face in balancing
work and family life?

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2) What types of support do women senior student affairs officers perceive to be
helpful in achieving balance in work and family life?
3) What strategies do women senior student affairs officers employ to balance
work and family life?
Research Design
These research questions framed the study and guided the choice of research
method for data collection. In order to obtain first-hand accounts and insight into the
experiences of women SSAOs, it was determined that qualitative methodology was most
appropriate for this study. Qualitative research generates data revealing “how people
interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what meaning they
attribute to their experiences” (Merriam, 2009, p. 5). This study was meant to be
instructive for current and aspiring women leaders, and the most effective way of
illuminating the experiences of women SSAOs was to allow for their own interpretation
of these experiences via qualitative data collection. Qualitative data collection relies on a
variety of sources of information, including interviews, observations, and document
analysis (Creswell, 2007). To that end, this study accessed data through interviews,
journaling, and analysis of participants’ position descriptions, resumes, and institutional
work-family policies.
Specifically, a qualitative case study approach was implemented for this study due
to its in-depth and rich descriptive nature (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007). This approach is
particularly suitable for the present study because it allows for the capturing of women’s
own voices, perspectives, and experiences, essential to learning how each woman

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individually balances the multiple priorities in her own life. An advantage to the case
study approach, as advocated by Gall, Gall, and Borg (2007), is that it generates thick
description of each leader’s experience, allowing readers to examine their own
experiences in relation to those of the study participants. As a result of detailed interview
data in the form of participants’ own words and those of someone close to them, the
study becomes particularly instructive for readers seeking to learn from others’
experiences.
Sample and Population
This study examined the experiences of four women SSAOs, a small sample size
prohibiting broad generalization but allowing for transferability. In qualitative research,
the sample size is small so that participants may be studied in more depth (Gall et al.,
2007). Each woman’s experience may be unique to her own university, yet aspects of the
study’s results may be applicable across institutions, thereby proving instructive for
readers.
This study used purposeful, snowball sampling to identify four women SSAOs at
universities across the U.S. The small number of participants in the sample afforded the
opportunity for eliciting rich, deep perspectives of their experiences (Gall et al., 2007).
All four participants were obtained through referrals from senior student affairs officers
and colleagues with whom the researcher is affiliated. Purposeful sampling allowed the
researcher to select women leaders balancing multiple personal and professional roles.
This study also sought to utilize a maximum variation sampling strategy (Merriam, 2009)
in order to increase transferability: from the referrals provided, the researcher identified

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prospective participants living in different regions of the U.S. and invited these women
leaders to participate. Each potential participant was emailed a recruiting letter (see
Appendix A) requesting her participation in the study and stipulating criteria for
participation- balancing an SSAO position at a four-year university with home
responsibilities- as well as requirements of participants.
Overview of Participants
Purposeful sampling permitted the researcher to select participants based on pre-
established criteria (Merriam, 2009). Thus, the researcher intentionally selected four
women leaders known to have a spouse or partner and one or more children in order to
study the work-life balance of women juggling multiple personal and professional roles
and responsibilities. All four women selected for the sample had attained the role of vice
president or senior vice president for student affairs or student life at her respective
university. All participants except for one were affiliated with a public institution, yet all
institutions represented were four-year degree-granting universities located in different
regions of the U.S. As previously noted, for the study results to be most broadly
applicable, participants were identified in four different areas across the U.S., including
the West Coast, the Inter-Mountain West, the Midwest, and the Northeast.
In total, the participants had worked 62 years in SSAO positions, with the newest
SSAO having been in her current position for four years and the most veteran of the four
serving in that role for 24 years. The researcher determined that all four participants
strive for success in their SSAO positions and family life due to each participant having
been recommended as such by student affairs colleagues. As previously delineated in

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Chapter 1, success is measured for this study by the effective execution of a senior
student affairs officer position while also ably balancing multiple responsibilities at
home.
In addition to the sample of four women, four additional people were interviewed
to obtain outside perspectives on the participants’ efforts to balance work and family
roles. Study participants were asked to recommend someone to be included in the
interview process, with the only parameters being that this person should have either a
professional or personal relationship with the participant and be closely affiliated in order
to provide an insider’s perspective on the participant’s work-life balance. It was
recommended that any professional colleagues referred not be subordinates in order to
prevent any undue influence as a result of their participation. The four referrals included
two professional colleagues, a close friend with professional ties, and a community
affiliate. Although gender was not stipulated in the guiding instructions for selecting this
person, it is notable that all four referrals recommended by the participants were women.
Theoretical Framework
In order to study the phenomenon of work-life balance among women SSAOs, it
is necessary to ground the research in theory. Due to the multiple roles that women hold
and the societal pressure to serve as the primary caregivers, social role theory is an
appropriate theoretical framework to employ. As explained in Chapter 1, social role
theory examines gendered social roles and how they impact work and family domains,

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with the female gender viewed primarily as communal caregivers and the male gender
viewed as agentic and leader-like (Eagly, 1987).
These imposed social roles impact women’s behavior at work and at home and
result in them having to work harder than their male counterparts to overcome
stereotypes and achieve success as leaders (Dulin, 2007). Social role theory postulates
that women and men behave largely according to the roles imposed on them by society,
with men viewed as leaders in the workplace and women viewed as caregivers in the
home. When applied to the work-life balance discussion, social role theory predicts the
challenges that women may anticipate encountering by acting outside of the societal
norm for their behavior.
Conceptual Framework
In order to effectively balance work and family responsibilities, women leaders
are charged with identifying support systems and developing strategies to assist them in
overcoming the challenges they will face as a result of their leadership role. As discussed
in detail in Chapter 2, throughout history women have been viewed as subordinate to men
in U.S. society. Historical influences led to the development of societal expectations for
women that continue to manifest themselves today through gender stereotypes and social
roles. Women who enter the formerly male-dominated top echelon of leadership
positions encounter a variety of challenges for doing so. As they attempt to effectively
balance their work and family responsibilities, women need the aid of support systems
and strategies to overcome the hurdles they encounter and achieve success. The

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following conceptual framework illustrates the impact of society on women leaders’
efforts to balance work and family life.

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework
Ed.D. Thematic Group, 2009

Data Collection
This study was conducted through a series of semi-structured interviews with the
four participants and a person they each identified, as well as via participant journaling in
an activity log and document analysis, through examination of university family policies

Historical
Influence

Social
Roles

Gender
Stereotypes

Societal

Expectations

Work

Domain

Family

Domain

Support
Systems

Strategies

Challenges

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and the participants’ resumes and job descriptions. The interview protocols were
developed in conjunction with other researchers as part of a thematic dissertation group
and are included as Appendices C and D. Questions in the interview protocols related
directly to the research questions for the study. Prior to conducting the interviews, per
Gall et al.’s (2007) suggestion, the interview protocols were piloted to ensure that the
questions made sense to interviewees and were responsive to the research questions, as
well as to gauge the amount of time to allot for each interview.
Two interviews were conducted per participant, with the first interview occurring
in person at the participant’s workplace. The subsequent follow-up interview occurred
via telephone. At the completion of the first interview, the researcher introduced the
journaling process. Participants were tasked with writing their thoughts, experiences,
challenges, and successes in an activity log once a week for five weeks. They were
encouraged to journal in the activity log more than once a week if desired, but requested
to record activities at least once per week at a minimum. Four open-ended questions and
a priority rating scale were provided to guide participants’ thoughts related to their work-
life balance efforts (also see Appendix E):
1) What work-life balance dilemmas did you encounter this week?
2) On a scale of 1 to 5 (1= Lowest Priority and 5= Highest Priority), how would
you rate each of these dilemmas?

3) What decisions did you have to make related to these dilemmas?
4) What positive outcomes did you experience related to your work-life balance?
5) Additional comments/thoughts?

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A reminder system was created to help participants remember to record their
activities and thoughts in the activity log. The researcher sent an email after the first in-
person interview to solicit any participant questions about the process and to serve as a
gentle reminder to participate in the journaling process. After journaling for five weeks,
a final follow-up telephone interview was scheduled and the activity logs were returned
to the researcher via email or mail, depending on the participants’ journaling preference.
In addition to the interviews and activity logs, the participants were each asked to
refer one person to be interviewed in order to gain additional perspective on the
participants and their work-life balance. These interview questions (see Appendix D)
were jointly developed by the researcher’s thematic dissertation group. Each interview
lasted 20 to 25 minutes and was conducted in person.
Instrumentation
Instrumentation for this study included semi-structured interviews with
participants, an on-site workspace observation, the activity logs, and interviews with a
person recommended by each of the participants. The interview protocols (see
Appendices C and D) were comprised of semi-structured questions that provided a format
for participant response. Open follow-up questions were subsequently offered as probes
to gain more in-depth, descriptive responses related to participants’ answers (Gall et al.,
2007). Merriam (2009) points out the important affective information that may be
obtained through insightful follow-up questions about how participants feel about an
experience they relate. All interviews per participant were digitally recorded and the data
transcribed to ensure accurate representation of the participants’ thoughts and reactions.

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The interviews occurred both in person and on the telephone over an eight-week span,
during which time the participants spent two and a half to three hours being interviewed
and recording their experiences and reflections for five weeks in their activity logs.
The first interview for each participant was conducted in her office in order to
gain a sense of her work environment and culture. An intentional observation via a short
environmental scan of the office was incorporated into the in-person interview for this
purpose. The scan contributed an additional aspect to the data via the researcher’s
firsthand direct observation of each participant’s workplace, in contrast to the secondhand
account offered by participants themselves during the interview (Merriam, 2009). To
reduce subjectivity of observation across the sample, the researcher consulted an office
observation checklist (see Appendix F), created with her thematic dissertation group, to
evaluate the workplace climate for each participant. The checklist allowed the researcher
to note the objects and symbols observed in each participant’s office, such as pictures,
cards, or artwork, providing context for her workplace and a sense of what she values so
that a more holistic perspective could be garnered.
A follow-up interview question was subsequently posed to discern the
significance of certain items observed by the researcher during the environmental scan.
This information further assisted in providing a picture of what matters to each
participant in the sample. The on-site observation also allowed the researcher to note any
office activity related to each participant’s personal and professional responsibilities,
such as how often the telephone rang or whether or not she checked her email or cell

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phone. Observing a participant engaging in any of these activities revealed insight into
her work or family priorities.
As a companion to the interviews and short observation, artifacts were collected
to increase the credibility of the data (Merriam, 2009). In addition to the activity logs,
the researcher obtained job descriptions and resumes for each participant, along with
workplace family policies for each participant’s institution. Document analysis included
an examination of the level of support for families at each institution, the participants’ job
responsibilities and work experience, and each participant’s personally related
experiences in leadership and caregiving roles via the activity log entries.
As discussed in Chapter 2, work-life balance can be facilitated or hindered by the
presence or absence of a supportive workplace. Women who are unaware of their
institution’s policies may leave their leadership role, believing a lack of support for
balancing work and family roles (Nobbe & Manning, 1997). Clearly communicated and
flexible policies that support women’s success, such as flex-time or flexible schedules,
promote balance by allowing women more freedom to fulfill both work and home
commitments (Galinsky et al., 2008; Seay, 2010). In order to ascertain the level of
support currently experienced by each participant at her institution, it was necessary to
examine the institutional workplace policies.
Participant resumes and job descriptions provided an additional layer of data
about their leadership experiences and work requirements, respectively. Analyzing
resumes for all four women in similar roles at different universities across the country
revealed similarities and differences in their career trajectories and experiences that led

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them to their current SSAO position. Similarly, obtaining job descriptions allowed the
researcher to compare and contrast official work responsibilities with the actual work
undertaken by these women in their SSAO role, relayed during the participant interviews.
The use of several methods of data collection- interviews of participants and
someone close to them, document analysis, participant journaling, and observation in the
work setting- strengthens this study, providing multiple perspectives on the work-life
balance phenomenon. Triangulation with various types of data provides “cross-data
validity checks,” thereby reducing error in data analysis and testing for consistency
(Patton, 2002, p. 248).
The following table illustrates how the research questions for this study were
utilized to determine the appropriate sources of instrumentation. The interviews
conducted with participants and their referrals facilitated the collection of data to answer
all three research questions, as did the artifacts collected. The observation performed in
each participant’s office aided in responding to the question about the types of support
and strategies employed for the achievement of work-life balance.

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Table 1
Research Questions as Instrumentation
Research Questions Interviews Artifacts Observation
1) What challenges do women
senior student affairs officers
face in balancing work and
family life?
X X
2) What types of support do
women senior student affairs
officers perceive to be helpful
in achieving balance in work
and family life?
X X X
3) What strategies do women
senior student affairs officers
employ to balance work and
family life?
X X X

Data Analysis
The process of data analysis provided answers to the research questions (Merriam,
2009). Accordingly, data from all sources previously delineated were compiled and
analyzed according to each research question. Levels of coding were created as data
emerged from the interviews, activity logs, artifact analysis, and observation. The
analysis process employed for this study was modeled upon Creswell’s (2003) six steps
for data analysis, which provided a guiding framework. A pictorial version of Creswell’s
model, developed by a 2008 thematic dissertation group, is included below to illustrate
the process of analysis implemented.

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Figure 2. Creswell’s (2003) Model for Qualitative Data Analysis
As the model demonstrates, it was necessary to first organize the data collected
from the interviews, activity logs, observations, and documents. Second, the researcher
scanned the data to get a sense of the information and identify initial themes. Third, the
data was coded into similarly themed categories. Fourth, a description of the
participants’ experiences was developed from the coded data and themes were analyzed
for each interview and across interviews. Fifth, the identified themes were organized into
a descriptive narrative for the study. Finally, the researcher conducted a full examination
of the data and attempted to make meaning from the themes that emerged through data
analysis.
Ethical Considerations
Throughout the data collection and analysis processes, ethical considerations were
paramount. The researcher diligently followed the university procedures for ethical

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conduct in research designated by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and IRB
approval was granted for the implementation of this study. The study’s participants and
their referred representatives were not coerced in any way; all voluntarily offered their
participation.
In-depth interviewing may result in ethical dilemmas for researchers, carrying
with it both risks and benefits to participants (Merriam, 2009). Interviews may elicit
private thoughts or experiences, proving therapeutic for the participant, but also
potentially embarrassing. To protect the confidentiality of each participant, along with
her institution and the person she referred to be interviewed, pseudonyms were used from
the beginning of data collection. Additional names mentioned during the interview
process were also changed. All data was kept in a secure location to prevent harm to the
participants through inappropriate usage.
Summary
This chapter has provided an overview of the qualitative case study method and
data analysis used in the implementation of this study. Next, Chapter 4 presents the
study’s findings, correlated to the research questions. The second part of Chapter 4
reviews the findings from data collection and examines their meaning related to the
purpose of the study.

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Chapter 4
Findings

The goal of this study was to examine the work-life balance experiences of
women senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) in order to ascertain factors contributing
to their success. The experiences of these four women may be instructive for new and
aspiring SSAOs attempting to achieve similar success as educational leaders with family
commitments. Accordingly, all participants were asked to share any challenges they have
faced, supports they have experienced, and strategies they have developed and utilize to
achieve and maintain work-life balance. This chapter introduces details about the study
participants, all Vice Presidents for Student Affairs at public and private four-year
institutions across the country. The results of the inquiry are then presented by research
question.
To discern how women leaders in student affairs balance work and family roles,
three research questions were defined to frame the study. A related participant interview
protocol, office observation checklist, and reflective activity log questions were generated
from the following research questions:
1) What challenges do women senior student affairs officers face in balancing
work and family life?
2) What types of support do women senior student affairs officers perceive to be
helpful in achieving balance in work and family life?
3) What strategies do women senior student affairs officers employ to balance
work and family life?

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Data collection occurred via interviews with participants and participant referrals,
participant activity log entries, resumes, job descriptions, and institutional family leave
policies. Triangulation of these multiple data sources increases the validity of the study’s
findings. After a brief introduction of the participants, the study’s findings will be
presented in alignment with the corresponding research questions.
Participant Profiles
Four participants were purposefully selected for this study via colleague referrals
of successful female higher education leaders. For this study, the term success is defined
as the perceived achievement and effective execution of an SSAO position while also
ably balancing multiple responsibilities at home. All participants agreed to take part in a
series of in-person and telephone interviews, share their reflections via entries in a five-
week activity log, and refer someone close to them to be interviewed about their
perceived success as leaders balancing work and family roles. They also provided their
resumes and job descriptions, which yielded information about their work experience and
responsibilities. Family leave policies were obtained for each participant’s institution in
order to examine the level of support provided.
All four study participants hold the highest-level role in the profession of student
affairs, that of Vice President. As has previously been mentioned, even though women
are a majority in the student affairs field, they are in the minority among senior-level
positions, serving in fewer than half of these roles (American Council on Education,
2008). As a result, it was a two-fold challenge to determine the participants that make up
this study’s sample: first, to identify four female Vice Presidents for Student Affairs from

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the few that exist and were referred by colleagues in the field, and second, to then select
from among that limited group those women leaders perceived to be successful at
balancing work and family.
Participants’ ages range from early 50s to mid-60s, and their tenure at their
current institutions ranges from four years for the youngest participant to 24 years for the
most senior of the group (see Table 2 for a participant overview). Altogether, the
participants have been SSAOs at either their present institution or at more than one
institution throughout their combined careers for a total of 62 years. Participants’
educational attainment includes three Ph.D.’s, two of which are in higher education, and
one Ed.D. in the field of institutional management. The third participant’s Ph.D. is in the
field of psychology. Their parents’ educational levels range from the 8
th
grade for one
participant’s immigrant parents, to another participant’s parents who both earned
Master’s degrees.
Table 2
Participant Overview
Pseudonym Title Age Total
Years
SSAO
Highest Level of
Education
Referral
Relationship
Weekly
Hours
Worked
Weekly
Family
Hours
Dr. Maggie VP for
Student
Affairs
@55 11 Ph.D. Higher
Education, Work
& Adult
Development
Community
affiliate
50-60 Some
weeks
little,
some lot
Dr. Liz VP of
Student
Affairs
59 23 Ph.D. Higher
Education
Administration
Professional
colleague
60-65 30-35
Dr. Landers Senior
VP for
Student
Affairs
64 24 Ed.D.
Institutional
Management
Friend with
professional
ties
60+ 32
Dr. Gaines VP for
Student
Life
@53 4 Ph.D. Psychology Professional
colleague
50-60 40+

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Regardless of education level, their parents instilled in all four SSAOs a focus on
hard work and the importance of education, influencing their decision to enter the
education field. Beliefs about gender roles can affect attitudes about career suitability,
thereby shaping career aspirations (Boatwright et al, 2003; Evans & Diekman, 2009). To
that end, the SSAOs’ career choices may also have been influenced by their gender, as
predicted by social role theory and the notion that women are more comfortable in jobs
related to their ascribed societal social role. Thus, the helping and participative field of
student affairs would be a compatible career option for women’s communal social role.
The SSAOs experienced varying routes of career progression, but a common
theme was the support of mentors and other key relationships in promoting their
advancement. Most of the SSAOs noted that they did not actively aspire to leadership;
instead, they were encouraged by others and given opportunities to advance by influential
people who championed their potential. One shared: “I don’t think anybody starts out
thinking they want to be a VP. Most of us get into this work because we love working
with students.” Even though these SSAOs attribute their Vice President position to
others’ encouragement rather than to their own aspirations, social cognitive career theory
posits that their internal beliefs about their self-efficacy stimulated their interest in this
elite leadership role (Yeagley, Subich, & Tokar, 2010).
As SSAOs with multiple roles and responsibilities to fulfill, participants estimated
that they spend anywhere from 50 to 65 hours per week on work-related business and
events, and 30 to 40 or more hours per week with family. One SSAO was not
comfortable determining the number of hours spent with her family per week because it

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varies, indicating instead that she feels “good when the month feels balanced rather than
the weeks.” It is worth noting that the two youngest SSAO participants reported
spending fewer hours at work and more hours with their families per week than did the
two older participants. This may be a result of having younger children at home.
Participants each referred someone close to them with personal or professional
connections to contribute to this study by sharing their perspectives of the participant.
The relationship of these referrals to the Vice Presidents included: a woman in her 30s
with oversight of a community non-profit organization who developed a close personal
relationship to her VP; a professional colleague working with the president who also
developed a personal association to her VP; a retired professional colleague who knew
her VP for over 30 years and worked alongside her as she advanced in her career; and a
senior higher education administrator who came out of retirement to serve as interim
Vice President while the VP recovered from a serious illness. Participants all happened
to choose non-family female referrals, and the relationships between the referrals and the
VPs either had been or became personal throughout the relationship, even if starting out
as purely professional affiliations.
As previously noted, pseudonyms are used in this study in order to protect
participants’ confidentiality. To that end, the SSAO participants are referred to here as
Maggie, Liz, Dr. Landers, and Dr. Gaines. This next section will provide a brief snapshot
of each SSAO and her personal and professional roles.
The first SSAO, Dr. Margaret Duncan, prefers to be addressed by her nickname in
keeping with her informal style. “Maggie” identifies herself as an Irish American in her

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early to mid-fifties and works at a mid-sized public university in the Northeast. At the
time of the interview, she had been an SSAO for a total of 11 years, seven of which had
been served in the role of Vice President for Student Affairs at her current institution.
When she arrived to take the Vice President position, she was the only woman on the
university’s executive board. Seven years later, a woman president is being installed,
indicative of how the makeup of the executive leadership has changed during her tenure.
In addition to her professional role, Maggie has been married for 23 years and has a
daughter in college.
Dr. Elizabeth “Liz” Benson insisted on being called Liz in keeping with the self-
professed “business casual” vibe of her persona and office decor. A Caucasian woman in
her late fifties, Liz works as Vice President of Student Affairs at a mid-sized public
institution in the Inter-Mountain West. Having served as an SSAO for a total of 23 years
in her career, Liz has been at her current institution for 12 years. In her personal life, Liz
has her husband of 35 years, his grown son, and their adult daughter.
Dr. Bonnie Landers is the most experienced SSAO in the study at 64 years old.
All 24 of her years as a Vice President have been spent at the same private institution on
the West Coast, the smallest in the study at just over 9,000 students. Her institution
honored her contribution by promoting her from Vice President for Student Affairs to
Senior Vice President for Student Affairs six years ago. Dr. Landers, who identifies
herself as Caucasian, has two adult daughters with her husband of 37 years.
Dr. Kimberly Gaines became Vice President for Student Life at one of the largest
public institutions in the nation four years ago. The youngest study participant both in

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age and in years served as an SSAO, Dr. Gaines has a non-traditional educational
background for an SSAO, having earned her Ph.D. in psychology. She is passionate
about human development and feels that she has an imperative in her role as Vice
President to “help students really become who they can be in the world.” Dr. Gaines
identifies herself as an African American woman who is extremely close to her family,
made up of her husband of 31 years and three children, as well as her sisters, parents, and
relatives.
As a group, the participants described a typical day in their Vice President role as
consisting of back-to-back meetings with little to no downtime at their desks. Since the
focus of their work involves serving students, two of the four SSAOs make an effort to
schedule a meal with a student or group of students at least once a week or more in order
to “keep a pulse on” students. All four SSAOs lamented the fact that there is not enough
time in the day to get all of their work done, so most take work home with them, a
situation aided by technology in the form of laptops and smartphones.
It is clear that all four SSAO participants are busy women with multiple work and
family roles and responsibilities. Based on this study’s definition, all appear to
successfully balance these commitments. The next section will reveal the study’s results
by research question, gleaned from participant and referral interviews, activity logs,
office environmental scans, resumes, job descriptions, and institutional leave policies.

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Findings
Research Question 1: Challenges to Work-Life Balance
The first research question for this study sought to identify the challenges that
women senior student affairs officers face in balancing work and family life. Although
Dr. Gaines asserts: “I’m not good with barriers because I probably ignore them a lot,”
research indicates that women do encounter a variety of challenges and barriers as they
attempt to achieve successful balance in their career and family (Astin & Leland, 1991;
Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2008; McEwan, Williams, & Engstrom, 1991; Nidiffer and
Bashaw, 2001, Wilson, 2007). After reviewing the data, three overarching themes
emerged as challenges for women SSAOs: social role expectations, career-related
sacrifices, and the nature of student affairs work.
Social Role Expectations
As social role theory indicates, societal norms have dictated the behaviors and
actions of men and women over time, creating an expectation of women as the principal
caregivers in society (Eagly, 1987). The demanding role of primary caregiver at home,
when coupled with a taxing SSAO leadership role, presents a significant challenge for
high-achieving women who have worked hard to earn their place at work and desire to
continue successfully managing their home life as expected by themselves and society.
The importance of leadership at work and at home was evident in all aspects of data
collection. The SSAOs’ job descriptions listed a plethora of responsibilities and their
resumes displayed evidence of increasingly demanding work duties, while their
interviews and activity logs indicated a desire to be successful in accomplishing all of

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their tasks at home and at work. Dr. Landers emphasized that she approaches “my task
every day with the idea of excelling… it’s about coming to the job with an expectation of
doing well.” This philosophy was also evident in the office observations for the SSAOs,
who display certificates of recognition, pictures with university students and dignitaries,
inspirational quotes, flowers from spouses, and family pictures and keepsakes, all
artifacts that serve as a reminder of the importance of their role in the lives of others at
home and work.
Dr. Gaines phrased her desire to excel in both realms in this way: “You really
need to think about how you want to show up in life and what you want to give to
others.” Being successful as SSAOs and as wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, and
friends is very important to these women, all of whom spoke and wrote about: “investing
a lot of energy in relationships,” trying not to “work all the time,” “having a sense of
satisfaction that I’m making a contribution… in all areas of life,” and getting “a ‘win’ a
day” with a positive outcome, all ways of mattering at home and at work.
The expectation of being the primary caregiver and maintaining success at work
results in challenges for these women leaders trying to “do it all.” Relatedly, sub-themes
identified in the data related to challenges emerging from role expectations for women
include pressure, guilt, and managing emotions. These issues will be explored in the next
section.
Pressure. As noted, the societal expectation for women’s social roles extends to
their successful management of both work and family responsibilities (Wilson, 2007).
Dr. Gaines observed that she was always the first parent to be called by her children’s

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school whenever there was a problem. Similarly, although Dr. Landers’ husband is
willing to help out, she asserts: “I was always directing it. It's never 50/50. The wife or
female always does more. He might do the shopping, but I'd make the list. I would think
about what the dinners were going to be for the week.” All four participants noted this
pressure to overachieve as a result of societal expectations for women in the work and
family spheres. As Maggie articulates: “I think us women, we just feel like we have to
do it, and we have to do it all. If you want home a certain way or if you want meals a
certain way or...” This superwoman mindset develops due to an expectation of fulfilling
the role of primary caregiver and causes women leaders to overachieve in order to
prevent feelings of inadequacy, particularly when their children are young. Liz relates:
You’re just running, running, and running at work, and running, running, and
running at home. I think working moms are the worst. I wasn’t gonna let any
stay-at-home mom have anything over on me. At the time it was like, ‘I’ve gotta
be perfect at everything.’

The pressure to invest time and energy equally in work and family was shared by Dr.
Gaines, who indicated that her heavy work demands coupled with the expectation that
she provide nightly dinners caused her to resort to bringing home takeout meals in lieu of
cooking:
My husband is from a family where his mother stayed at home and his father
worked, so every meal was cooked in the home and home-cooked meals were
everything. I felt like it was just a lot to try to get home in time. Everybody was
going a thousand different ways and I was just feeling like: ‘I’m never going to
get home in time to get everybody the meal they need to have.’

Although her husband began cooking meals for the family shortly after she started
bringing home takeout and both were working full-time, Dr. Gaines felt a responsibility
to provide meals due to her role as the primary caregiver. The pressure to cook dinner

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and the challenge of finding time to do so caused her to be “really stressed” because she
was not adequately fulfilling her expected social role.
The job of Vice President in and of itself produces pressure and stress that spills
over into these women’s home lives, making it difficult to spend time with family and
friends. Dr. Landers’ referral explains:
I think it’s tough. Her role as a leader has been so consuming for a long time that
it has had a necessary impact on family and friends. And she tries her best to find
ways to bring them together, but there’s no question that that is… a challenge.
You know, even today, it’s a challenge to have enough time with her husband and
to arrange to see [her adult daughters].

Similarly, in her activity log, Liz reflected on the pressure generated by the work and
travel demands of her Vice President role and how it impacts her personal life:
No one does our job while we’re gone, so that means you have to prepare to leave
and you have to be ready to catch up when you get back. And the same thing is
true in my home life, because when I’m leaving I try to get things in order so that
they’re totally manageable for my husband… while I’m gone... When I get back I
always spend extra energy with and on him so that he knows how much I
appreciate having these opportunities to go… there’s always that… little bit of
guilt while you’re gone...

As Liz indicates, the pressure on women SSAOs to effectively implement their leadership
role and also be fully present for their families can produce guilt, to be addressed further
in the next section.
Guilt. Living with the pressure of societal expectations for their performance can
lead to a sense of guilt when women believe that they are not successfully managing their
multiple roles. Maggie lamented:
There are gonna be times that your work gets more than your family, and you’re
gonna feel guilty about what you’re not giving your family and vice versa. Part of
it’s learning to not be guilty about that, accepting that you’re not gonna be able to
be 100 percent great at everything 100 percent of the time. I do think there’s

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always a sense of being torn. Although I’ve had flexibility and I could go to
school activities, still, you’re not at home with your kid all the time.

Maggie’s sentiment of being torn between her work and home spheres was echoed by the
other SSAOs. Liz was also reflective in both her interview and activity log about the
push-pull of her family and leadership roles and attempts to balance both:
There are times that I wonder if I did either one of them as fully as I could have
otherwise, but I was willing to accept that as a compromise because I wanted to
do both, and I wanted to try to do both well. I’m sure that I didn’t do as much as I
could have in either role if I had only had that role, but the balance of them is
what’s made my life most interesting; the combination.

Liz’s compromise approach helps her to mediate guilty feelings related to her work-life
balance efforts. Yet the message is clear: being a leader both at work and at home is
important to these women. Falling short of this aim can create stress and guilt that can
pose a challenge for women leaders. This finding is supported by previous research
noting that women struggling to balance work and family responsibilities can experience
guilt due to an inability to extend equal time and energy to both arenas (Wilson, 2007).
Managing emotions. An additional challenge beyond the pressure and guilt
SSAOs feel when not living up to their own expectations for success, albeit one that was
only indicated by half of the SSAOs, is managing emotions. As under-represented high-
level leaders, the Vice Presidents for Student Affairs have the challenge of portraying
themselves as agentic leaders among their often male-dominated cabinets or boards. As
indicated by Schein’s 1975 study, females displaying characteristics other than those
agentic qualities attributed to men, including aggression, ambition, or self-confidence,
could have difficulty being perceived as successful leaders. Given that emotional
displays tend to be associated more with communal, supportive, female behaviors rather

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than agentic “leader-like” behaviors, women observed as displaying visible emotions
could be penalized as being weak or ineffective.
In spite of this concern, two of the SSAOs try to embrace their emotional
reactions as part of what makes them uniquely feminine leaders. According to Liz’s
referral, “We’ve seen several settings where she broke down, and it’s always about
people and a pain or joy that makes her cry. She didn’t make any apologies for those
emotions, and I figured then I won’t have to either.” Although this colleague appreciates
Liz’s level of comfort with her emotions and even views it as role modeling for herself,
this feeling may not be shared among other colleagues or superiors. To that end, Maggie
views her visible emotional reaction as a barrier in terms of how people perceive her and
due to the discomfort it has caused some senior male leaders. Yet, she does not make any
apologies for crying freely as a response to some situations, even joking: “I cried my way
to the top!” Further, she views her emotions as her own response to others behaving
badly, and though she does acknowledge that crying can be a barrier, she feels that she is
entitled to respond in her way:
If they can behave the way they’re behaving, then I can respond the way that I
respond. It’s not up to me what they do with that. ‘This is the reaction that I’m
having to you, and you’re gonna sit here and let me work through this in front of
you because you are the one that’s eliciting this response in me.’

Although conflicted about her observable reactions, she tries to remain empowered in her
response by viewing her emotions as a legitimate reaction to another’s negative behavior.
While the other two SSAOs did not indicate experiencing a similar challenge, it is
surmised that these emotional reactions serve as an outlet for the pressures uniquely
experienced by women leaders working in isolated, senior-level positions.

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The challenges of having multiple roles and balancing them all well were
apparent for all four SSAOs, even with a supportive spouse at home. Yet the SSAOs
were pragmatic about these challenges and expressed appreciation for the richness that
multiple roles bring to their lives. One SSAO noted optimistically that balance “is
always a juggling act and a work in progress,” an ongoing ambition for which to strive.
Career Sacrifices
The second major theme that emerged related to challenges that women SSAOs
encounter in balancing work and family is the sacrifices made as they advance their
careers. While the SSAOs in this study do not characterize their choices as sacrifices,
they have all given up something in order to maintain balance in their work and family
roles. These include forgoing job opportunities for family stability and limiting family
size, relocation and being the primary breadwinner, and neglecting personal health.
Forgoing jobs and limiting family size. Both Liz and Dr. Landers reported
having sacrificed work experiences in favor of balance in their family life. Earlier in her
career, Liz had a tenuous job situation with a difficult supervisor, but had committed to
stay until her daughter graduated from high school. She did not want to uproot her
family despite her challenging work environment, so she gave up a few years of her
career and struggled in a difficult situation until her daughter graduated. She does not
view this as a sacrifice, but instead sees it as honoring a commitment she made to provide
stability for her daughter. However, making this choice did delay her career satisfaction
and advancement.

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In a similar vein, Dr. Landers sacrificed her dream of becoming president of a
university by having a family, although she asserts that she does not view this as a
sacrifice but rather an obstacle in the way of balancing work and family:
I would have been president of the college if I had not been married and if I did
not have children. But when I had opportunities for that, it just wasn't right in
terms of family to do that. The two things that are important in my life are family
and work, but family absolutely trumps work. So I guess that's an obstacle.

Dr. Landers further shared having passed up a job opportunity to be near her ill mother.
This was a further career sacrifice, but it was not articulated as such because of the
priority placed on family.
A related sacrifice revealed by two of the SSAOs involved giving up plans to
have a larger family. Liz and Maggie both shared having had a desire for more than one
child, although neither regrets their family size, with Liz revealing: “I would have loved
to have more children… but for the work that I’ve been able to do, probably one was
right.” Maggie concurs: “Part of me thinks it would be nice to have had two kids... But I
don’t really regret that I didn’t.” These women’s leadership role, combined with their
role as primary caregiver, made it challenging for them to consider having more children.
Relocation and being the primary breadwinner. Being an educational leader
in the field of student affairs has meant that three of the four SSAOs have had to move
regions in order to advance their careers. The fourth SSAO, Dr. Landers, had a less
traditional career trajectory, moving from the K-12 field into higher education and
working her way up to student affairs leadership at one institution. The other three
SSAOs’ job offers necessitated a move, meaning that their husbands’ careers might have
to be put on hold. Dr. Gaines’ husband was able to continue in his job in another state,

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creating a commuter marriage, but Liz and Maggie’s husbands quit their own successful
careers in order to follow those of their wives. This sacrifice introduced the pressure of
being the primary breadwinner into these women’s lives. Liz explains how her career has
impacted her experience and that of her husband:
He has followed me around, to the detriment of his own work, and because of that
I do bear a large sense of responsibility for my family because my husband gave
up his job to follow me here. I have had the pressure of being the primary
breadwinner for almost all of my married life. That’s because of the choices that
we made as a family for him to support me. I felt a huge responsibility for my
family, for our finances.

Since more than a third of working mothers with families report being the sole
breadwinner (U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, 2010), Liz and Maggie’s
experiences are not that unusual in the current job market, but remain a challenge.
A related challenge connected to the overarching theme of social role
expectations for women is the career impact on women of being a trailing spouse.
Maggie followed her husband’s career early on and lamented the challenge of being
viewed only as “the coach’s wife” after a move to a new state. In spite of her doctorate
and work experience, that community viewed her only in her wife role, impeding her
ability to be hired for a job for which she would otherwise have been a strong candidate.
Neglecting health. A final sacrifice made to balance work and family is health,
in the form of less exercise or rest. The SSAOs’ extensive work hours, coupled with the
social role expectation that women work a “second shift” (Wilson, 2007) at home, results
in continual neglect of their health. For example, Liz discussed regularly needing more
sleep due to the exhausting nature of student affairs work. Similarly, although the
SSAOs cited exercise as an important part of their lives that keeps them balanced and

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prevents them from being “cranky,” they all find it difficult to make time for this activity.
Yet, they indicated a need to try to incorporate exercise in some form into their day,
whether through playing golf, taking long walks with their dogs, or practicing yoga.
Finding time to rest or participate in some form of exercise is a significant challenge for
these busy women SSAOs, a discovery supported by recent research on working women
(Hewlett, 2007).
Nature of Student Affairs Work
A final and overarching challenge faced by busy women SSAOs is the nature of
the work inherent to the field of student affairs. An examination of job descriptions for
the four Vice Presidents for Student Affairs reveals that these positions report directly to
the president of the university, collaborate with senior university personnel, and are
responsible for anywhere from 11 to 23 campus units and departments that serve
students. The SSAOs are also responsible for liaising with a variety of other campus
units and monitoring large budgets. They are accountable not only to the students that
they serve and the staff that they supervise, but also to the university’s president and
board of trustees, different constituents with sometimes competing interests. Maggie
explains:
When you’re a Vice President, you have responsibility to your division, but you
also have responsibility for being a member of the President’s cabinet. It has
taken awhile to figure out how to balance that because there are times when the
President will want me at a legislative session [off campus], but there might be a
very important program happening in my division. ‘Am I the President’s staff or
am I the Vice President for Student Affairs?’ Sometimes it’s tough.

Vice Presidents also have tenuous job security, as they serve at the will of the president.
As presidents resign or retire and new presidents are hired, Vice Presidents for Student

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Affairs hired by the previous president may need to look for employment elsewhere if the
newly installed president decides to hire his or her own staff. Maggie and Liz both
addressed this uncertainty, with Maggie sharing:
I’m sort of bracing myself for the new president to come on board here– we might
be a good fit, we might not be a good fit. And that’s just gonna be the reality of
it, and she's the President and I’m the Vice President. And so, I figure I have one
more good job in me if we end up not being a good fit. Negotiating the boss thing
is always interesting.

Liz shares a similar anxious anticipation regarding a new presidential hire: “I serve at the
will of the president, so if the wrong person comes in here... I really try to position
myself to be prepared to go if I need to.” Other challenges experienced as a result of the
nature of the student affairs field include the heavy workload, the loneliness and isolation
experienced from being one of few women leaders, and interpreting unclear institutional
policies.
Volume of work. A further challenge for the SSAOs is the sheer volume of work
involved in their field. Vice Presidents for Student Affairs oversee multiple units and
manage an entire campus of staff and students. The SSAOs’ activity logs illustrate the
struggle this generates as they attempt to manage their numerous roles and
responsibilities, both at work and home. Dr. Landers articulates the challenge
experienced by all: “This is really a 24/7 job. There's five events every night.” Athletics
activities in particular necessitate a great deal of travel since these SSAOs often attend
off-campus games, further making work-life balance a difficult prospect.
Study participants indicate that they are better able to manage the balancing of
work and family now that they are seasoned professionals, but that they “worked all the

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time” as young professionals in order to “pay dues.” Maggie elaborates on how she
“frontloaded” work during her first year as a Vice President, working overtime to prove
herself:
There is no such thing as balance your first year. I feel like I frontloaded
everything. I did it because it was important for me in this role to be present, to
see things, to meet people, to understand. I felt like I had to do it to realize what
was important and what wasn’t important. It was my own expectation.

Even though Maggie states that she worked long hours because of her own
expectation for herself, she also admits that this expectation is fostered by the reality of
the work necessary to run student life activities on a college campus: “Universities are
just hell-bent on thinking that the workweek is 8:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. For
student affairs people it’s not. We work a lot of non-traditional hours.” Thus, time
management is also a key challenge for student affairs administrators, particularly at the
top echelon of leadership. Liz relates: “My first Vice Presidency, I took home volumes
of work every night, because I wanted to touch everything that came across my desk, so I
would know what I needed and what I did not know.” Dr. Landers reveals that although
colleagues tell her she makes the job look easy, in actuality she works very hard:
They don't know that I might put in 16 hours a day. Most of the time I'm here
until seven, eight, nine o’clock at night. Then once a week I might be here until
12:00 a.m., because I never get my work done. I'm in meetings all day long.
Now, do I feel like I don't have enough time in the day? Absolutely. There are
just too many things I want to get done. But… I don’t know what to do about
that.

Further reflecting on the nature of the all-consuming SSAO role in her activity log, Dr.
Landers asserts that with a young family, “It would have been impossible for me to have
done this job, in its present configuration, 25 years ago.” The non-traditional student

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affairs schedule of events at varying hours, coupled with the exigency of back-to-back
daily meetings, makes it challenging for these leaders to complete their work during the
confines of traditional business hours and also attend to family.
Loneliness and isolation. A further challenge faced by all of the SSAOs is
loneliness and isolation. As noted earlier in this study, women SSAOs have few peers at
their institutions due to the fact that men dominate the top student affairs leadership roles
(Tull & Freeman, 2008). Being one of few women among many men at the vice
president level can make it lonely at the top (Astin & Leland, 1991; Wolverton, Bower, &
Hyle, 2009). Liz shares about lacking close confidantes due to her leadership role:
When they say it’s lonely at the top, it is. You can’t just confide a lot of stuff that
you know to very many people because it wouldn’t be appropriate. If you lack
confidence in a certain area, your young staff people, they don’t wanna see that.

The referrals for Drs. Landers and Gaines echoed this sentiment, with the former stating:
“Dr. Landers was the first female VP here, and she was quite young at the time also. So
that was originally a tough uphill climb because the environment that she was working in
was very male-dominated.” Maggie experienced a similarly daunting situation:
I was the only female Vice President. It was a little bit lonely because men
operate different than women. They were buddies, and I found myself being
excluded from things. I know that if I was a man, I would have been included in
more of that kind of social stuff. But at the same time, I’ve got a family that I
want to be with. If I had been a good old boy and been invited into the good old
boys’ network, it would have further torn me between what I wanted to do and
what I felt like I needed to do.

Feeling conflicted about being accepted at work and spending time with her family posed
a challenge for Maggie at an early point in her leadership. The other SSAOs did not
explicitly indicate experiencing this type of discriminatory behavior, but it is apparent

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that Maggie was torn by it: professionally disadvantaged by being excluded, while at the
same time appreciating the freedom it gave her to spend more time with her daughter.
Previous research also references the existence of these old boys’ networks (Searby &
Tripses, 2006) that limit access for women to a support network critical to success in
senior leadership roles.
Interpreting unclear institutional policies. A final isolating factor experienced
by half of the SSAOs was the lack of awareness or support in terms of institutional
policies and resources. Liz and Maggie successfully accessed institutional family leave
policies and found their supervisors and campuses to encourage their usage. Drs.
Landers and Gaines, however, did not have a similar experience. Dr. Landers asserts: “I
came up when there were no resources. You figured it out, got it done. It wasn't work's
responsibility to help me take care of my family.” Dr. Gaines was offered a year
sabbatical when she worked in academic affairs, but did not have any guidance on how to
implement it appropriately:
I kind of screwed it up. It was a year half-time or a semester full-time. So I did a
year half-time. I was supposed to be on campus for 20 hours a week and off
campus for 20 hours a week. It was a disaster, because when I was off campus, I
was still doing the work and I was on campus way more than 20 hours a week.

Without the guidance of a supervisor or clearly articulated policies, neither SSAO
successfully navigated the benefits extended to employees. Although neither stipulated
as such, it is surmised that this could have occurred due to the isolating factor of being
one of the few female leaders at their institutions without a representative to advocate on
their behalf.

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Although only experienced by one of the SSAOs, an additional unique challenge
is noteworthy to share here in that she overcame a significant health problem while
maintaining her leadership role. Dr. Gaines triumphed over a serious illness discovered
just after completing her first year as an SSAO. Her university’s president supported her
by appointing a retired senior officer in her place for the duration of her six-month
treatment, enabling Dr. Gaines to relocate to her home state and fly back to campus every
third week to work a 60-70 hour week in order to maintain her position. The retired
senior officer, who Dr. Gaines selected to be her referral for the present study, illustrates
the challenge she faced so early in her Vice Presidency:
You’ve got to picture how hard that would be. She was quite new, her husband
had been sick during that time. She had not really moved here… and her family
was out in [another state], and she just kind of had to trust that I was on her side...
she was really feeling assaulted by the heavens. She had had to hit the ground
running, and then getting sick and her husband getting sick, it really began to feel
like it was the trials of Job.

Dr. Gaines’ illness was an extreme and unanticipated challenge that prompted her
institution to provide her with a job partner and her family to take time out of their lives
to travel with her back and forth to campus every third week to ensure her care. The
network of support that she experienced relates to the second research question and will
be addressed further later in this chapter. First, it is necessary to discuss the findings
revealed here as challenges to work-life balance.
Discussion of Research Question 1

Based on the study’s findings, social role expectations, career choices, and the
nature of student affairs work are themes that pose challenges to female SSAOs’ work-
family balance efforts. The significance of social role expectations emerging as a theme

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indicates that social roles continue to pervade society and influence the way in which
women are viewed in the workplace and at home. It is probable that no woman leader in
any field is immune to the societal social roles that continue to predominate; yet, in the
field of student affairs where the time commitment is especially significant, the role
expectations placed on women may be particularly acute. Guthrie et al. (2005) report that
higher education administration is among the top 12 most stressful occupations, so
women leaders attempting to balance this type of challenging work with family
responsibilities are exceptionally at risk for increased pressure and burnout. The
expectation that women should be able to work a full day and still run a household adds
undue stress and strain to their lives.
It is evident that women leaders at the top of their profession must at times choose
between work and family. None of the research obtained on work-family balance
references men making sacrifices for the sake of their family, but it does confirm some of
the personal sacrifices that these women SSAOs have had to make: rest and exercise
(Hewlett, 2007) and less personal, or “me”-time (Marshall, 2009). It is likely that men
make sacrifices, too, as evidenced in this study by two SSAOs’ husbands who left their
careers to follow those of their wives. Yet, due to pervasive social role expectations for
women, limiting the number of children in order to achieve leadership or maintain a
career, in particular, is a sacrifice that may be unique to women.
Finally, the nature of the work inherent to the student affairs field can be a burden
for a woman leader. The “second shift” (Wilson, 2007) of taking care of or directing the
care of a family after working a full day seems to exist even for those participants whose

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husbands are the primary family caregivers. The SSAOs acknowledged that even if their
spouse was a stay-at-home parent, as the mother and wife, they are still responsible for
directing activities and managing family operations.
Research Question 2: Support for Work-Life Balance

The second research question attempted to ascertain the types of support
perceived to be helpful by women SSAOs as they aim to successfully balance work and
family roles and responsibilities. Without support, women leaders would surely struggle
with the aforementioned challenges encountered while juggling their multiple roles.
Much of the existing research on women in academia hails supportive institutional
cultures for women SSAOs (Marshall, 2009) and support systems (Astin & Leland, 1991;
Marcinkus, Whelan-Berry, and Gordon, 2007; Nobbe & Manning, 1997) as facilitating
work-life balance. Similar to these, three main types of support were identified to be
helpful in mediating the challenges faced as women SSAOs in achieving work-life
balance: relationships, networks, and investing in emotional and physical health.
Relationships
In their recent study of women leaders with families, Cheung and Halpern (2010)
determined that social support in the form of relationships, including family, colleagues,
and networks, helps women leaders succeed. Liz endorses this finding:
A lot of the balance that I have in my life is because of the relationships that I
have. Relationships require a lot of tending, so I put a lot of energy into [them],
whether they are friendships or working relationships, and they help, in turn,
stabilize and balance me.

Dr. Landers also verifies the importance of relationships to facilitating her success, via
her interview and activity log reflections: “For me, they’re critical- whether they’re at

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work or family. Relationships have to be in order. That takes a ton of really quality,
focused time.” These women leaders rely on their relationships with others to provide
the sustenance and support needed to accomplish their work and balance their lives. Dr.
Gaines attributes her success to the support of her family: “Part of how I’ve been able to
do the kinds of jobs that I’ve had have been absolutely by their support.” For Dr. Gaines
in particular during her difficult illness, her family’s emotional support and physical care
and the support of her institution were important relationships instrumental to her
recovery process.
Although Dr. Gaines’ experience was unique, family figures prominently in all of
the SSAOs’ lives. Research supports the notion that family members can actually
moderate stress for women administrators (Nobbe & Manning, 1997). This earlier
finding was supported in the current study, with all four SSAOs citing family members as
being their most significant sources of support. Family for these SSAOs includes
parents, husbands, children, siblings, relatives, and for three out of the four participants,
their dogs.
The theme of having a partnership with their husbands permeated all SSAO
interviews. Not only do these women leaders view their husbands as being their “biggest
fans,” but the SSAOs in turn view themselves as their husbands’ main supporters. One
referral spoke about this supportive partnership, visible in all four SSAOs’ relationships
with their spouses: “She’s always supported her husband and his professional and career
interests, even though it was hers that ended up being the motivation for moving a couple
of times.” The SSAOs describe their husbands’ support role as being a “primary

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catalyst,” “nurturer,” “inspirer,” and “big teddy bear.” Maggie praises her husband’s
support, particularly during tough times: “It’s been great having somebody in my life
who believes in me even when I don’t believe in myself.”
In addition to husbands, female family members such as sisters and daughters
have been influential supporters. Liz and Dr. Gaines count their sisters as their best
friends, providing continuous support. Dr. Gaines praises her sisters’ role in her life:
“My older sister is really my guide- she’s been the person that I can bring anything to and
bounce anything off. My younger sister is… the person who always just cheers me
along. She believes I could do anything.” This support buoys up the SSAOs and
provides them with an outlet through which to share their challenges and triumphs.
Maggie feels similarly about her daughter: “Seeing her helps me be balanced. And I
think it helps her be balanced, too.”
Because their families sustain them, the SSAOs make choices based on how their
actions will impact their family. Dr. Gaines incorporated her daughter into her work-life
balance pursuit by seeking input into whether a job offer that would necessitate a move
was worth considering; the daughter gave her mom her full support. All four women
leaders incorporate their family members into their decision-making process, and as a
result, are supported in the choices they make.
One of the challenges referenced earlier is the limited amount of time to
accomplish all of the SSAOs’ activities and meet their multiple work and family
responsibilities. Having children added a further time commitment to their lives, yet this

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family addition actually proved to enhance and support their balance efforts. Maggie
explains how this support manifested itself when her daughter was born:
Nothing helped me manage my time better than having a child, because all of a
sudden you couldn’t just stay at the office until all hours. I became less social and
more focused because I knew that at a quarter of six, I needed to leave to pick her
up.

For these busy women leaders, having children necessitated an alteration of their work
routine, helping them to better manage their time while at work in order to be able to
accommodate the needs of their family. They report being supported in their efforts to
adjust work hours for the sake of their families by professional relationships in the form
of networks of support, to be discussed in the next section.
Networks of Support
Nobbe and Manning’s (1997) research promotes accessing supportive
relationships, such as supervisors, mentors, and professional colleagues, in achieving
work-life balance. Their study has held up well over the years, as data from the current
study support this finding. Professional support from women colleagues, professional
associations, supervisors, staff, mentors, role models, and institutions together form a
strong network that facilitates work-life balance for SSAOs.
Women colleagues and friends. Liz relates the importance of the professional
women in her life and the role they play in providing a sounding board for her, allowing
her to mediate any stress or isolation she may experience in her position:
There is a group of women administrators with whom I have a very close
connection, that spend time together outside of work, and those are very
sustaining relationships for me because they’re people that know some of the
pressure that I’m under. You need to have a group of people you can let your hair
down with, that you can complain with, that you can gossip with sometimes.

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These “gossip” sessions provide an outlet for workplace pressure, allowing the SSAOs to
share their challenges with others experiencing similar difficulties who can relate. This
outcome echoes Guendouzi’s (2006) research involving female teachers lending support
to each other at their workplace. It also supports Astin and Leland’s (1991) earlier
finding that support systems mediate the loneliness that women are prone to experience
in senior-level positions. Maggie’s experience corroborates how professional colleagues
outside of her own institution provide valuable assistance in strategizing approaches for
significant decisions. To that end, she shares some advice for aspiring leaders:
Surround yourself with people who can help you vet that decision. They can’t
make the decision for you, but– certainly knowing who you can trust... My best
friend works [at another institution]. We’re in very similar positions, and I will
occasionally pick up the phone and just say, I need somebody who understands
this but isn’t on my campus, to help me create some strategies.

Other networks of relationships matter in facilitating work-life balance for women
leaders, including female friends. For the women in this study, there are few boundaries
between personal friendships and professional associates; rather, many of these
relationships overlap. The four referrals selected by the SSAOs were female friends who
either started out as professional acquaintances that developed into friendships or were
originally friends hired to work with the SSAOs, forging a professional bond. Josselson
(1996) notes that women have a tendency to create supportive friendships from
professional relationships due to shared work experiences. Havice and Williams (2005)
verify the finding that personal and professional networks provide support in the form of
feedback, advice, and guidance for university leaders in their quest for balance.

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Professional associations. An additional network of support is found in
professional associations. Half of the SSAOs are very active in one of the two major
associations for student affairs professionals- NASPA or ACPA- and they cite these
associations as important support systems external to the workplace. Liz is an elected
national leader in her organization, while Maggie has served in past leadership roles.
Although Maggie is not at a place in her career to take on another national leadership
role, she has become very involved in her community: “I’ve really tried to do the more
local things, which was part of my strategy for balancing… Those external organizations
are important.” Being involved locally affords her more work-life balance since she can
stay close to home, but she also notes the importance of being involved in national
professional networks as an SSAO:
I think they’re even more important the more senior your position is, because
when you’re a younger professional, you can really be buddies with people in the
organization. I think as you assume more responsibility, you have to be much
more cautious about who you can be friends with, who you can share information
with. One of the risks is that people will perceive you to have favorites, and that
doesn’t really serve you well as a Vice President.

Research on the topic of association involvement for SSAOs is limited and
conflicting. On the one hand, Chernow, Cooper, and Winston, Jr.’s (2003) research does
not support Maggie’s claim, finding that as administrators attain higher-level positions in
the field, their level of association involvement decreases. A more recent study of
women presidents, on the other hand, does find positive support for professional
association involvement by senior women leaders (Wolverton, Bower, & Hyle, 2009).
The results of the present study seem to favor the more recent research findings regarding
association involvement, but since only half of the SSAOs cite their membership as a

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support to their work-life balance, it cannot be determined with any certainty how helpful
this network may prove to be for other women leaders.
Supervisors, role models, and mentors. While it may be valuable to consult
outside networks of colleagues and associations for assistance, it is also necessary for
women leaders to have support at their own institutions. All four SSAOs cited supportive
supervisors and mentors as being instrumental to their career success. Dr. Landers notes
that the encouragement of her mentors is what prompted her career advancement to the
Vice President role, and Maggie lauds a supervisor who supported her and “took me
under her wing”: “She is the most influential person in my life in terms of helping me
realize that you can balance this family piece with the work piece.” This supervisor was
a key supporter of Maggie’s personal and professional development and became a role
model for her as a successful female leader who did not feel the need to emulate her male
counterparts:
This woman was a very feminine leader, in that she always dressed really nice but
very womanly. She maintained her femininity, but was a very good, strong
leader. That was an important lesson for me- that you don’t have to totally give
up who you are to be what you wanna be.

Early research on role models confirms that women are affected by the presence of
female leaders (Basow & Howe, 1980), and more recently, Wilson (2007) points to the
importance of role models in encouraging female leadership, as illustrated by Maggie’s
experience.
The other SSAOs all mentioned the significance of multiple mentors to their
success. Mentor traits such as ethnicity, racial background, gender, or age did not seem
to make a difference; rather, the supportive relationship and life guidance they provide

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the SSAOs is what seemed to matter most. Dr. Landers praises her president for having
confidence in her and providing her freedom to do the job her way: “What he allowed me
to do was to run student affairs the way I needed to run it. He had confidence in my
abilities and that's so affirming.” Liz also extols one of her mentors for teaching her how
to be a better leader:
This chancellor who hired me… was a tremendous mentor. He understood
student affairs; he had a commitment to it. He never let me have a pass, but he
was always trying to help me be successful… I think I have an obligation to
people that look up to me, so I don’t ever want to disappoint them, and I think that
pushes me to do more and do better.

Although some researchers argue that female mentors are a better fit for women leaders,
the women in this study advanced in the student affairs field during a time when the
leadership was mostly male, so the majority of mentors during the formative years of
their career were men. This is reminiscent of Brown’s (2005) study of women college
presidents, in which two-thirds of mentors were male. None of the SSAOs with male
mentors mentioned this as a hindrance to their advancement, and only a few female
mentors were mentioned as having been influential to their career progression.
Institutional policies. Along with mentors, a further network of support
facilitating work-life balance is supportive institutional workplace policies. Even though
family leave is federally mandated, some research has revealed that unclear institutional
leave policies can disadvantage women (Nobbe & Manning, 1997). This was shared as a
challenge for some of the SSAOs early in their careers. Dr. Landers asserted that there
were not any policies in existence when she started in the profession, and Dr. Gaines
related an unsuccessful sabbatical experience, noting that she has not since taken

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advantage of institutional leave policies. However, Dr. Landers sets her own hours and
those of her staff, and Dr. Gaines worked an untraditional schedule during the time that
she was being treated for her illness, so both have taken advantage of leave policies in
some capacity.
Liz and Maggie both successfully accessed their university’s leave policies and
indicated being comfortable with the support provided. Liz effectively accessed
institutional policies as she balanced advancing her career with family, taking a year
leave of absence to write her dissertation when her daughter was starting kindergarten.
Maggie also took advantage of her institution’s policies when she had just had her
daughter and was writing her dissertation. With the support of her supervisor, she
worked four 10-hour day workweeks, giving her “three days on the weekend to do family
stuff as well as a solid day and a half… to write. It worked out really well.” Maggie
further notes that the policies are flexible enough at her current institution that she can
navigate and interpret them in order to advocate for her younger staff. Dr. Gaines
discusses how she emphasizes the same approach in encouraging her staff to balance
their lives:
I always tell young women who are working full-time and have young children,
‘Don’t miss their stuff. Go home and do the stuff with your kids. This is the only
time they are going to be 6 and 7.’ But I think you have to give people
permission to do that. You have to support it. You have to give yourself
permission in your own life.

The influence these SSAOs have due to their senior leadership roles allows them to be
flexible with workplace policies, within the confines of university policy. This is
especially important where their own health or the health of a family member or staff

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member is concerned. Emotional and physical health and how both support work-life
balance for women leaders will be discussed in the next section.
Health and Wellness
It has been established that the time commitments of a senior leader make it
difficult to exercise and focus on self-care. Yet, research on SSAOs shows that a focus
on wellness and having faith or spirituality can assist with work-life balance (Guthrie,
Woods, Cusker, & Gregory, 2005). Although the SSAOs all lament the lack of time to
exercise, yoga, golf, and dog-walking figure prominently as supports for emotional and
physical health. When reflecting on setting priorities in her activity log, Maggie
advocates a focus on self-care: “Important work priorities have to be rated on top of the
list, but so does taking care of one’s health.” To intentionally incorporate exercise into
her busy schedule, Dr. Landers has a yoga instructor come to her office on a weekly
basis: “It's quite an extravagant luxury, but I couldn't figure out any other way to make it
happen, because… once I get here, it's really hard for me to go home.” Relatedly,
Maggie reflected in her activity log that one week: “I’m feeling good about making
exercise a priority,” resulting in “less stress.”
An additional support for achieving work-life balance includes finding
satisfaction via a positive life approach. A practice mentioned by all four SSAOs as
being integral to their balance is maintaining a sense of satisfaction in their lives at home
and at work. Maggie emphasized the satisfaction she receives from simply making a
contribution in all areas of her life. Correspondingly, Liz shared in an activity log entry
that she achieved this state when filling an open position at work and how that good

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feeling spilled over into her home life: “Work satisfaction from making a good hire=
time well invested. Relieves worry when home. In the long term improves balance to
have excellent staff.”
For further emotional well-being and satisfaction, several of the SSAOs endorse
keeping a positive attitude. They accomplish this positive approach to life via multiple
routes, including feeling fulfilled by and enjoying their work role and by accessing
leisure experiences. Vacations in particular provide both physical and mental rest for
these busy leaders. Liz shared in her activity log about traveling with friends and
experiencing “wonderful relaxation, personal counseling in and out, balance” as a result
of her restorative time away from home and work. At least one of the SSAOs revealed
accessing faith and spirituality as a method of support. Dr. Gaines achieves satisfaction
and a positive outlook on life via her faith, which particularly sustained her when faced
with her illness and makes her “blessed” and “grounded.”
While at work, Maggie maintains a positive focus by decorating her office with
certificates of recognition for projects accomplished on behalf of students: “It’s really
hard when you get to this level to connect with students. So I like being surrounded by
things that make me feel good about what I’m doing and who I am.” Being reminded of
ways that she helps students in her SSAO role provides her with the satisfaction of
knowing that her work is making a difference. As an additional reminder, she keeps a
positive “pat on the back file” in her desk that contains personal cards she has received.

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One additional work-life balance support worthy of mention in terms of SSAO
wellness is setting aside time for reflection. Dr. Landers counts this opportunity as being
“very beneficial” in spite of her reticence for sharing personal thoughts:
One of the things that the university has done for the executive staff is that you
have to have a 360 review every so often and, with that, you get to have an
executive coach for the year to respond to the 360. I would have two hours a
month to talk about anything. I'm not a talker. To be able to sit for two hours and
talk about ‘you’ and discernment and reflection is really quite a gift because we're
always giving information out. Very rarely are we getting it in, and so that was
really a very pleasant experience. It was once a month for a year.

Dr. Landers’ institution’s investment in her well-being via implementing a 360 review
process intentionally scheduled time for reflection into her workday, thus supporting both
her personal and professional wellness and balance efforts.
Discussion of Research Question 2
As evidenced by the data, women SSAOs access a variety of sources of support as
they attempt to successfully balance their work and family responsibilities. This is borne
out in the existing research, with Marcinkus, Whelan-Berry, and Gordon (2007)
advocating for multiple sources of support to form a network in women’s personal and
professional spheres that can help sustain them in both realms. The four SSAOs in the
present study count their relationships with others, clear campus policies, and emotional
and physical health as being factors that support their balance.
Family seems to be the major source of support for these women leaders. All of
the SSAOs mentioned their spouses as being champions of their efforts and the
significance of having that support via their partnership. The SSAOs also noted their
relationships with siblings and parents as being integral to successful work-life balance.

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Additionally, the support that SSAOs mentioned experiencing through their children
became an unanticipated facilitator of work-life balance in that they were compelled to
limit their work hours in order to fulfill their caregiving role. This latter study finding is
reflected in existing research on work-life balance (Keene & Quadagno, 2004).
In terms of accessing relationships for support, the professional connections that
these SSAOs have made with other women have morphed into personal friendships as
well, resulting in therapeutic chat sessions and weekend getaways. Perhaps it is the
nature of women to develop personal friendships in a professional context, although this
was not evident in the literature on work-life balance. Incorporating the personal into the
professional sphere seems to be a way for these women leaders to bridge the gap between
the two realms and become better balanced. This appears to be a strategy that women
implement subconsciously, and one that will be explored further in the next section.
Although some of the SSAOs did not seem to know with any consistency whether
they had successfully accessed their institutional leave policies, they are familiar enough
with them currently to be able to interpret them for their staff. They make a point to
emphasize schedule flexibility in order to allow for others’ work-life balance. It is
surmised that this approach and focus on the welfare of others may stem from women’s
transformational leadership style, which will be discussed further in the next section as a
strategy for successful work-life balance. As advocated by existing literature, institutions
should provide clear policies containing sufficient flexibility, similar to what the SSAOs
offer their staff, in order to support the success of SSAOs and other leaders (Galinsky et
al., 2008; Halpern & Cheung, 2008). Now that the supports accessed by these women

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SSAOs have been revealed to be relationships, networks of support, and health and
wellness, the next section will discuss the strategies employed by women SSAOs to
balance work and family life.
Research Question 3: Strategies for Work-Life Balance
In order for these findings to be instructive for others, it is imperative to know
how women SSAOs go about successfully balancing their many roles. To that end, the
final research question asked: What strategies do women senior student affairs officers
employ to balance work and family life? Several of the supports that were listed in the
previous section reappear here in the form of strategies accessed for balance. Some
strategies are shared in the form of SSAOs’ advice to current and aspiring leaders, and
this section also includes an examination of SSAOs’ leadership qualities as a balance
strategy.
Three chief themes emerged from the data as strategies utilized by women SSAOs
for work-life balance: creating a supportive workplace, exercising time management, and
building and sustaining relationships. Each of these themes has a number of affiliated
sub-themes that will be addressed under each heading.
Creating a Supportive Workplace
It has been established that the SSAOs spend the majority of their day at work.
All related during the interview process how they have designed their work environments
to mirror their personalities and how this, combined with caring staff and colleagues,
helps to create a supportive space that assists their pursuit of balance. Strategies involved

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in developing a supportive workspace include creating a comfortable office environment,
setting expectations related to priorities, and finding satisfaction in their work.
Office environment. One of the strategies evident from visiting and observing
the SSAOs’ work sites is the care they have each invested in making their office
environment a place of comfort that reflects their personal life. All four have
incorporated items and aspects of their home into their workplace to create a feeling of
family. Maggie succinctly summarizes the sentiment of all the SSAOs: “I’ve never been
one who’s been able to separate work and family. For me, my office represents the
integration of both, that it represents my personality, really, a lot of what shaped me.”
The environmental scan conducted at each office revealed pictures of family, cards,
favorite sayings and quotations, personal keepsakes, artwork, books, and other personally
meaningful items that remind the SSAOs of family and personal pursuits. It appears that
the goal is two-fold: to mimic the comforts of home for their own benefit since they
spend most of their day at work, and to make students and others feel comfortable and
welcome when visiting their office.
Setting expectations. A further strategy the SSAOs employ in creating a
supportive work environment is setting expectations so that colleagues, staff, and
supervisors know what matters in their lives. For instance, Maggie’s daughter plays a
competitive sport and attends college several hours away, so Maggie made sure early on
that her staff knew she would be going to all of the games: “I would arrange my whole
workday around that. Being clear about the priority of family, but being also clear that I
still had to get a job done.” Because she shared her expectations early on, her staff

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facilitates her efforts to attend games by assisting with her schedule and managing events
in her absence. Liz’s referral further corroborates the support granted by her staff due to
the work environment she cultivated:
At work, her personality and the support that she so freely shares with others is
then reciprocal. I think people are really motivated and inspired to do right by her
and to support her and to help her when she needs it because of that- because they
feel that same thing for her.

Dr. Gaines has a similar philosophy about being available for family and setting that
expectation for others:
One of the things that my husband and I were really big on is really participating
in our kids’ lives. I did not miss my kids’ activities, even with the kinds of jobs I
had... No one has ever given me any flak for participating in my kids’ life, and I
think it’s mostly because I’ve worked really hard and I’ve been there when people
have needed things. I have said, very clearly, ‘This comes first and then I will
make sure all of this gets done.’ I think it has to be that you haven’t let things go
or let people down at your work life in order to have support in this other part.

Like Maggie and Dr. Gaines, the SSAOs emphasized that they are clear about their
priorities and work long hours in order to be successful in their positions. This
transparency and communication, along with the relationships they have developed with
their staff and colleagues, results in being supported as they balance work and family.
Finding satisfaction. A final strategy for creating a supportive workplace to
facilitate balance is finding satisfaction in the work itself. Dr. Gaines achieves this state
via her positive attitude about life: “I think that everything works the way it’s supposed
to. And even when it’s tough… I do believe… if you go with the flow of life, overall, it
will work out.” Maggie advises aspiring SSAOs to seek a positive work environment and
“find the right fit that accepts you for who you are and what you wanna be.” For aspiring

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leaders working in a toxic environment, Liz recounts how she sought personal fulfillment
elsewhere:
I was on [a] hospital board for 10 years. Actually, that compensated for a pretty
uncomfortable work environment, so my volunteer work was giving me more
satisfaction than my ‘work’ work. In hindsight I realized I was able to really give
a lot more because of the frustrations in my work environment. When I wasn’t
getting satisfaction from my work, I found it in other ways, so if you’re in a
particularly challenging situation, you can always find ways to stimulate and
motivate yourself.

Even though Liz was unable to create a supportive workplace for herself at that particular
time in her career, she found satisfaction elsewhere until she was able to change her
situation. This strategy allowed her to better enjoy at least some aspect of her work. Her
advice to others for finding satisfaction in life is to create something to anticipate:
I get up in the morning excited about a new day, and a lot of that’s because we
always have things to look forward to. We always have trips planned out, I
always have things at work that I’m looking forward to, I always have a positive
something in front of me.

Employers should note that Josselson (1996) similarly found job satisfaction to be a
factor in the retention of women leaders. A supportive workplace that allows SSAOs the
flexibility to spend time on family offers satisfaction and further ensures their retention.
The next section will discuss strategies related to time management and how these
support work-family balance.
Time Management
The SSAOs’ high-level position does afford them some schedule flexibility. Yet,
they are still beholden to the nature of student affairs work and the unexpected crises that
occur and preempt their plans. In her activity log, Dr. Landers aptly notes that her job
“inhibits me from… traveling at a moment’s notice and doing anything leisurely. I am

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always conscious of time and the commitment of time for any activity. In fact, time is
really my new currency.” Time is indeed a currency for all of the SSAOs, and in order to
balance their work and family responsibilities, they have developed several assistive
strategies for managing their time. These strategies include integrating work and family
life, delegating and prioritizing, outsourcing work, and scheduling downtime. Each of
these sub-themes will be discussed next as part of the SSAOs’ time management strategy.
Work-life integration. A 2005 study of SSAOs revealed that integrating work
and family activities is an effective strategy for balance (Guthrie et al.). This discovery
was supported in Cheung and Halpern’s (2008; 2010) research on women leaders, with
the 2010 report noting that women who incorporate their families into their work life feel
more balanced. These findings were replicated in the present study, as all of the SSAOs
wholeheartedly promote integrating their families into their work activities. They
discussed how the supportive student affairs environment in which they work even
facilitates this strategy. Dr. Gaines describes how her kids were “raised in the athletic
department”:
[My children] thought they were just coming to games. They didn’t know I was
working… My youngest daughter was born in July. We had our first game mid-
August, and she was there in the stands. It was so funny because she slept
through the entire game, with all that noise. But that’s been our life, that’s the
way we have managed.

Maggie also accessed a work-family integration strategy with her daughter:
Obviously, this is not a ‘leave at 6:00 and never have to work again’ job, so the
strategy that I used, particularly as a mother, is that anything outside of the normal
working day to the extent that it was reasonable, she was coming with me.

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The SSAOs report feeling better balanced as parents and leaders by incorporating their
families into their work lives, whether that means bringing their children to campus or
scheduling time to visit relatives while traveling for business, as Dr. Landers and Dr.
Gaines advocate.
Incorporating time for family while working has certainly facilitated these
SSAOs’ work-life balance, as has technology. Laptop computers and smartphones
provide unrestricted access to work email and documents, allowing the SSAOs to work
anytime from anywhere in the world. Having the ability to accomplish work on their
terms is a strategy these women utilize to more easily fit in time with family. In this way
they integrate their work into their family time when necessary and are thus able to
experience both spheres together. Maggie sums up how integrating work and family
activities supports her balance:
I think that when you feel like you have successfully integrated the two and that
you’re comfortable with where each is in your life, that’s balance. I don’t think
there’s a separation between the two. You are one person who has multiple
interests, multiple priorities, multiple things that you’re trying to accomplish. I
think integration… is the best word for that, thinking about how you fit those
together in a way that helps you feel good about yourself.

A further strategy facilitating the integration of work and family through effective time
management involves delegating duties and prioritizing tasks, which will be discussed in
the next section.
Delegating and prioritizing. Vice Presidents for Student Affairs are called upon
to address an overwhelming number of tasks daily. Their schedules are not their own and
largely consist of meetings, which makes responding to emails, writing reports, and
tackling other priorities a challenge. One strategy these SSAOs have found to be

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successful in assisting their efforts is delegating work to others. All four SSAOs
appreciate the support of their staff and colleagues in helping them accomplish their
work. Marshall (2009) also found support for delegating as an effective strategy. The
SSAOs noted that having a qualified and supportive staff handling some of their tasks
allows them to take less work home at night and better balance their schedules. Dr.
Landers offered this advice about delegating:
You want to get the stuff off your plate that somebody else can do so that you can
spend your time doing the things that nobody else can do. Both at home and at
work- anything that I don’t have to touch, I don’t.

Her referral attributed Dr. Landers’ ability to effectively delegate as a reason why she has
been successful in balancing her multiple roles: “She is quick to identify resources that
will help her get the job done. She doesn’t hesitate to delegate and she’s very successful
[at it].” This strategy is mutually beneficial: delegating benefits the SSAO by removing
required tasks and affording her more time, and it benefits the staff member by
demonstrating the SSAO’s confidence in that person, giving the staff member an
opportunity both to support her and feel pride in their own work.
Prioritizing is another strategy that emerged for improved time management. The
SSAOs’ advice to others is to determine one’s values and then spend time accordingly.
When determining priorities, Liz advises others to consider her strategy: “Look at every
day and decide what is it that I want to do today, that I have to do today, and what is it
that would be better for me to do on another day?” Dr. Gaines’ priorities materialize in
her home life as an organized list of family “to-dos” for when she is traveling:

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I can organize things very well and I can put everybody where they are supposed
to be… When I would travel for football, I would leave these exhaustive lists of
who needs to go where and when.

Yet, she discovered that her “large calendar of everybody’s activities,” created to
organize their schedules in her absence, was overwhelming and did not encourage their
participation. Thus, attempts at delegation and prioritization of activities, while
successful to some extent in the workplace, may not be as effective on the home front.
Outsourcing. With a litany of tasks to attend to at work, coupled with multiple
responsibilities at home, women leaders can feel overwhelmed trying to “do it all.”
Social role theory (Eagly, 1987) predisposes women to be the primary family caregivers,
so they have a tendency to feel an obligation to take the lead on home responsibilities.
To make their lives more manageable, the SSAOs all shared that they outsource many
tasks. Similar to delegating, outsourcing involves giving tasks to others and is most
commonly used in the home sphere. Tasks identified as being outsourced by the SSAOs
include yard work, cooking, house cleaning, laundry and dry cleaning, financial record-
keeping, dog care, and childcare (via a nanny, babysitters, and daycare). Liz best
encapsulated the sentiments of all four SSAOs with this statement: “I hire a lot to have a
life.” Supporting this data is Cheung and Halpern’s (2010) research suggesting that
women let go of trying to do it all to balance multiple roles and instead outsource their
domestic work. This allows them to redefine their domestic role and gain more time to
focus on other responsibilities, including family, thereby aiding in their quest for balance.
Scheduling downtime. One of the strategies emerging from the data for effective
balance is the importance of scheduling downtime for self and with family. As all of the

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SSAOs noted, their schedules are not their own and may be preempted at any time due to
student or institutional needs. They have to constantly re-prioritize their day in response
to issues that surface. Yet, in spite of the unpredictability of their work schedules, the
SSAOs all indicated a need to intentionally incorporate family or personal time into their
schedules, thus decreasing the likelihood that this time becomes monopolized by work.
Due to the nature of their senior-level positions, the SSAOs have greater flexibility to
manage their calendars, if not greater freedom with their time, and according to Dr.
Landers: “make my calendar accommodate my personal life.” Maggie accesses this
strategy by working extra hours prior to visiting her daughter so that she can “have the
weekend without guilt.” She and the other SSAOs schedule personal time into their
calendars, working overtime and more efficiently in order to accommodate hours spent
with family.
Since it is a challenge for these busy women leaders to find time for themselves,
Dr. Landers advises those aspiring to an SSAO position to integrate “me-time” into their
schedules by planning personal appointments such as haircuts, manicures, and health-
related visits far in advance to ensure that time is blocked off and scheduled. Along with
the other SSAOs, Dr. Landers also advocates yoga as a way to incorporate downtime into
her schedule:
Like any kind of exercise, you can't do anything else while you're doing it. We
really center on that hour, so the hour is yours and you don't really get an hour
very often. It keeps you flexible, and if you can stay physically flexible, I think
you can stay mentally flexible because you get to move. It's something that I've
carved out in terms of two hours a week that is my time.

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Her strategy for ensuring that she keeps to her yoga appointments is to have her instructor
come to her office, allowing her to handle any last minute work issues before and after
the session, but still building in time for exercise so that she can feel more balanced and
healthy.
Liz accesses downtime by physically separating herself from her workplace at
least once a day when possible:
I live ten minutes away, so I always try when I’ve got a night event to go home
and at least walk the dog, put my feet up- even if I only have 40 minutes. I try to
physically be away from here. Some people use drive time to separate themselves
from their work; I don’t have drive time. So, I found if I change clothes right
away, get out of my work persona, get on my walking shoes, and get out, that
that’s the separation between work and play.

Since her SSAO schedule does not allow her much free time, Liz finds that she is better
able to function if she gives herself time to refresh and regroup before attending a work
event.
To schedule in free time away from work in an intentional way, the SSAOs are
big proponents of vacations as a way to separate themselves from work and “attend to
yourself as much as everybody else.” They note that vacations also set aside deliberate
time to focus on family or friends. To that end, building and sustaining relationships with
others is a further balance strategy that will be discussed in the next section.
Building and Sustaining Relationships
Because the SSAOs consider relationships with family and others to be a
significant support to their work-life balance, they view building these relationships as a
critical strategy for sustaining them. Dr. Landers explains the necessity of investing time
and energy into building and sustaining relationships:

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You have to spend the time on relations and a lot of people aren’t willing to do
that, and eventually it bites them in the ass. You gotta pay the piper at some
point. It’s always easier to pay the piper on the front end than on the back end.

In her experience, “paying the piper,” or investing time on relationships, pays off in the
form of support and allegiance, whereas neglecting relationships has a negative outcome.
A key ingredient to building successful relationships with others is communication, a
sub-theme to be discussed in the next section.
Communication. The SSAOs advocate regular communication with others as a
strategy for sustaining supportive relationships. Most speak to their families daily, with
Dr. Gaines texting her children using their preferred mode of communication. Dr.
Landers has hosted weekly Sunday dinners throughout her career as a way to consistently
keep her family close, no matter how busy her schedule. At work, Dr. Gaines and
Maggie communicate with their students by hosting them for regular meals on campus,
and Dr. Gaines meets weekly with her staff to make them feel, according to her referral:
“engaged and consulted, listened to and in touch with her.” Liz notes that the nature of
student affairs work facilitates these practices, as the field “prepares you to be able to pay
attention to relationships, and reminds us of the value of relationships.” These women
leaders appreciate working in a field that celebrates communication and relationship-
building, thereby facilitating their balance efforts.
Building a good partnership at home. A further strategy for building
relationships, as particularly advocated by Dr. Landers, is to find a good mate and create
a partnership. All four women cite their husbands as having a significant influence on
their lives. These men have willingly given up careers to support those of their wives and

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have taken on roles that are antithetical to the social roles expected of them by society.
They are a sounding board and active supporters of their wives and families. As a result,
the SSAOs note their willingness to reciprocate that support. Her referral says this about
the relationship between Liz and her husband: “She’s always supported [him] and his
career interests, even though it was hers that ended up being the motivation for moving.”
The SSAOs invest time and energy into their relationships with their husbands in order to
ensure they are “totally loved and cared for” even when the women are away from home,
helping them feel balanced.
Strategies such as creating a supportive work environment, managing time, and
focusing on relationships together have aided these women leaders in balancing work and
family life. There is an additional strategy they access without even realizing it: their
leadership style. Although none of the SSAOs explicitly mentioned her transformational
leadership qualities as a strategy for balance, this style of leadership supports work-life
balance efforts. Leadership qualities observed via the SSAO interviews, referral
comments, and activity logs are shared in the next section.
Leadership Qualities
As previously established, Eagly and Carli’s (2003) meta-analytic research
indicates that women have a propensity for practicing transformational leadership.
Transformational leadership incorporates aspects of the female social role, allowing
women to reconcile their communal social role with the agentic role more commonly
attributed to leaders. As noted in the literature, contemporary worksites benefit from the

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optimistic and inspirational practice of transformational leadership (Bolman & Deal,
2008; Cheung & Halpern, 2010; Eagly, 2007).
The field of student affairs in particular seems to welcome this interactive, team-
oriented, communicative style. Harnessing a leadership practice of establishing a
common vision and empowering staff through delegation enables the SSAOs to more
easily incorporate family into the work environment and make their work environment
feel more like home. Table 3 displays a list of SSAOs’ leadership characteristics, some
of which they attributed to themselves during the interview process and others that were
evident through meeting them and speaking with their referrals. These transformational
attributes are supported in the literature as those befitting a successful leader (Astin &
Leland, 1991; Baumgartner & Schneider, 2010; Cheung & Halpern, 2010; Dean,
Bracken, & Allen, 2009; Eagly & Carli, 2007).
Table 3
Participants’ Transformational Leadership Characteristics
Collaborative Motivating Communicative
 Coalition-builder
 Equitable
 Fair
 Flexible
 Network-builder
 Politically astute
 Team-oriented
 Empowering
 Genuine
 High-achieving
 Inspirational
 Optimistic
 Passionate
 Risk-taker
 Strategic thinker
 Visionary
 Accessible
 Assertive
 Decision-maker
 Logical
 Organized
 Rational
 Relational
 Sense of humor/fun
 Transparent

The SSAOs’ leadership characteristics uniquely position them to be successful, not only
in their professional field, but also as part of a family unit. According to Dr. Landers,
having a family has actually enhanced her professional leadership skills:

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I think having children has made me a better manager, because it just teaches you
so many things... Having to learn to live with another person, a mate, certainly
teaches you compromise and teaches you how to get along while raising
children… all of those experiences positively affect the work experience.

This finding is supported in the existing research on women managers (van Steenbergen,
Ellemers, & Mooijaart, 2007). The SSAOs’ collaborative, communicative, and
motivational skills are honed and implemented both at work and home, and in this way
their transformational leadership approach serves as a strategy for supporting balance.
Discussion of Research Question 3
Women SSAOs employ a variety of strategies to facilitate work-life balance. Dr.
Gaines shared that she views balance as an aspirational goal and advocates that women
determine for themselves what balance means rather than following the definitions of
others. Strategies that she and the other SSAOs accessed for balance include creating a
supportive workplace, being intentional in managing their time, and building and
sustaining relationships. All four SSAOs have accessed these strategies in one form or
another in order to juggle their multiple roles and responsibilities. Instrumental to their
achievement is their transformational leadership qualities, which serve as a foundation for
their collective success as leaders and with work-life balance.
The strategies accessed by the SSAOs are similar to those found in previous
studies. For example, integrating work and family activities, delegating, and partnering
to share caregiving responsibilities were also found to be beneficial for balance in a study
of SSAOs by Guthrie, Woods, Cusker, and Gregory (2005). Marshall (2009) further
found delegating, supportive supervisors, mentors, role models, and professional
satisfaction to be effective strategies contributing to balance for senior higher education

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professionals. With regard to their support relationships, the SSAOs did not have many
female mentors or role models to emulate. They had to determine their support systems
with limited guidance and develop strategies out of necessity, largely based around the
supports that they identified in their lives.
Although time is a scarcity for these busy leaders, it is manifested in the findings
as a challenge, a support, and a strategy in different variations. The challenge to work-
life balance is that there is not enough time to do everything they would like to do, the
support is manifested as the leave time that their institutional policies afford them and the
time they spend with those they care about, and the strategy is managing the time they
have in a way that allows them to surmount the challenge and access more support.
Relatedly, the significance of relationships figures prominently in the data. Some SSAOs
have had the challenge of sacrificing to maintain family relationships, relationships with
others have proven to be a significant source of support, and a common strategy for
balancing multiple roles is to invest time and energy into building and sustaining
relationships. It is instructive to note that none of these women leaders got to where they
are on their own. Although they are bright and accomplished women in their own right,
the SSAOs’ success has been due in large part to the relationships with others that have
supported them personally and professionally.
Summary
This chapter discussed the study’s findings by research question and outlined the
challenges, supports, and strategies experienced by four women Vice Presidents for
Student Affairs. The results indicate that women SSAOs experience difficulty achieving

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work-life balance due to the social roles expected of them by society to be the primary
caregiver for their family. It was further revealed that these SSAOs have had to make
certain sacrifices for the sake of their careers. Moreover, the nature of work in the
student affairs field was exposed as a 24/7 commitment that requires a great deal of time,
energy, and dedication, particularly at the Vice President level.
After reviewing the challenges, support systems were highlighted as being a
variety of different relationships, a professional network, and attention to emotional and
physical health. Finally, the data responding to the third research question designated
strategies that SSAOs employ to manage challenges they encounter and access support
systems for improved work-life balance. These strategies included creating a supportive
office environment, intentionally managing time schedules, and building and sustaining
relationships with others. It is important to consider the implications of these findings, as
well as what the data did not reveal. To that end, Chapter 5 will examine the implications
of these results and offer suggestions for future research to provide more insight into the
experiences of women SSAOs.

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Chapter 5
Summary

Women in the field of higher education struggle to achieve and maintain success
in senior leadership positions due to social role expectations for their behavior.
Historically, society has assigned primary responsibility for family caregiving to women,
thereby presenting challenges for working women as they attempt to navigate multiple
professional and personal roles. Due to their societal social roles, women who have
attained top leadership positions are tasked with the dual expectation of being effective
leaders in their workplace and successfully managing a family at home. The multiple
demands placed on women leaders make the pursuit of work-life balance a daunting
prospect.
Even in the traditionally female-dominated field of student affairs, women
struggle to “do it all” with limited support for work-life balance. They juggle the family
caregiver social role ascribed to them by society while simultaneously advancing into and
sustaining professional leadership roles. This challenge may appear too daunting for
some and dissuade aspiring women leaders from considering top leadership roles,
proving detrimental for the increasing number of women joining the ranks of entry and
mid-level student affairs professionals and desiring advancement (Tull & Freeman,
2008). Fewer women in SSAO roles would ultimately prove harmful to a field
purporting to develop the social well-being of undergraduate students seeking role
models of what is possible to achieve.

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Purpose of the Study

The pressure to be successful in balancing work and family spheres is particularly
acute for women working in the demanding field of college student affairs. This specific
population deserves study due to women’s minority status in high-level leadership
positions in the field despite dominating entry and mid-level positions. This group also
merits attention due to the challenging non-traditional work schedule expected of student
affairs leaders, encompassing regular extended evening hours and weekend work, travel,
and round-the-clock accessibility. Due to these demands, it is critical to examine women
student affairs leaders to determine the challenges they experience as a result of their
gendered social role and how they go about successfully fulfilling their multiple roles.
To that end, this study sought to identify the challenges, supports, and strategies
experienced by women senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) as they balance work and
family roles and responsibilities. Previous studies have examined women as leaders, the
experience of SSAOs of both genders, and the general topic of balance, but less than a
handful of studies to date have focused specifically on women SSAOs and work-life
balance. This study’s particular attention to women Vice Presidents for Student Affairs
and their experiences balancing work and family aimed to fill that gap in the literature
and provide a roadmap of successful balance strategies for current and aspiring women
leaders. The following research questions guided this inquiry:
1) What challenges do women senior student affairs officers face in balancing
work and family life?

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2) What types of support do women senior student affairs officers perceive to be
helpful in achieving balance in work and family life?
3) What strategies do women senior student affairs officers employ to balance
work and family life?
Data collection for this study occurred via SSAO and referral interviews, office
observations, reflective activity log entries, and examination of resumes, job descriptions,
and institutional leave policies. Multiple sources were accessed to allow for triangulation
of the data in order to increase the validity of the study’s results. While previous research
on the topic of educational leaders and work-life balance has been limited and
incomplete, this study aimed to provide a more thorough examination of the experiences
of women senior educational leaders.
Conclusions drawn from the handful of previous studies on work-life balance of
women SSAOs have been based solely on self-reported responses. Prior to the current
study, no research examined an SSAO’s work-life balance experience from an outside
observer’s perspective. Self-reported data may be skewed because it is based on one
person’s own perspective, so the present study aimed to remedy the research gap by
providing this additional viewpoint. In this study, the outside observer, or referral,
offered an additional observation that assists in determining the accuracy of the SSAOs’
perceptions of their success in balancing work and family roles.
Additionally, only one other study to date has considered institutional family
leave policies that may facilitate or prevent SSAOs’ successful achievement of work-life
balance. Women’s leadership has been identified as advantageous due to their tendency

125

to practice a transformational leadership style (Bolman & Deal, 2008; Eagly & Carli,
2003; Wilson, 2007), so it is advisable that institutional attempts to retain effective
women leaders incorporate support for work-life balance efforts. The SSAOs’ university
policies were examined to provide a broader picture of the level of support provided and
its impact on these women’s work-life balance.
Summary of the Findings

The previous chapter discussed the study’s findings and outlined the challenges,
supports, and strategies experienced by four women Vice Presidents for Student Affairs.
The results illustrate that women SSAOs experience difficulty achieving work-life
balance due to societal social role expectations of being the primary family caregiver. It
was further revealed that these SSAOs have had to make certain personal sacrifices for
the sake of their careers. Moreover, the nature of work in the student affairs field was
exposed as a “24/7” commitment that requires a great deal of time, energy, and
dedication, particularly at the Vice President level. After reviewing the challenges faced
by the SSAOs, a system of supports emerged in the form of a variety of relationships,
professional networks, and self-care. Finally, strategies employed by these SSAOs to
manage the challenges encountered and access support systems were identified as
creating a supportive office environment, intentionally managing schedules, and building
and sustaining relationships.
In the pursuit of work-life balance, societal social roles figure prominently. As
predicted by social role theory, the study’s SSAOs were expected to take on the role of
primary caregiver while also working full-time in a demanding job. As the primary

126

family caregiver, the SSAOs revealed having had to make personal and career sacrifices
in order to maintain balance in their lives. Those SSAOs whose husbands stayed home to
provide childcare were not immune to society’s expectations, experiencing the burden of
primary caregiving as the financial breadwinner or as the public point person for the
family’s welfare.
The data revealed that the SSAOs’ social role presents challenges at work as well,
with Maggie’s isolating and discriminatory old boys’ network experience and the heavy
student affairs workload they all encounter, paired with the post-work “second shift.” In
spite of these challenges, the field of student affairs is inherently supportive of women
and the communal traits that have come to be associated with women’s social role. These
women leaders find support for their SSAO role from students and colleagues on their
college campuses in an environment that embraces their leadership style and enables
flexible schedules due to its nontraditional work hours, thereby supporting work-life
balance.
The nature of student affairs work was shown to be all-consuming, making the
pursuit of work-life balance a challenge, but the SSAOs have discovered methods to
integrate family into their work and accomplish work tasks when with their family.
Colleagues who are also considered friends, relationships external to their institution, and
partnerships with their spouses all prove to sustain the SSAOs and support balance
efforts. The SSAOs physically organize their office environments to support their work-
life balance efforts and are clear with their staff in terms of expectations and priorities.

127

They also advocate intentionally structuring their schedules to incorporate time with
family along with time to focus on their own wellness and self-care.
With regard to time management, Dr. Landers’ point about time being a currency
truly resonates. While they do not have much of this currency, time is key to the pursuit
of balance. Since it is difficult for them to find additional time, the SSAOs have
developed strategies to reconfigure their schedules and spend their time differently,
similar to what Marcinkus et al. (2007) recommend. Integration strategies favored by the
SSAOs include bringing children to the office or after-hours work events and working
from home in the evenings or while on vacation. Time-saving methods such as
delegating duties and outsourcing tasks have aided the SSAOs in successfully managing
their time commitments to their institutions and to their families.
Though not an explicit study finding, the data point to the SSAOs’
transformational leadership qualities as assisting their work-life balance efforts. Their
transparent and collaborative approach, paired with nurturing and empowering practices,
endears their staff to them and encourages support of their schedule management,
delegation, and personal wellness efforts. All of the SSAOs have assistants who manage
their calendars to assist with balance, as well as staff who take over projects or events
when the SSAOs are needed elsewhere, and it is clear from referral comments that staff
and colleagues appreciate and respect their SSAOs and therefore willingly take on these
tasks.

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Implications for Practice

The findings from this study have implications for the field of student affairs and
for policymakers with regard to the experience of women leaders and their pursuit of
work-life balance. Since no one particular method emerged for balancing work and
family, accessing multiple approaches seems to be most effective. Women leaders may
find the results of this study to be helpful in determining their own personal approach to
work-life balance that fits within their lifestyle.
Study data suggest the importance of support from all areas in achieving and
sustaining work-life balance, particularly for high-level women leaders. To combat the
isolation and loneliness that can accompany women in top leadership roles, formal
campus mentoring programs should be instituted to pair women SSAOs with other high-
level women leaders, if available. Male leaders also need to serve as intentional mentors,
since it seems that having a male mentor did not negatively impact the SSAOs in any
way; rather, male mentors were found to facilitate their advancement. Mentoring
programs should also be offered and accessed through professional associations such as
NASPA or ACPA to provide a sounding board and help women SSAOs develop the
external networks of support noted as being so critical for the SSAOs in this study.
These programs are already offered to some degree, but the associations should partner
with universities to align their efforts for the benefit of women SSAOs. Since travel can
pose a burden for women leaders with families, some of these meetings or programs
should be offered via online streaming or Skype to facilitate convenient participation.

129

Relatedly, women SSAOs should be offered training on how to use these online
services and provided the latest technological resources to effectively accomplish their
work from any location. This will allow them to become less dependent on their
assistants or staff for access to technology and more efficient in their work. Due to the
fact that these women access their email at all hours of the day and night as well as while
on vacation, their institutions should facilitate their work by giving them the latest
technological resources such as a laptop, iPad, and smartphone, educating them on the
services that each provides. Training should also be offered to new SSAOs on effective
practices such as delegating and organization to ensure that they have these skills, critical
for success. This training should take place on campus and occur via a short series of
half-hour sessions for easier incorporation into the SSAOs’ demanding schedules.
To aid these women leaders in incorporating self-care into their busy schedules,
institutional efforts should be made to promote health and wellness services. Providing
intentional opportunities for SSAOs to integrate physical activity into their day enables
them to maintain this valued aspect of their lives, essential to the pursuit of balance.
Additional wellness benefits would also be derived from integrating mandatory reflection
time into leaders’ schedules, as Dr. Landers experienced. Even though she was initially
skeptical about the benefit of 360 reviews, Dr. Landers’ sessions with an executive coach
afforded her critical time for reflection and renewal, necessary for continued wellness.
This same opportunity should be provided on a regular basis to all SSAOs as a way of
supporting their success and promoting retention.

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Supporting women’s wellness significantly aids the pursuit of work-life balance.
To that end, institutional policies support balance if they are clearly written and
interpreted and promote alternative work scenarios such as flexible schedules,
telecommuting, and on-site childcare resources. Marshall (2009) similarly asserts that as
women increasingly enter the workforce with higher rates of educational attainment than
their male counterparts, employers will need to examine their policies and support
mechanisms in order to facilitate work-life balance, thus promoting women’s retention
and advancement.
Implementing the aforementioned support services for women SSAOs should
promote their retention and encourage their success, thus providing effective role models
to encourage aspiring women in the student affairs pipeline to advance to leadership.
Universities need to improve their practices to facilitate work-life balance and create for
entry and mid-level women student affairs professionals a culture that is more supportive
of their advancement to leadership. An increase in women SSAOs would be beneficial
for those currently inhabiting the SSAO position, entry and mid-level aspiring SSAOs,
other professionals in the field, students, and the university as a whole. Institutions
should heed this study’s findings and implement policies and services that support the
ascension of women into student affairs leadership roles.
Recommendations for Future Study

This study illustrated the challenges, supports, and strategies experienced by four
women SSAOs at four-year institutions across the U.S. Although attempts were made to
obtain comprehensive responses to the study’s research questions, additional queries

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emerged during data collection and analysis. Accordingly, this section outlines
recommendations for future study.
The SSAO participants included four Vice Presidents for Student Affairs at
variously sized four-year public and private institutions in different regions across the
U.S. Although their responses do provide a sense of how women SSAOs might
experience work-family balance issues, this small cross-section does not address the
experiences of women leaders at other types of institutions, such as two-year community
colleges or single-sex women’s colleges. An examination into these institutions would
be important because the student populations and specific needs of community colleges
and women’s colleges are different from those of four-year or coeducational institutions
and therefore may result in different leadership experiences for women SSAOs. Leaders
of women’s colleges, for example, may have a more favorable experience due to the all-
female student body and perceived support for women in senior leadership roles at these
institutions. It would be worthwhile to study SSAOs at these different institutional types
to determine if the outcomes presented in the current study hold true for women leaders
at any college or university.
Relatedly, it would be instructive to conduct research on a larger sample of
women leaders to determine what factors impact work-family balance. This particular
study’s SSAOs were in the 50-65 age range and their children were mostly grown adults;
it is suggested to study younger women leaders to determine if age or time of life has any
impact on balance. It is surmised that age may have an impact on balance, due to SSAO
comments asserting that had they had their leadership position when their children were

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younger, they would not have been as successful. Future research should examine
younger women leaders with children at home to determine if their challenges, supports,
and strategies are similar to those related here.
Institutional size might also have an impact on women’s balance experiences, as
might location, whether in a small college town or large urban city. Any of the
previously mentioned factors may have a bearing on the experience of women leaders
and therefore merit future research. It is further recommended that a more
comprehensive study be undertaken by including a larger sample of women SSAOs.
Limiting the sample to four participants provided the opportunity for rich, descriptive
data collection and analysis, but enlarging the sample would provide additional evidence
of SSAO work-life balance strategies to complement the literature.
Finally, since this study only included one woman of color and there are even
fewer women of color than there are women in these leadership roles, it would be
beneficial to learn how the experiences of women SSAOs of color compare to the
experiences of this study’s participants. Other populations deserving of study are
unmarried women, single mothers, and lesbian SSAOs. Lesbian women are under-
represented in the literature with little to no data existing on their SSAO leadership
experiences. Single women do not have the economic or social support of a family or
spouse and face some unique challenges as women leaders in the workforce, such as a
vulnerability to male sexism or discrimination due to their single status (Astin & Leland,
1991). Further, Hewlett (2007) reports that 44% of women professionals are childless
and almost a third of them are single, yet this status does not preclude these women from

133

caregiver responsibilities, with 24% experiencing eldercare issues and having to leave the
workforce as a result. Issues for SSAO lesbians, non-mothers, and single women are not
addressed in the existing literature, so it is recommended that future research examine
their experiences so that they can be better supported by their institutions and colleagues.
In addition to studying institutional and demographic factors, it would be
instructive to conduct further research on whether women SSAOs find the support of
professional associations to assist their balance efforts. Only half of this study’s SSAOs
mentioned professional associations as a support, and previous research revealed limited
to no active association involvement among SSAOs (Chernow, Cooper, & Winston, Jr.,
2003). Because research on this topic is limited and inconclusive and these organizations
claim to provide helpful resources for SSAOs, further study should examine professional
association involvement among senior women leaders.
A final recommendation for future research is to examine the qualities of
transformational women leaders. It is not known whether the SSAOs’ leadership
qualities are innate or developed through experience. Bass (2000) and Eagly (2007) cite
women’s transformational leadership as advantageous for organizations, but it is not clear
if or how others can develop these effective leadership qualities. Research examining the
qualities of women SSAOs could shed light on if and how they are groomed to access
leadership roles in the field, with the results offering guidance to aspiring women leaders
and organizations supporting their advancement.

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Conclusion
This study aimed to identify the challenges, supports, and strategies employed by
women SSAOs in their pursuit of work-life balance. Its findings suggest that the
challenges faced by these women leaders are not insurmountable, particularly with the
aid of a comprehensive support network and the development of strategies for success.
With increasing numbers of women earning higher-level educational credentials and
entering the student affairs field, the pathway to SSAO leadership will be blocked if
senior administrators refuse to mentor and aid these aspiring women in their quest for
advancement. This support needs to come from top administrators and in the form of
institutional policies that promote work-life balance by being more “parent-friendly”
(Wilson, 2007).
Wilson (2007) further asserts: “we need to end, once and for all, women’s deal
with society to be the sole caregivers” (p. 25). Social roles are indeed dynamic, but until
society comes to view men and women equally, the burden of primary caregiver will
continue to fall on women. Women’s social role in society places pressure on women
leaders in particular, who often feel forced to choose between their family and work. The
SSAOs in this study all shared their strategy of integrating family into work activities,
allowing them to “have it all” instead of having to sacrifice time with one or the other.
They access the freedom the SSAO position affords them and use it to intentionally
structure their time to incorporate family and personal activities into their schedules.
It is anticipated that these findings will prove beneficial for current and aspiring
women SSAOs, inform male SSAOs and institutions of women SSAOs’ experience, and

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prompt policymakers and other higher education leaders to reexamine their policies and
implement programs supportive of balance. This research should supplement the existing
work-life balance literature by demonstrating that the SSAO role is attainable and
sustainable for women, thereby encouraging more women to aspire to this top leadership
position. Although they did share some challenges en route to work-life balance,
optimistically, the four SSAOs had much more to say about supports and strategies for
successful balance. This study reveals that with the development of support networks
and strategies, the pursuit of work-life balance is an achievable aim for women SSAOs.

136

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143

Appendix A
Participant Recruitment Letter

You have been selected to participate in this study due to your professional leadership in
education and a perception of having achieved successful work-life balance. As a
participant in this study, your contribution will assist other women interested in
effectively managing work and family responsibilities.

The purpose of this study is to determine how women leaders in education balance work
and family roles. Societal expectations of women as primary caregivers result in working
women attempting to navigate multiple professional and personal roles. Those who have
attained the highest levels of leadership are tasked with being effective leaders in their
workplace while at the same time successfully maintaining their home life, whether that
means managing a family or assisting relatives.

While there is no one “right way” to negotiate work-life balance, the goal of this study is
to determine strategies that successful women leaders employ to be effective in managing
work and family domains. These strategies should prove instructive for women aspiring
to education leadership positions. This study will also reveal any obstacles that women
may face along the way to achieving a leadership position in the education field, along
with support systems that assist women in overcoming obstacles. The study’s results
should be of interest to both aspiring and current women leaders as they determine how
to effectively integrate work and family roles.

To that end, the following research questions are posed to determine how women leaders
achieve and maintain work-life balance:

1) What challenges do women leaders in education face in balancing work and
family life?

2) What types of support do women leaders perceive to be helpful in achieving
balance in work and family life?

3) What strategies do women leaders employ to balance work and family life?

Your participation in this study should take 4 to 6 hours of your time over a period of 8
weeks and will consist of the following activities:

- 2 to 3 interviews

- Journaling in an activity log about your daily/weekly experiences at least once
a week for 5 weeks

- Referral of a person close to you, work or family-related, to be interviewed

144

Thank you in advance for your consideration of my request to participate. Your
involvement is critical to the success of this study.

145

Appendix B
Interview Protocol

1. Please tell me about your office environment. How would you describe it?

2. How do you see the items in your office connecting to your work and family?

3. How many hours per week would you estimate you spend working? On family-
related activities?

4. How do you make work a place you want to be?

5. Tell me who you are and about your upbringing.

6. Describe your parental and family influence on your life and career choices.

7. Tell me about your responsibilities at home and at work.

8. How do you describe a typical day?
a. From waking up to going to sleep.

9. Tell me about your career goals. Have they changed over time, and if so, how?

10. How long did it take you to obtain your current position? Tell me about the
timeline.
a. Describe specific experiences.

11. What factors led to your current role?
a. Personal
b. Professional

12. Please share specific barriers you encountered along the way to your current role.
a. Personal
b. Professional
c. Organizational

13. What factors contribute to your success?
a. At work
b. Outside of work

14. What strategies have contributed to your success?

15. Tell me about significant individuals who influence you personally and
professionally? How do they contribute to your success?

146

16. What is your definition of work-life balance?
a. At work
b. Outside of work

17. To what extent are you meeting your definition of work-life balance?

18. What is the same or different about your current position than other positions
you’ve held in the past in terms of work-life balance?
a. What were the stressors at different levels?

19. How did you come by the skills necessary for balancing your work and family
life?

20. What’s important to you and how does it relate to work-life balance?

21. What, if anything, have you outsourced to maintain balance at home? At work?

22. How do you spend your free time?

23. What are some challenges you face personally and professionally? How do you
handle these?

24. What strategies do you employ in difficult situations?

25. What has supported your work-life balance efforts?

26. How did you access that support?

27. To what extent do you take advantage of work and home policies and resources?

28. How does your role as a leader impact your family role?

29. How does your family role impact your role as a leader?

30. What did you give up or let go of to balance the two roles?

31. How did you feel about making these decisions?

32. If you could do it all over again, what, if anything, would you change?

33. What advice would you offer women for dealing with the same kinds of issues in
their own life?

147

34. At the end of the day, what matters to you most and how do you sustain that?

35. Is there anything you would like to add?

After the 5-week activity log journaling:

1. How did you prioritize the dilemmas that you experienced over the past 5 weeks?

2. What makes you feel good about your choices?

148

Appendix C
Interview Protocol For Participant Referrals

1. How long have you known x and in what capacity?

2. How would you describe a typical day for x?

3. What is your perception of the personal and professional challenges x faces?

4. What strategies do you see x using to overcome these challenges?
a. Outside of work
b. At work

5. What do you see contributing to x’s success?
a. Outside of work
b. At work

6. What is your perception of her as a leader?
a. Outside of work
b. At work

7. How do you think that her family role impacts her role as a leader?

8. How do you think her role as a leader impacts her family role?

9. How do you think x spends her downtime?

10. At the end of the day, what matters to her most?

11. Is there anything you would like to add?

149

Appendix D
Participant Activity Log Protocol

(Minimum of 5 entries to be recorded over a 5-week period)

Week 1

1. What work-life balance dilemmas did you encounter this week?
2. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1= Lowest Priority and 5= Highest Priority), how would you
rate each of these dilemmas?

3. What decisions did you have to make related to these dilemmas?
4. What positive outcomes did you experience related to your work-life balance?
5. Additional comments/thoughts?

Week 2

1. What work-life balance dilemmas did you encounter this week?
2. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1= Lowest Priority and 5= Highest Priority), how would you
rate each of these dilemmas?

3. What decisions did you have to make related to these dilemmas?
4. What positive outcomes did you experience related to your work-life balance?
5. Additional comments/thoughts?

Week 3

1. What work-life balance dilemmas did you encounter this week?
2. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1= Lowest Priority and 5= Highest Priority), how would you
rate each of these dilemmas?

3. What decisions did you have to make related to these dilemmas?
4. What positive outcomes did you experience related to your work-life balance?

150

5. Additional comments/thoughts?
Week 4

1. What work-life balance dilemmas did you encounter this week?
2. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1= Lowest Priority and 5= Highest Priority), how would you
rate each of these dilemmas?

3. What decisions did you have to make related to these dilemmas?
4. What positive outcomes did you experience related to your work-life balance?
5. Additional comments/thoughts?

Week 5

1. What work-life balance dilemmas did you encounter this week?
2. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1= Lowest Priority and 5= Highest Priority), how would you
rate each of these dilemmas?

3. What decisions did you have to make related to these dilemmas?
4. What positive outcomes did you experience related to your work-life balance?
5. Additional comments/thoughts?

Cumulative Reflection

1. Looking back at the work-life balance dilemmas you have experienced over the
past 5 weeks, please list them in order from highest priority to lowest priority.

2. Explain your rationale for rating the dilemmas.

3. Additional comments/thoughts that come to mind after having reviewed your log
entries?

151

Appendix E
Office Observation Checklist

Question:
1. I noticed ______ in your office. Could you tell me its significance to you?
Environmental Scan
 Pictures of family- who?
 Pictures on computer screensaver- who or what?
 Pictures of personal accomplishments (e.g. marathon, awards, etc.)- what?
 Art from children (if have young children)
 Personal cards
 Flowers or other token(s) of affection
 Souvenirs from vacation(s)- what?
 Personal keepsakes- what?
 Duffel bag and tennis shoes in the office for exercise
 Awards or certificates of recognition
 Inspirational quotes or artifacts
 Exercise-related items (weights, yoga band)
Office Activity
 How many times was she interrupted? _____
 How many times did the phone ring? Was it a family member? _____
 Did she receive a text and/or text a family member?
 How many times did she check her cell phone? _____
 How many times did she look at email on her computer? _____

152

Appendix F
Matrix Of Interview Protocol To Research Questions

Interview Questions
Research Q1:
What challenges do
women senior student
affairs officers face in
balancing work and
family life?
Research Q2:
What types of
support do women
senior student
affairs officers
perceive to be
helpful in achieving
balance in work and
family life?
Research Q3:
What strategies do
women senior student
affairs officers employ
to balance work and
family life?
1) Tell me about your
office environment.
How would you
describe it?
X X
2) How do you see the
items in your office
connecting to your
work and family?
X X
3) How many hours per
week would you
estimate you spend
working? On
family?
X X
4) How do you make
work a place you
want to be?
X X X
5) Tell me who you are
and about your
upbringing.
X X
6) Describe your
parental influence on
your life and career
choices.
X
7) Tell me about your
responsibilities at
home and at work.
X X X
8) How do you
describe a typical
day?
X X X
9) Tell me about your
career goals. Have
they changed over
time, and if so, how?
X X
10) How long did it
take you to obtain
your current
X X X

153

position? Tell me
about the timeline.
11) What factors led to
your current role?
X X X
12) Please share
specific barriers
encountered along
the way to your
current role.
X
13) What factors
contribute to your
success?
X X
14) What strategies
have contributed to
your success?
X X
15) Tell me about the
significant
individuals who
influence you
personally and
professionally?
How do they
contribute to your
success?
X X
16) What is your
definition of work-
life balance?
X X
17) To what extent are
you meeting your
definition of work-
life balance?
X X X
18) What is the same or
different about your
current position than
other positions
you’ve held in the
past in terms of
work-life balance?
What were the
stressors at different
levels?
X X
19) How did you come
by the skills
necessary for
balancing your work
and family life?
X X X
20) What’s important to X X

154

you and how does it
relate to work-life
balance?
21) What, if anything,
have you outsourced
to maintain balance
at home? At work?
X X
22) How do you spend
your free time?
X X
23) What are some
challenges you face
personally and
professionally and
how do you handle
these?
X X
24) What strategies do
you employ in
difficult situations?

X

X

X
25) What has supported
your work-life
balance efforts?
X X
26) How did you access
that support?
X X
27) To what extent do
you take advantage
of work and home
policies and
resources?
X X X
28) How does your role
as a leader impact your
family role?
X X X
29) How does your
family role impact
your role as a
leader?
X X X
30) What did you give
up or let go of to
balance the two
roles?
X X X
31) How did you feel
about making these
decisions?
X X
32) If you could do it
all over again, what,
if anything, would
you change?

X X

155

33) What advice would
you offer women for
dealing with the
same kinds of issues
in their own life?
X X
34) At the end of the
day, what matters to
you most and how
do you sustain that?
X X
35) Is there anything
you would like to
add?

36) (Activity log) How
did you prioritize the
dilemmas that you
experienced over the
past 5 weeks?
X X
37) What makes you
feel good about your
choices?
X X

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Women educational leaders struggle to achieve and sustain success in senior positions due to their attempts to manage societal expectations for balancing work and family. Societal expectations of being the primary caregivers result in working women attempting to navigate multiple professional and personal roles. Those who have attained the highest levels of leadership are tasked with being effective leaders in their workplace while at the same time successfully managing a home life and family. ❧ The purpose of this study is to determine how women leaders in education successfully balance work and family roles. While there is no “right way” to negotiate work-life balance, the study’s aim is to identify strategies that successful women leaders employ to effectively balance their work and family domains. This study also reveals challenges that women may face in achieving and sustaining a student affairs leadership position, along with support systems that address these challenges. ❧ Four women Vice Presidents for Student Affairs, or senior student affairs officers (SSAOs), participated in this qualitative case study. Data collection occurred via a series of in-person and telephone interviews, interviews with colleagues referred by the participants, office environmental scans, examination of resumes and institutional leave policies, and activity log entries over a five-week period. The study’s results are of interest both to aspiring and current women leaders as they aim to successfully integrate their work and family roles, as well as to policymakers who desire to retain these effective leaders.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Stirling, Carolyn C. (author)

Core Title The work-life balance pursuit: challenges, supports, and strategies of successful women senior student affairs officers

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education (Leadership)

Publication Date 04/30/2012

Defense Date 03/21/2012

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Balance,Higher education,OAI-PMH Harvest,senior student affairs officers,SSAOs,student affairs,vice presidents for student affairs,women leaders,work-life balance

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Stowe, Kathy (committee chair), Malloy, Courtney L. (committee member), Suite, Denzil J. (committee member)

Creator Email ccsangel@earthlink.net,stirling@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-17356

Unique identifier UC11290500

Identifier usctheses-c3-17356 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-StirlingCa-678.pdf

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Document Type Dissertation

Rights Stirling, Carolyn C.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA