Institutional culture and the advancement of women: A university administrative subculture as experienced by women administrators

Despite the growth in numbers of women attending and employed in higher education, women remain under-represented in senior level administration. This phenomenon has proved easier to describe than to explain. Both individual and structural explanations have been posited; little attention, however, has been paid to institutional culture. The purpose of this study was to expand the empirical base on institutional culture, and the administrative subculture within it, to determine what role culture may play in the advancement of women in administration.;Qualitative and retrospective approaches were employed at a four-year public research university. This setting offered an opportunity to examine a unique phenomenon, a time when the glass ceiling was raised, and women were employed as senior level administrators from 1971 to 1986. An archival database and an interview database were generated and analysed.;This study addressed three specific questions: (1) How do women administrators characterize the administrative subculture within which they participated? (2) To what extent does the administrative subculture reflect its larger institutional culture? (3) What impact, if any, do these women perceive that this administrative subculture had on the success or advancement of women in the university?;Three themes emerged from the analyses of the interview database: the importance of the times and timing for women; the power of policy and procedure in enacting change; and the legacy of change that remained after the administration was reorganized. Overall, the findings indicated that this institutional culture encompassed an administrative subculture that reflected its values and enacted new values. This administrative subculture was able to not only help women administrators advance, but also to change the institutional culture in important ways that benefitted the women to follow. These findings are consistent with research that suggests successful cultural change in higher education occurs with long-term administrative and faculty support and full participation of the members. This study helps to explain the role cultural change can play in the advancement of women into senior level administrative positions in higher education.