{"id":50969,"date":"2018-05-11T09:49:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T13:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=50969"},"modified":"2018-05-11T14:50:44","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T18:50:44","slug":"brocks-women-leaders-moved-to-action-after-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/05\/brocks-women-leaders-moved-to-action-after-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock\u2019s women leaders moved to action after conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

A national conference focused on increasing and improving opportunities for women in leadership roles within academia has inspired some of Brock\u2019s own senior administrators.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deans Diane Dupont, Ingrid Makus and Carol Merriam, along with Associate Deans Angela Book and Cheryl McCormick, made up the Brock contingent attending the Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada (SWAAC) conference in Halifax at the end of April.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAcademic leadership is a different experience for women, and attending a gathering of so many smart and accomplished women leaders really was refreshing and inspiring,\u201d said Merriam, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dupont, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, found the keynote and panel sessions to be especially useful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHearing that other administrators face similar challenges and learning how they have solved issues was inspiring,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the most important lesson was the role that having a network of trusted advisors can play in one\u2019s success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Makus, recently appointed Dean of Social Sciences after a two-year term as Interim Dean, agreed. <\/span>\u201cWhat I found most compelling about the conference was the candour, humour and thoughtfulness with which these very accomplished women addressed the challenges and rewards of leadership in a university setting that is becoming increasingly complex,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cParticipants emphasized that positive action included creating spaces where authentic representation could take place and where diverse voices could be heard. This is one of the challenges I\u2019d like to take up as Dean of Social Sciences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of the attendees had different takeaways from the event. <\/span><\/p>\n

McCormick, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Math and Science, was struck by the fact that \u201cdespite all of the challenges faced, the women truly enjoyed the work they were doing as administrators.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Book, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences, was inspired by \u201cthe focus on authentic leadership.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But all five leaders agree that more can be done within the Brock community to encourage women to take on leadership roles.<\/span><\/p>\n

To this end, the group is considering developing a workshop to help share some of the wisdom and insight that the conference provided, and to foster talent in younger colleagues who may be interested in an administrative role at the University.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to include not just academics, but also women involved in administrative roles that are not academic,\u201d Dupont said. \u201cI met a number of women at the conference who were not academics but were academic administrators. I want to help us cultivate connections between both academics and non-academics who are involved in university administration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Merriam said that among the great challenges for women in leadership positions, or those aspiring to such roles, is \u201cvisibility \u2014 being seen as leaders or potential leaders, and seeing themselves as leaders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can help our women colleagues see themselves filling leadership roles, and help women be visible as leaders and potential leaders, then our time at SWAAC will have been very well spent indeed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A national conference focused on increasing and improving opportunities for women in leadership roles within academia has inspired some of Brock\u2019s own senior administrators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":50970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,55,37,41,38],"tags":[3418,3919,4266,3622,607,384,884,522,4630,565],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50971,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50969\/revisions\/50971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}