Editors’ Note

Abstract

Last year was full of major changes in government, education, policy, and other areas that impact our lives. Women were the focus of many political debates and elections worldwide. In the United States Congress, women now hold nearly 100 seats total, including 20 in the Senate, the first Asian-American woman, and the first openly gay woman senator. Women continue to earn the majority of degrees from the associate level through doctorate. Despite these accomplishments, one of the primary debates of 2012 regarded the continuing wage gap between men and women that begins as soon as one year after graduation, according to a recent study by the American Association of University Women. So, research about women, particularly women in higher education, is necessary to illustrate the issues women continue to face and to provide recommendations for improvement through practice.In this issue of NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education (NJAWHE), Amy Metcalfe and Laura Padilla González provide a study on the underrepresentation of women faculty in North America, examining factors in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Their findings stress the impact of child and parental leave policies amidst social roles and norms. In response to an American Council on Education meeting in which only 3 of 100 women indicated having a plan to achieve their leadership goals, Paaige Turner, Kristen Norwood, and Charlotte Noe provide recommendations to help women be intentional in their professional development. They lay out tenets to help women faculty and staff chart a course to formal leadership positions. The article by Kristina Gill and Stephanie Jones highlights experiences of women leaders in West Texas, indicating the need to cultivate leadership among women and encourage their advancement despite obstacles they face along the way. Providing a different perspective, Paige Haber-Curan discusses the delicate balancing act of women students in formal leadership roles. A common theme across these articles is the influence of existing organizational structure and context that results in challenges for women in higher education. In the issue's last article, Penny Pasque explores postmodern and constructivist feminist approaches to studying women leaders. She argues for awareness of unconscious ideas that form the basis for our perspectives, as these make a difference in how research is conducted, analyzed, and reported.Pasque notes in her article that the purpose of feminist research is to disrupt traditional ways of knowing and traditional research paradigms so that we can create new meaning and new perspectives. If we hope to create real change for women in higher education, then it is necessary to disrupt the status quo by taking a feminist approach and defining new meanings for research, leadership, organization, and work in higher education. We can do this by sharing information through writing in journals like NJAWHE, research, implementing new paradigms in the workplace, and drawing attention to recently published books that c...

Medical-Legal Partnerships Reinvigorate Systems Lawyering Using an Upstream Approach

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