1143

Leveling Up: Women Academic Librarians’ Career 
Progression in Management Positions

Lorelei B. Rutledge*

This study explored how women academic librarians in management described 
their career progression compared to those who are not in management positions. 
Women librarians working full-time in academic libraries were surveyed about their 
career experiences to explore what barriers they faced in pursuing or persisting in 
management positions, as well as their perceptions of the factors necessary for success 
in such positions. After collecting 224 online surveys, 37 semistructured interviews 
were conducted with a purposive sample of these librarians to provide context for 
their survey answers. Understanding women academic librarians’ perceptions of their 
careers, especially with regard to barriers that may discourage them from advancing 
to management positions as well as factors that may help them succeed, can provide 
insight into how to better support women in management in academic libraries. 

Introduction
Although 83 percent of librarians are women, only 58 percent of management positions in 
ARL (Association of Research Libraries) libraries are held by women.1 Although trends have 
shown women taking on a greater number of management positions in libraries over time, they 
are still proportionally underrepresented.2 This continued inequality raises questions about 
whether women managers still face real and perceived barriers in career advancement and 
taking on management opportunities in librarianship. In addition, little research has been done 
exploring how women have described their experiences in pursuing and holding management 
positions.3 By learning more about how women librarians explain their career progressions 
and how their experiences differ, we can learn more about the challenges women librarians 
may face when pursuing or holding management positions and the factors that they feel make 
them successful. This information can provide insight into how to better support women in 
management in academic libraries. 

Although scholars have offered a variety of reasons why women advance more slowly to 
management positions in many fields, few of these studies have specifically focused on why 
women in librarianship or other female-dominated fields are not proportionally represented 
in management. Little research has examined the perceived barriers that female academic 
librarians face in pursuing and holding management positions and how those barriers affect 
their career progressions. Exploring women academic librarians’ career trajectories can un-

* Lorelei B. Rutledge is Associate Librarian in the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah; email: 
Lorelei.Rutledge@utah.edu. ©2020 Lorelei B. Rutledge, Attribution-NonCommercial (https://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) CC BY-NC.

mailto:Lorelei.Rutledge@utah.edu
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/


1144  College & Research Libraries November 2020

cover more about the factors that encourage women to consider management positions or 
discourage them from doing so, and how the career paths of women managers differ from 
those of women nonmanagers. By understanding challenges that women academic library 
managers face, libraries can better support them and perhaps provide insight into women 
managers’ experiences in female-dominated professions. Understanding barriers that women 
academic librarians interested in management face, as well as reasons why they might not 
pursue management, can also provide insight into how to better support women considering 
management positions in academic libraries. 

In response to these deficiencies in current literature about women in academic libraries, 
this study explored the following research questions:

1. Do women academic librarians feel that they face barriers in pursuing and achieving 
management positions?

2. What barriers do women academic librarians perceive they face in pursuing and 
achieving management positions?

3. What factors do women academic librarians who consider themselves successful 
managers consider important to their success?

4. How do women academic librarians who are in management positions differ from 
women academic librarians who are not managers in their understanding of self-
perceived barriers and factors for success required to achieve management positions? 

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was to explore whether 
women academic library managers felt that they faced barriers in achieving management posi-
tions or managing successfully and how those perceptions differed between women academic 
librarians who were managers and women academic librarians who were not. 

Background
Scholars across many disciplines have offered reasons for the gap in women’s leadership in 
multiple industries, using metaphors such as the glass ceiling or the labyrinth to describe 
the systemic barriers that prevent women from rising to leadership positions.4 Others have 
promoted the idea of organizations as gendered in and of themselves, suggesting that job 
descriptions, organizational hierarchies and other elements of the workplace are structured to 
favor men.5 Other scholars have suggested factors such as a low interest in managing, lack of 
masculine leadership qualities, and hiring discrimination.6 Additional reasons for the gap in 
women’s leadership in industry include organizational hierarchies and procedures that favor 
men, general bias and discrimination, a lack of flexibility to support having a family life, and 
a lack of support networks that can help women to advance.7 Another primary argument is 
that women have not yet achieved parity in holding leadership positions because their low 
self-assessments of their skills and leadership capabilities hold them back from applying for 
management positions.8 This point of view is bolstered by evidence showing that women 
tend to underestimate their cognitive abilities9 and do not negotiate for higher salaries due 
to lower assessments of their worth when compared to men.10 

Other research suggests that men get more opportunities to take on management positions 
in female-dominated fields despite being a numerical minority, a tendency known as the glass 
escalator phenomenon; instead of facing disadvantages in female-dominated professions because 
of their sex or gender, many men progress more quickly to higher-status positions, although 
these effects may be moderated by differences in race, sexuality, and class.11 Although women 



Leveling Up    1145

have made significant inroads into managerial positions in libraries, many still face challenges in 
being hired for assigned leadership positions. Several recent qualitative studies sought to learn 
more about the lived experiences of female library leaders, describing women’s perceptions of 
their leadership and how they came to be leaders.12 However, interest in women’s leadership in 
libraries has declined as some argue that women have essentially achieved parity in librarian-
ship, despite clear proportional underrepresentation of women in library leadership positions.13 

One of the primary arguments advanced in leadership literature suggests that women 
have not yet achieved parity in holding leadership positions in large measure because they let 
low assessments of their skills or leadership ability hold them back from applying for formal 
leadership positions. Schein showed that people tend to associate leadership characteristics 
with masculinity,14 although the strength of this association is weakening over time.15 Several 
studies have shown that both men and women tend to prefer male managers.16 Stereotypes 
that link leadership with masculinity may play a large role in challenges women face in upper 
management, leading people to perceive women with feminine characteristics as weak leaders 
and women with perceived masculine characteristics to be judged negatively for transgress-
ing gender roles.17 Women in management may also face backlash for showing leadership 
behavior because they are perceived as less communal and less likable when they do.18

Bosak and Sczesny showed that these negative stereotypes can also become internalized, 
causing women to doubt that they are good leadership material.19 Hogue and Lord suggested 
that women may also internalize gender stereotypes and develop implicit rules that encourage 
them to take on follower rather than leadership roles.20 Ely and Rhode highlighted research 
suggesting that women may struggle to integrate a sense of themselves as leaders into their 
self-identity.21 Women who are exposed to images of men and women in stereotypically 
gendered roles tend to have stronger implicit gender stereotypes, assuming that men would 
make better leaders after being primed with these images. Women in the same study who 
were exposed to men and women in nonstereotypical roles (such as those in which women 
are leaders) still tended to rate their perceptions of themselves as leaders lower instead of 
being primed to think of themselves as more like leaders after seeing the images, demonstrat-
ing the strength of internalized stereotypes.22 These studies demonstrated that internalized 
stereotypes, such as those that link management with masculinity, may influence women’s 
perceptions of their leadership skills. 

Methods
This IRB-exempted study used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, which began 
with a quantitative phase to investigate relationships between variables and then moved to a 
qualitative phase to gather more information about the phenomenon being studied.23 An online 
survey collected basic demographic information about respondents, their perceptions of bar-
riers faced in pursuing management positions, and their perceptions of factors that promoted 
success in getting and holding management positions. Both women academic librarians who 
were already in management positions and those who were not were invited to participate to 
examine whether women academic librarians who are in management positions perceive differ-
ent barriers to pursuing management than women academic librarians who were not in those 
positions. Only participants who worked full-time in libraries and were in library positions at 
the time of the survey were included. After pilot testing the instrument for face validity, the 
survey was distributed via professional networks such as American Library Association listservs.



1146  College & Research Libraries November 2020

The qualitative portion of this research included semistructured interviews with a pur-
posive, nonprobabilistic sample drawn from the survey respondents. Women in management 
positions, women aspiring to manage, women who had been managers in the past, and women 
who had never managed and did not want to were questioned about their management ex-
periences, aspirations for management or lack thereof, and barriers to management or factors 
that made them successful. Theoretical coding of the interview transcripts and notes was done 
to derive themes from the interviews to answer the research questions. 

Survey Results
A total of 304 participants responded to the survey, but only 224 of the surveys were complete 
and met inclusion criteria, which stipulated that the participant be a woman academic librar-
ian working full-time in a library position. Most respondents (93%) identified themselves as 
White or Caucasian. About 71 percent of respondents were from institutions where librarians 
are faculty. More than half (53%) were tenured, 
another 20 percent were on a tenure track, and 
about 20 percent were nonfaculty but on a continu-
ing appointment. Most respondents (63%) were at 
doctorate-granting institutions. Roughly one-third 
(32%) identified as primary caregivers for children, 
elderly parents, or other relatives.

The survey also gathered data about how long 
participants had worked in academic librarian-
ship, their current institutions, and their current 
positions. Nearly half (47%) of respondents had 
worked in academic librarianship for 10 years or 
less, while 16 percent had worked in academic 
libraries for 26 years or more (see table 1). 

More than 50 percent had been in their cur-
rent institution for five years or less, and 78 percent 
had been in their current position for five years or less (see table 2). 

Using branched logic in SurveyMonkey, managers and non-managers were asked sepa-
rately about challenges they faced (Appendix 
A). One hundred forty of the respondents were 
current managers and 84 were not managers. Of 
the managers who answered, about 44% were at 
the rank of Department Head or a similar posi-
tion. 21.43% listed their rank as other, most of 
which were various middle management ranks, 
such as division head or unit head (Table 3). 

The bulk of the respondents had been man-
agers for five years or less (see table 4).

Current managers were asked to select 
challenges that they faced in pursuing or per-
forming in their position (see table 5). Eight 
participants stated that they faced no chal-

TABLE 1
The Number of Years Respondents 

Worked in Academic Libraries (n = 222)
Years Percentage of 

Responses
Number of 
Responses

0–5 18.92% 42
6–10 27.93% 62

11–15 16.22% 36
16–20 14.86% 33
21–25 6.76% 15
26–30 6.76% 15

31+ 8.56% 19

TABLE 2
The Number of Years Respondents Were 

in Their Current Institutions (n = 223)
Years Percentage of 

Responses
Number of 
Responses

0–5 55.16% 123
6–10 17.49% 39

11–15 11.21% 25
16–20 7.62% 17
21–25 3.59% 8
26–30 2.24% 5

31+ 2.69% 6



Leveling Up    1147

lenges in their current position and also listed 
no other challenges they had faced. Of those 
who chose the “Other” option, the most com-
monly mentioned challenges were conflicts with 
administration based on different management 
styles and conflict related to rank and faculty 
status. The major challenges participants listed 
included needing to learn new skills, balancing 
work and family, learning to think of themselves 
as managers, and managing political difficulties. 
These themes were also prominent in the inter-
views conducted during the second phase of the research.

When asked whether they felt successful in their current positions, 73 percent of current 
managers said yes, and 27 percent were unsure. No one said they felt that they were not suc-
cessful. Women who defined themselves as successful were directed using branched logic to 
choose from a list of possible reasons drawn from the literature describing why they felt suc-

TABLE 3
Respondents Who Were Managers by Rank (n = 140)

Rank Percentage of Responses Number of Responses
Dean/Director/University Librarian 15.71% 22
Associate Dean/Associate University Librarian/
Associate Director

18.57% 26

Department Head/Department Chair 44.29% 62
Other management rank (please specify) 21.43% 30

TABLE 4
Number of Years as Managers (n = 140)

Years Percentage of 
Responses

Number of 
Responses

0–5 52.14% 73
6–10 14.29% 20

11–15 12.86% 18
16–20 6.43% 9

21+ 14.29% 20

TABLE 5
Barriers Managers Faced (n =140)

Barrier Percentage of 
Responses

Number of 
Responses

I had to learn new skills to be a manager 72.86% 102
I had to balance work and family life 60.00% 84
I had to learn to think of myself as a manager 57.14% 80
I faced political difficulties in my organization 57.14% 80
I had to relocate 37.86% 54
I have faced gender or sex discrimination 27.86% 39
I have faced age discrimination 26.43% 37
Other (please specify) 12.86% 18
I have faced discrimination based on my level of ability or disability 5.71% 8
I have faced other forms of discrimination 2.86% 4
I have faced racial discrimination 2.14% 3
I have faced discrimination based on my sexual orientation 2.14% 3
I have not faced any challenges in my current management position 5.00% 8



1148  College & Research Libraries November 2020

cessful or to write in reasons that were not listed. Most of them said their skills helped most 
of all, but others mentioned that their personalities, as well as strong support networks, aided 
in their success. In the “Other” category, many mentioned support from their supervisors 
and their ability to self-reflect on their management skills and course correct when needed 
(see table 6).

Current managers who indicated that they were unsure whether or not they were suc-
cessful were asked to write a few sentences describing why they felt uncertain about their 
management skills. These responses were coded for common themes, which are shown in 
table 7. The most common reason mentioned for uncertainty about management success was 
that participants were unsure how to measure their success and did not get explicit feedback 
about it. Most mentioned that they felt they did well in some areas and not in others. Several 
mentioned recalcitrant staff who were resistant to their efforts to introduce new technologies 
or change work processes, leading them to question themselves.

TABLE 7
Reasons for Uncertainty about Management Success (n = 37)

Reasons Percentage of 
Responses

Number of 
Responses

I am new to the position 18.92% 7
I am not sure of the metrics to measure success 18.92% 7
I am overwhelmed by other responsibilities 16.22% 6
I haven’t gotten any feedback 10.81% 4
I doubt myself 8.10% 3
I have gotten negative feedback 8.10% 3

TABLE 6
Managers’ Reasons for Success (n = 127)

Reasons for Success Percentage 
of Responses

Number of 
Responses

My management skills 75.59% 96

My personality 73.23% 93

Support from my employees 65.35% 83

Support from a network of peers 59.84% 76

My prior experience as a manager 58.27% 74

My confidence in myself as a manager 51.97% 66

Support from a mentor 50.39% 64

My ability to manage stress 48.03% 61

My ability to manage political difficulties 47.24% 60

Organizationally sponsored management training 
(including leadership institutes)

46.46% 59

Self-led management training 42.52% 54

Other (please specify) 18.90% 24



Leveling Up    1149

Of the 84 nonmanagers, half indicated an interest in managing in the future, 30 percent 
were unsure about it, and 20 percent did not want to manage. Of those who were interested 
in management, 57 percent had applied for a management position in the past, while 43 
percent had not. Those interested in management were asked what challenges they faced in 
getting management positions (see table 8). The number one challenge was political difficul-
ties. Forty-two percent also said they faced other difficulties, which the comments suggested 
were difficulties getting the supervisory experience to move up, especially in flat organizations 
with few management opportunities. 

Women who indicated that they were not interested in management were directed via 
branched logic in SurveyMonkey to choose from a list of possible reasons why they might not 
want to pursue a management position drawn from the literature. Major reasons they listed 
included not wanting to have to supervise employees, not wanting to deal with the stress 
associated with managing and supervision, and being happy in their current position (see 
table 9). In the “Other” category, reasons participants listed included not wanting to spend 
more time at work, wanting a no-stress job, wanting the “fun” assignments that usually go to 
librarians who are not managers, and wanting to stay away from the “boys’ club” of upper 
management. 

TABLE 8
Barriers Women Faced Obtaining Management Positions (n = 41)

Barriers to Obtaining Management Positions Percentage 
of Responses

Number of 
Responses

I face political difficulties in my organization 41.46% 17
Other (please specify) 41.46% 17
I can’t relocate to pursue a management position 31.71% 13
I don't have the skills to be a manager 17.07% 7
I have faced gender or sex discrimination that has prevented me from 
getting a management job

14.63% 6

I have faced age discrimination that has prevented me from getting a 
management position

14.63% 6

I don't have time to take the additional responsibilities required by a 
management position because I am too busy with my current work

12.20% 5

I don't have time to take on the additional responsibilities required by a 
management position because I am too busy being the primary caregiver 
for children or other relatives

7.32% 3

I don't think of myself as a manager 7.32% 3
I have faced discrimination based on my level of ability or disability that has 
challenged me as a manager

7.32% 3

I have faced other forms of discrimination that have prevented me from 
getting a management position

4.88% 3

I have not faced any challenges in getting a management position 4.88% 3
I have faced racial discrimination that has prevented me from getting a 
management position

0.00% 0



1150  College & Research Libraries November 2020

Interview Results
Perceived Barriers
After reviewing the results of the survey, 37 phone interviews were conducted with women 
academic librarians who indicated they would be willing to be interviewed. When asked 
about the barriers they experienced in getting or having a management position, all partici-
pants mentioned that they experienced barriers to getting a management position. The most 
frequently mentioned barrier was managing work responsibilities while caring for family and 
children. Twelve participants (both those in management and aspiring managers) shared that 
balancing work and family life was a challenge for them. Three participants felt they were 
responsible for a greater share of the caretaking and housekeeping than their partners, which 
made it harder for them to manage both work and home responsibilities. Others shared that 
their partner’s job took priority over their own or that they had to leave jobs when their part-
ners could not get positions, especially in academia. One person explained: “my husband is still 
looking for a position and I’ve been here almost a year. That’s been really difficult.” Others described 
leaving positions in librarianship, making lateral moves within institutions, or moving from 
management into nonmanagement to meet their partners’ employment needs.

Managing caring for children while managing or pursuing management positions was 
also a common challenge. Eleven current managers said that having children while having 
their library jobs was difficult. One explained that she had less time available to devote to 
work projects outside her regular work hours, saying that “prior to having a little one, I was 
a workaholic… [now] I have a little person relying on me. I get charged by the minute if I am late at 
daycare picking her up.” Three nonmanagers mentioned that caring for children kept them from 
focusing fully on their careers. One participant explained, “I would say that my rank and my 

TABLE 9
Reasons Women Did Not Want to Manage by Percentage of Respondents (n = 17)

Reasons for Disinterest in Management Percentage 
of Responses

Number of 
Responses

I don't want to supervise people 76.47% 13
I don't want the stress of a management position 76.47% 13
I don't want the political difficulties managers face 70.59% 12
I am happy in my current position 58.82% 10
I have done it in the past and did not like it 35.29% 6
I don't have the skills necessary to be a manager 29.41% 5
Please list other reasons why you do not want to be a manager 23.53% 4
I don't have time to take on the addition responsibilities required in a 
management position because I am too busy being a primary caregiver for 
children or other relatives,

11.76% 2

I don't think of myself as a manager 11.76% 2
I prefer to use my influence outside of the library's formal management 
structure

11.76% 2

I don't have time to take on the addition responsibilities required in a 
management position because I am too busy with my current work.

5.88% 1

I don't want to be a target for discrimination of any kind 5.88% 1



Leveling Up    1151

salary don’t reflect my experience. I think that that has more to do with the gender stuff and having 
kids and willingly taking a lot of short-term, part-time positions as part of that, whereas if we had free 
daycare for everyone I probably would’ve started working full-time a lot earlier than I did after having 
children.” Some mentioned that they felt very guilty when they focused on work. One partici-
pant shared: “I think [women] have that guilt of not being at every single school event or how are we 
going to make this work.” Three participants said they chose not to have children because they 
wanted to focus on work and thought it would be too hard to balance career and parenting. 

Other participants, however, rejected the notion that family and work don’t fit together. 
One explained that it was important for her to show other women interested in library man-
agement that they could succeed in the job and also succeed as parents, saying that “part of 
what I want, right, is to prove to myself and to the rest of the people who work in my institution, or 
who know me, that you can have …the job and be a good mother. It is possible.” She was motivated 
by being a working mother. Two participants mentioned that having children helped them 
improve their work-life balance because they had to set boundaries on the time and energy 
they devoted to work. 

In addition to family concerns, several women mentioned barriers related to gender. Nine 
interviewees talked about experiencing or witnessing overt acts of sexism. For instance, one 
participant spoke of being harassed by a high-level donor to the institution and being told 
by her male colleagues that she should accept this treatment to avoid jeopardizing the donor 
relationship. One participant said that she “[hasn’t] experienced real serious sexual harassment 
or anything like that at work” but then recounted being excluded from an informal bibliophilic 
society in town because she was a woman. Women mentioned being excluded from social 
events that their male bosses or colleagues planned and attended.

Several women recounted challenges that they did not identify as sexism but that they 
thought were related to gender. One woman participated in a planning meeting for a major 
facilities activity but “six months later I found out through the grapevine that nothing had been done 
the way that we were told it was going to be done, and that a decision was made by a department head 
in a different department to do it differently.” Others mentioned actions where they felt like men 
in the room condescended to them. One participant mentioned, “I’ve been called girl, not in 
a malicious way, but in a ‘Good job, girl,’ pat on the head kind of thing.” Others mentioned being 
told to smile more or be friendly, being interrupted in conversation, or having ideas that they 
shared rejected out of hand. However, in many cases, women were reluctant to label these 
events as sexism. One woman echoed a sentiment of many others, saying, “I try to give people 
the benefit of the doubt, right? In my head [I think], ‘Well, I’m sure they didn’t mean it.’”

Fourteen participants talked about ways in which men were afforded privileges that 
made it easier for them to succeed in management positions. Some felt that men were given 
additional training or encouragement to take leadership roles. One participant noted that “men 
are perceived as leaders and groomed for leadership positions solely on the basis of their stereotypical 
masculine personality traits, whereas women have to fight against misperceptions of their stereotypi-
cally feminine personality traits in order to just achieve the same playing field.” Other women men-
tioned more subtle examples, such as men being given the benefit of the doubt and allowed 
to retain their power and position despite failing to meet organizational objectives. Speaking 
of a former supervisor, one respondent said that “he was given way more benefit of the doubt than 
he would have been had he been a woman… [He] didn’t get things done, wasn’t able to delegate… it 
was just chaos.” Participants described male colleagues who were disorganized, disinterested, 



1152  College & Research Libraries November 2020

or incompetent being allowed to persist or getting jobs for which they were unqualified. For 
example, speaking of a male and a female colleague applying for the same management posi-
tion, one participant explained:

his presentation for his interview portion, it was just a joke. He didn’t address the topic. 
He had pictures of his family. He talked about being in the military. He talked about play-
ing sports. She very much addressed the issues. She talked about her past experiences. It 
was a night and day, but we all knew going into it that she didn’t stand a chance because 
there are [people] …being groomed by the administration. He was one of those.

In other examples, participants perceived that men received preferential treatment by 
the administration, such as getting more time to meet with associate deans, more funding for 
travel, and more opportunities to lead high-value projects.

Many participants noted the prevalence of gendered behavioral expectations that influ-
enced their work lives. One of the most common examples was that women were expected 
to collaborate, but often at the expense of completing their own work. One person noted that 
she was asked to complete a project, but was told that while she learned how to do the project 
she was also expected to teach and train several other people on how to use the tools for the 
project at the same time. She explained that this expectation to collaborate made it much harder 
for her to get the project done and also prevented her from being recognized for getting the 
project finished: “instead of being a project that I implement, I now have to shepherd 20 people along 
with me through this process the first time, which makes it much more laborious, and also reduces… 
the amount of the credit that [I] get for it.” A participant also stated: “I’ve had projects that I have 
led and brought people through that process only to find male librarians on the other end claiming 
credit for it, and being perceived as having that responsibility. So there’s this you’re supposed to bring 
people up from the baseline and then they get to say that they did this, and you’re just left off to the 
side….There’s no winning there. You either keep your mouth shut and …let someone take credit for 
your work, or you fight against it and you become a shrew.”

Other women also mentioned that any assertiveness tended to lead to a negative outcome 
for them, even when men who behaved the same way did not face negative consequences. One 
manager explained: “I’ve watched women who are just absolutely amazing who do fantastic things, 
who are just smart and engaged and they don’t quite seem to get the same number of opportunities 
and/or if they rock the boat a little bit, they get labeled as either bossy, or over emotional, or a trouble 
maker.” In one case, a woman described working with a colleague to develop a new workflow 
for a project based on her extensive expertise in the area, which generated some conflict with 
coworkers. She noted that she told male colleagues that “we would take their feedback and… 
make changes as we could, but we were not willing to undermine the integrity of the system by trying 
to make a different system for everybody so they could all have their own personal preferences.” In the 
end, she and her colleague “were strongly penalized for that by multiple departments and people 
in the organization, including leadership.” Another woman mentioned: “I was told I was being too 
assertive… I would have [my male colleague] bring things up that needed to be done because our dean 
at that time… would take it from him but not from me.” When she suggested new ideas, another 
participant was warned by her associate dean to avoid being “uppity” by making too many 
suggestions. Participants also felt that they were expected to avoid negotiating or asking for 
what they wanted. One woman explained: “when I took on additional responsibilities I asked for 



Leveling Up    1153

a raise. The person [said] ‘okay, but you’re going to do these other responsibilities.’ I said, ‘Not unless 
I get a raise because it’s a significant amount of work.’ I think I was very calm and reasonable about it, 
and this person got very angry at me and told me I was being very aggressive.” 

Women mentioned cases where they were penalized for assertiveness but also penalized 
for being conflict avoidant. One woman explained her belief that “if you’re well liked then it 
probably means you haven’t made anyone unhappy and [that] you’ve been very conflict avoidant, and I 
don’t know that that’s necessarily a strong leadership skill that’s rewarded. If you haven’t been conflict 
avoidant and you stood up for yourself, then that’s not necessarily seen in women to be a leadership 
skill. Whereas I feel like both are perceived as a leadership skill in men.”

Another participant echoed this sentiment: “We’re told to lean in, and to have a spot at the 
table, and make sure that you have a voice. Then sometimes when we do that, that can backfire and it 
can be looked at as threatening, or as trying to take too much power, or something like that. I found it 
really difficult to walk that line.”

In addition to feeling pressured to avoid assertiveness, others mentioned that they felt 
undue pressure to nurture their colleagues and perform emotional labor, defined as “the 
effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotion during 
interpersonal transactions.”24 One participant explained that: “in my previous position, I and 
other female colleagues were asked to essentially nurture a resistant male colleague through a basic job 
responsibility…. There’s this perception that women are helpers, and nurturers, and we’re just sup-
posed to make everything better.” Another woman mentioned how, during a holiday, “no one 
would shut up about the last library director and how she made them all individual [gifts]. It was their 
expectation of [how] women library directors should be… cuddly and warm and would come back to 
them every day and ask them how their days were going.” Similarly, another woman said that she 
was often expected to do this work instead of the men in her unit: “I was responsible for car-
ing for employees, as in like the get well cards, and the collecting donations to buy flowers for a sick 
employee, and things like that. That had been delegated from my supervisor who was male. There was 
not really an expectation from that …he would be doing those kinds of things.”

In addition to being expected to nurture others, respondents also reported pressure to 
perform other forms of emotional labor or self-policing based on their gender. Many women 
reported that they were stereotyped as being overemotional or warned to avoid emotions in 
the workplace. One woman explained that “I had somebody tell me very early in my career… ‘you 
have to leave your personal self at the door… you’ve got to keep all that separated from your work life 
or you’re not going to be taken as being credible as a woman in the workplace.’” Other women felt 
that they were expected to be perfect and to never make mistakes. One suggested that “if you 
are a dude and you make a bad decision as a manager, people are like, ‘Oh, that was a bad decision.’ If 
you are a woman and you make a bad decision as a manager, people are like, ‘Well, she is a bad man-
ager.’” Others avoided sharing their personal lives for fear of being seen as weaker in some 
way. Instead, they adopted a work persona. One person explained: “I have to be careful to do 
that divide between who I am out of work and who I am in work, down to how I talk and how I write.” 
Others talked about feeling like they had to do more than their male colleagues to earn respect: 
“You just do what you have to do. I think as women, we always do more than we have to do anyway.”

Others mentioned that they faced gendered expectations about performing low-status 
tasks. They described being ordered to take notes, plan parties, and organize social events, even 
at the expense of getting their required job responsibilities completed. One woman expressed 
exasperation over being asked to do manual labor, explaining: “I set up the food and I wash the 



1154  College & Research Libraries November 2020

dishes when it’s done. I put the dishes to dry. Then, I have to go back when the dishes are dry and put 
them away. I’m not working in a cafeteria. I’m supposed to be a librarian. Why am I washing dishes?”

Other stereotypes that women mentioned included gendered expectations about clothing. 
Several mentioned a version of being policed for their clothing. One participant explained, “I 
remember being pulled aside when I first started and told like, ‘Hey, maybe you should dress up a little 
more at work.’ Even though I was matching the level of dress of my male co-workers.” 

In some cases, women mentioned that these barriers discouraged them from even trying 
to move into management positions. One woman who was a manager in the past said that 
she had one day hoped to go back to managing but that “the politics involved in that [and other 
challenges like] gender roles and other family pressure… I just don’t know that I have the flexibility 
or even the stamina to go down that road.” Another said that women “are too apt to say we’re just 
going to be all things to all people all the time and suffer from burnout, and career dissatisfaction, and 
frankly just a lot of anger and disappointment.” 

In addition to gendered behavioral expectations and other challenges, a few participants 
mentioned a lack of self-confidence as a barrier. Seven participants indicated that they had 
to learn and practice self-confidence, while three mentioned that they think women need 
to support each other in developing self-confidence so that they can succeed. Many people 
echoed one participant’s sentiment when she said she had to remind herself that “I did get 
hired into this position. I am the equal of these other people.” Another mentioned that she felt a lot 
of anxiety and “worried that my approach to management might not fit with what people I managed 
were expecting.” Others noted that lack of self-confidence is common; one explained that “I 
think it is almost implicit, especially I think sometimes in our culture with women. We are trained to 
think that somehow we don’t deserve the opportunities we’ve gotten or we won’t make it. I’ve never 
gotten over the sense that I’m on a constant job interview.” Other women in turn felt that, despite 
their best efforts, they weren’t confident that they were doing enough in their current posi-
tions: “I’ve been told that I’m taking too much on myself but that’s just kind of how I do things… I 
struggle with that.” Others felt anxious to even apply for management positions, afraid their 
qualifications were not good enough: “When I feel like I see a job that I feel totally qualified for, 
then I’ll start applying to different position.” A current manager noted a similar pattern in that 
“women are much less likely than men to take a leap forward into a job that they have less experience 
in. Women are much more likely to feel like they have to have strong experience in order to even try. I 
very strongly see that pattern in the people who report to me.”

In addition to challenges based on self-confidence, several participants shared that rela-
tionships with coworkers presented barriers to getting or engaging in management roles. Some 
indicated that when they moved up into management roles, they experienced conflict with 
employees who were once their coworkers, and sometimes had difficulty obtaining respect 
and cooperation. For example, one participant shared that, once she became a manager, she 
experienced frequent conflict with employees who were older than she and who were now 
required to report to her. Participants who became managers sometimes lost friendships with 
coworkers. One participant shared that, after she was hired for a management position, a friend 
who had applied for the same position refused to speak to her. Participants who chose not to 
enter management sometimes discussed relationships as a factor that prevented them from ap-
plying for management positions. One shared that her colleagues got angry when she offered 
feedback or suggestions, which made her doubt they would accept her in a management role. 

In addition to relationship challenges, participants also mentioned that they experienced 
discrimination that complicated their experiences in the workplace. Eight current managers, 



Leveling Up    1155

two nonmanagers, and one past manager shared that age discrimination was a factor that 
made it difficult for them to engage in management roles. Some believed that, because they 
were younger than other employees, they were treated as less competent or authoritative. 
Participants felt that others talked down to them or ignored them because of their age. For 
example, a participant reported that other coworkers addressed her by a diminutive nickname 
and explained that “there’s a condescension because I look younger than I am and because I’m female 
and people don’t think that I deserve respect even though I work really hard for that.” Another men-
tioned that colleagues doubted her ability to be assertive on campus, questioning whether she 
would “appear authoritative enough or even aggressive enough to be able to challenge other people on 
campus in order to make those changes.” Others perceived that their age played a role in people 
they supervised disliking them. One noted that she had to overcome many negative percep-
tions from people she supervised, noting, “I think that their fear of change and their fear of losing 
their position makes them very resentful of me and my age and my gender.” 

In addition to age discrimination, participants also faced other types of discrimination. 
Two people described instances where they were told they would never understand the 
significance of the school’s culture or its celebrations because they were not a member of the 
dominant religion. One person described racial discrimination, such as being asked to be 
on every diversity committee because of their race, or fearing that they would not have full 
consideration when they applied for management positions. One person mentioned facing 
body size and weight discrimination as well. 

Reasons for Success
In addition to reflecting on challenges they faced, women academic library managers were 
also asked to expand on their survey responses by saying more about what traits they felt 
made them successful. Six mentioned emotional intelligence as a major factor in their success, 
while another four said that being collaborative had helped them succeed. Other traits they 
mentioned as vital for success included a focus on harmony and equality, an ability to stay 
calm, an ability to be organized and focused, and a service orientation.

Another key area managers often mentioned as a trait or skill they developed over time 
was self-confidence in their abilities. Many mentioned that, although they had not felt ready 
when they began management, gradual success over time helped them become more self-
confident. Others said they realized they could make mistakes without causing catastrophic 
consequences, giving them faith in their own resilience. Others took heart from employees 
or members of administration who reassured them they were doing well or expressed confi-
dence in their performance. 

Others mentioned specific skills that made them successful or skills they had to learn 
to be successful, primarily effective communication and the ability to manage conflict or be 
assertive on behalf of themselves or their teams. Related skills included the ability to manage 
stress and do self-care effectively and to empathize with employees and in turn help them 
manage their stress and self-care. Those above the level of department head also frequently 
mentioned specific job-related skills, including facilities management, budgeting, and work-
ing with donors or stakeholders as areas where they had to learn new skills to be successful. 

Strategies for Overcoming Gendered Expectations 
A number of women also mentioned strategies they use to cope with the challenges of gen-



1156  College & Research Libraries November 2020

dered expectations of their positions. For instance, they mentioned strategies they used to 
avoid seeming too aggressive in meetings, such as approaching others individually with their 
ideas and then sharing their ideas in larger forums once they knew they had support. 

Others mentioned refining their strategies for communication. One participant mentioned 
that she has spent a lot of time “learning to communicate in a way that makes it clear when I am seri-
ous… to communicate effectively through that divide of socially ‘acceptable’ gender norm[s].” Another 
mentioned that she had to “retrain [herself] to be the one who smiles more while you’re talking. I 
have certain coping mechanisms. I always bring my coffee with me to meetings and I just drink from 
my travel mug instead of speaking first.” Another said, “If I go to a meeting of other directors or other 
supervisors I always have to say something in that meeting… That’s my job, is to do that, and I can’t 
sit back in the same way that maybe I would have in the past.”

Others shaped their communication to better fit stereotypes about women to avoid the 
perception that they were being assertive or bossy. One person mentioned that she would 
“bargain in ways that don’t seem like bargaining so that I can play into their expectations and still get 
what I want” such as telling vendors something like, “If you just gave us the same price as last 
year, maybe I could sell that to my boss. I don’t know,” instead of asking directly for a lower price. 
Another who wanted a reclassification said: 

I went to my boss with a generic position from the University level of what somebody in 
the title of Library Supervisor would be doing. I gave that to her and she goes “Oh, this 
is really great. Is this your new position?” I said “no, but it should be though”…. They 
actually agreed and I got that promotion to the title of Library Supervisor.

Thus, she found a way to ask for what she wanted while avoiding aggressive or overly 
assertive behavior. 

Others used strategies around boundary setting to manage the challenges they faced. 
One manager explained that 

Maybe the first couple of weeks that I was a manager, somebody was feeling like there was 
a crisis, and really wanted me to stay late at work to help him talk about it, but I needed 
to go because [of] my son, who was a baby at the time. I was like, “I’m sorry, but I’ve got 
to go.” The person who wanted me to stay was just floored that I would leave. I was like, 
“I know. I get that this is important… we are going to talk about this tomorrow morning. 
It can wait until then. Right now, I’m going to go pick up my son.”

Others mentioned explicit self-promotion as a strategy to get more opportunities and highlight 
their skills. One mentioned that she tried to “send out lots of announcements about what we were 
doing and awards we’ve won and mentions and praise and feedback from users and I just had to start 
basically doing my own PR campaign for myself.”

Respondents’ Strategies for Professional Development
In addition to reflecting on skills they had to learn to be successful, women in management 
positions were also asked to reflect on the professional development activities they undertook. 
Nonmanagers were asked what they were doing to prepare for career growth. Nonmanagers 



Leveling Up    1157

often mentioned doing committee work to build leadership skills. Although many had positive 
experiences, others felt their experiences working on committees were lacking. One partici-
pant noted that “unimportant committees are the ones that are given to women…. The ones that are 
perceived as having weight are almost exclusively led by men and/or folks with tenure.” Thus, women 
felt that they missed out on opportunities to lead high-value projects. One stated, “I might 
have some leadership skills, but I also feel like I’ve not had enough opportunities to really demonstrate 
those skills.” At the same time, however, women who were already managers reflected often 
on opportunities where someone, usually a superior, gave them a chance to lead a high-value 
project. Others mentioned having opportunities such as chairing the Faculty Senate or taking 
on high-value committee work in regional committees, suggesting that not all participants 
felt they lacked opportunities to gain leadership skills through committee work. Women in 
management also mentioned the value of committee work, although less frequently.

Both women managers and women interested in management mentioned the value of 
mentoring. Eleven women in management mentioned explicit encouragement from their 
supervisors, such as opportunities to attend professional meetings in their areas of interest. 
Others mentioned bosses who explicitly trained them for management roles and gave them 
opportunities to practice management skills. Women interested in management also oc-
casionally reported similar opportunities. One early-career librarian noted, “[my] director is 
more willing to give me more projects because he knows that I want to be a director in the future and 
that that will help me get there.” Others mentioned that past supervisors have helped them in 
situations where they felt uncertain, providing both advice and emotional support.

In addition, many women in management mentioned the value of peer mentoring and 
said they relied on colleagues whom they spoke with face to face but also via listservs and 
other online tools to give feedback on tricky situations and provide emotional support. Three 
women mentioned that their spouses, who were professors or managers in other fields, pro-
vided a lot of support. 

Formal leadership institutes were another way that women in management gained con-
fidence and skills. Several attended national programs like the ACRL Harvard Leadership 
Institute and the UCLA Senior Fellows Program and described these programs as good op-
portunities to develop relationships with peers, although attendance at these programs was 
much more common among deans and associate deans. Other women managers mentioned 
attending campus-level or state-level leadership programs as well. Some women interested 
in management also mentioned doing programs like the ALA Emerging Leaders program as 
an important opportunity. Notably, many women mentioned the benefits of meeting peers 
and forming relationships as equally or more important than the curriculum at these events. 
The most common professional development strategy for women managers, however, was 
informal or self-led training through activities like reading about management. 

Others benefited from meeting informal mentors at various levels of the organization, 
often through happenstance. One woman manager explained that “finding that kindred spirit 
that you can hang with and really talk things through” was invaluable to success. When asked 
about formal mentoring, a few women mentioned participating in formalized programs 
through their organizations or though organizations such as the Association for College and 
Research Libraries (ACRL) or the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA)
(now part of CORE). However, several people also mentioned these mentoring opportunities 
were unhelpful for a variety of reasons, such as lack of a personal relationship or infrequent 



1158  College & Research Libraries November 2020

communication. Instead, women interested in management seemed to focus most of their 
professional development efforts on committee work and taking on projects that taught them 
new skills at work and much less on networking. These findings suggest that women use a 
variety of strategies to build management and leadership skills, including both formal and 
informal mentoring.

Respondents’ Recommendations
When discussing their successes and challenges, many women in management also had ideas 
about what would make pursuing and achieving management positions easier for women 
in libraries. For instance, many of them talked about the ingrained influence of sexism and 
implicit bias in the profession and the need for the profession to educate itself about the dan-
gers of subtle prejudices. Many participants speculated that some of the sexism they felt was 
unintentional, a byproduct of working in a gendered society. One person explained, “we’ve 
had male employees who have been able to work their way up internally from student employee to 
management and department head positions. We have no female employees who have done that, even 
though our administration is primarily female.” Several women echoed similar statements, call-
ing for increased education about the role of sexism in hiring and management and for new 
strategies to mitigate the effects of these biases.

Many current managers talked about the need for women to learn assertiveness and 
self-confidence and to practice asking for what they want, both because the women deserve 
their compensation and because women who do not ask are at a disadvantage since their 
male coworkers are often willing to ask for management positions, pay increases, or other 
job perks. As one current manager explained: “I have mostly women [who] report to me, but 
a few men, and I would say by and large men tend to …almost overestimate their leadership skills. 
They really very quickly want to advance into leadership positions. Women tend to underestimate 
their skills where they could lead and they’re very skilled, but they have to be encouraged to do that. 
Men do that every six months. ‘I just did this thing. Give me a new title.’ A woman’s like, ‘I did this 
thing because I assumed that’s what the thing is you wanted me to do. That’s okay. I don’t need any 
acknowledgement.’”

Some suggested that this lack of assertiveness sometimes manifested in timidity or in 
an unwillingness to take risks. One manager noted that “most men are not afraid to just go do 
something, and they’re not worried about if they’re going to fail at it or do terrible. I feel like women 
are less likely to just jump in and take a chance.” One manager also mentioned that she thought 
most women were too committed to their jobs and took conflicts far too personally, suggest-
ing that women should practice stepping back from the job and finding other ways to derive 
their self-worth. 

Women managers also suggested that women needed more coaching and support, both 
in terms of being encouraged to apply for management positions and in terms of training to 
succeed in management. This support may help more women begin to think of themselves as 
leaders and actively pursue management positions. As one manager explained: “I’ve managed 
a lot of people at this point. The men are always coming to me and saying, ‘I would be a good manager. 
I think you should make me a manager. I’m super-awesome at what I do and that’s what I think you 
should do for me.’ The women, if I asked them to be managers will say, ‘Oh, do you think I would be 
good at it?’ Or, if they ask me to be manager, they don’t say, ‘I’m super-awesome, you should make the 
manager.’ They say, ‘I think I would do a better job than that guy.’”



Leveling Up    1159

Many women managers also recounted cases where they were explicitly encouraged to 
consider management by a director or supervisor. Others mentioned that seeing other women 
in similar positions made them more confident, suggesting that having women coach other 
women in how to get and keep management opportunities is important. One current dean 
said: “I look around the table now at meetings that I’m in with other deans and directors and there are 
a lot more women at the table [than] there used to be. I think that when you see yourself at the table 
and see others like you at the table it’s very motivating and encouraging.”

Another related recommendation was that women do more to support each other in the 
workplace. One manager explained, “In a situation as recently as this week, I felt like what was 
happening was white guys were looking out for white guys in my workplace, and women often don’t 
do that for one another. I tried to stand up a little bit and be like, ‘Well, also, her. Maybe you didn’t 
notice her. Maybe you didn’t know about this background’…. Part of what I can do is open doors and 
create opportunities for other women because I’m used to saying what I want.”

Another female manager suggested that women in management should work harder 
to model work-life balance and to show that succeeding in management and maintaining a 
healthy life is possible. She suggested that “women look at other women in leadership positions 
and they don’t see anybody whose life they want. That is partly what keeps them from pursuing it…. 
When I looked at other managers, I didn’t see anybody whose life I wanted. What I saw was people who 
were really out-of-balance, who worked all the time, who didn’t have families.”

These recommendations highlight the need for administrators to support women inter-
ested in management through coaching and professional development, and to help minimize 
the impact of sexism and implicit bias in hiring decisions. 

Reported Reasons to Avoid Management
When women indicated in the survey that they were unsure about managing or disinterested 
in management, the interviews provided an opportunity to learn more about their reasons for 
being uncertain or lacking interest. The major reasons respondents reported were similar to 
responses in the survey. Several preferred working on projects rather than managing people, 
while others did not want to or were unsure if they felt comfortable handling the conflict that 
might arise when managing employees. Others mentioned other interests outside of work, 
especially caring for families, that made them less interested in the added burden or potential 
stress of management responsibilities. 

Women who managed in the past but were not currently managers also faced barriers 
staying in management positions. Three participants mentioned that lack of support within 
their institutions discouraged them from seeking management positions, made obtaining 
these positions difficult, or inhibited them in performing positions successfully. Sometimes 
participants believed that this lack of support was motivated by sexism, but at other times 
they described it as simply endemic to their institution; these factors emerged as independent 
barriers, whether motivated by sexism or not. Lack of training was an oft-cited problem in 
this category; participants felt that they were not adequately prepared by their organization 
to take on leadership roles. One person who managed previously but not at the time of the 
interview said, “I did not necessarily feel like [administration] wanted me to succeed as a manager 
as much as they didn’t want me to fail.”

In addition to lack of support, some participants mentioned lack of compensation as a 
challenge. One person who had been a manager in the past gave up her management duties 



1160  College & Research Libraries November 2020

because of lack of compensation, noting, “salary doesn’t buy happiness, but salary buys necessities. 
I think we fund what we value as institutions.” Not only women who quit managing, but also cur-
rent managers, described lack of compensation as an ongoing problem; many were frequently 
told that they would have to take on additional responsibilities to meet organizational needs 
without a corresponding pay increase. One person explained that, after an associate dean left 
her institution, she “was told that I would take on his responsibilities with no corresponding increase 
in pay.” These challenges discouraged women from taking on management roles.

Women managers also faced other challenges; all of the managers said that they felt quite 
busy a lot of the time, although none said that they felt totally overwhelmed and incapable of 
doing the job. Others mentioned that some parts of the job, such as negotiating conflicts with 
employees, were especially unpleasant. Others mentioned that external factors, such as state 
regulations and budget cuts, made life hard because they felt they had a lot to accomplish 
with too few employees and resources. The most common complaints women in management 
mentioned were dealing with bureaucracy, such as having to fill out a lot of paperwork to 
hire people, having to schedule people, and having to conduct disciplinary reviews or per-
formance evaluations. Eight women who were associate deans also said explicitly that they 
did not want to be deans because deans have much more responsibility for connecting with 
outside stakeholders and legislators. In short, schmoozing and paperwork seemed to be the 
hardest parts of the job.

Several interview participants also commented on why they like the job. Five managers or 
past managers mentioned that they saw themselves as coaches, supporting their employees’ 
growth. Five also described themselves as advocates for employees and mentioned taking 
pleasure in tasks like helping their employees find the resources they needed to do their jobs 
better. One participant said, “I want to be able to help put structures into place that can help [my 
employees] be successful and accomplish the awesome things I know that we’re all capable of.” Others 
felt happy when they saw their employees grow in their careers over time. One person men-
tioned that “giving people opportunity when I can help people grow and develop under my leadership 
I think is a very rewarding thing.” Others liked connecting units across campus and advocating 
for the library’s work: “I like fitting in the spaces where I’m helping things happen across campus 
and connecting people to other people.” Thus, women managers seemed to enjoy helping their 
employees thrive at work and building excellent programs and services.

Discussion
This research examined whether women academic librarians felt they faced barriers in pursuing 
and achieving management positions, what barriers they faced, what factors they considered 
important for their success, and how the experiences of those who were in management posi-
tions differed from those who were not. Although many women mentioned facing barriers 
in management, some did not; there was no single factor that differentiated women who 
felt no barriers from those who did. It may be that women who did not experience barriers 
had different combinations of life and career circumstances that influenced their experiences 
compared to women who did experience barriers. 

The most common barriers women described in the survey were learning new skills to 
be a manager, balancing work and family life, learning to think of themselves as managers, 
and navigating political difficulties. These findings were consistent with interview findings 
as well. Many of the skills women had to learn, such as communicating appropriately or 



Leveling Up    1161

negotiating in ways that match gender norms, are attached to gendered behavioral expecta-
tions. This is consistent with Olin and Millet’s findings that gendered behavioral expectations 
shape women’s experiences in library management.25 However, it is also a testimony to the fact 
that women find ways to overcome and adapt to these challenges to meet their goals success-
fully. These findings suggest the need for further exploration into how gendered behavioral 
expectations shape women academic librarians’ experiences to make sure that these women 
are comfortable and able to achieve as much as they can in the workplace. 

Although many women described examples of gendered expectations, many women 
did not characterize their experiences as sexism or sexual discrimination. However, even 
women who did not characterize their experiences as sexual harassment shared numerous 
examples of instances where they felt sexism might have played a role in their experiences. 
This is consistent with the findings of a recent study that administered the Sexual Experience 
Questionnaire to academic librarians. They noted that:

78% of the sample indicates experience with gender harassment and 64% indi-
cate an experience with seductive behavior, but only 21% of the sample indicate 
experience with sexual harassment more generally. The discrepancy between the 
specific dimensions of sexual harassment and the global measure may suggest 
that individuals who experience gender harassment or seductive behavior do not 
necessarily characterize these experiences as sexual harassment.26 

Based on a literature review of sexual harassment experiences in other professions, such 
as nursing, scholars found that “thinking about sexual harassment as ‘part of the job’ seems 
to be common in other female dominated professions.”27 This finding is consistent with Brit-
ton’s assertion that “women workers tend not to see gender inequality as due to an oppres-
sively chilly climate.”28 Hart notes that “lay understandings of sexual harassment are narrow, 
so people may not label sexual harassment experiences as such.”29 In addition, women may 
ignore or minimize gender inequality or sexual harassment.30 The extent to which women 
did not label these experiences as sexism suggests that part of the challenge of having more 
women in management might be labeling and identifying instances of discrimination and 
developing strategies to combat them effectively. Given the larger cultural narrative arising 
right now around gender and sex discrimination, such as the #metoo movement, libraries have 
an important opportunity to consider how gender affects the workplace and to take action to 
ameliorate sex-based discrimination and harassment.

Even in cases where sexism was not mentioned, most women did report structures in 
the workplace that seemed to favor men. Women reported instances of being required to 
collaborate or work in ways that effaced their own contributions to the organization, which 
in turn prevented them from having a strong record of individual project success to move 
up in the organizations. When women did try to speak up or demand more opportunities, in 
some cases they were chastised for being aggressive in ways that the men they worked with 
were not. This finding is consistent with research showing that women may be penalized for 
showing assertiveness, which is perceived as inconsistent with gender norms for women’s 
behavior. As Eagly and Karli (2012) explained, “verbally intimidating others can undermine a 
woman’s influence, and assertive behavior can reduce her chances of getting a job or advanc-
ing in her career. Simply disagreeing can sometimes get women into trouble.”31 This finding 



1162  College & Research Libraries November 2020

suggests that gendered communication expectations may still play a role in women academic 
librarians’ experiences. Respondents’ reports that they were asked to nurture colleagues and 
participate in low-status labor are also consistent with Eagly and Karli’s (2012) findings that 
women are often expected to be communal and nurturing, rather than active.32 Both women 
and men may need support. For instance, people of any sex and gender can be encouraged 
to participate in the nurturing of colleagues or in doing housekeeping tasks. 

In addition to gender, several participants mentioned age discrimination as a major chal-
lenge. Although no one mentioned age discrimination as an older person in this sample, this 
does not mean that these issues do not happen. One important caveat to generalizing about 
age, however, is raised by Gardner and Galoozis, who found that a “problem in generational 
research in LIS is a focus on a singular marker of identity (age or generational cohort) while 
race, sexual orientation, gender expression, ethnicity, and other markers are conspicuously 
absent.33” This suggests that experiences with age discrimination are connected to and intersect 
with other identity markers. Although sex was salient in this study, more research should be 
done about how women’s experiences in academic libraries are shaped by their other identities.

Women managers and women interested in management also described political diffi-
culties as a major challenge, a phrase that seems to encompass a variety of problems, includ-
ing lack of support by administration, challenges negotiating relationships with would-be 
subordinates or colleagues, and lack of opportunity to move formally into positions where 
they occupied interim roles. Women who left management or did not want to manage also 
suggested that politics, especially conflicts with employees or administrators, discouraged 
them from pursuing management. This finding suggests that women would benefit from 
more support in managing relationships in the workplace, which research has shown may be 
a cause of occupational stress.34 More research examining specifically how academic library 
managers understand political difficulties and how they manage those difficulties would also 
provide more insight into how to manage political difficulties successfully. In addition, since 
many women mentioned informal support networks and mentoring as important in their 
professional development, continuing to find ways to encourage the development of these 
social networks may be one way to help women manage such difficulties.

Work-life balance and the need to balance family obligations presented a common barrier 
for both women managers and women interested in management. These women noted that 
they did a disproportionate amount of emotional labor for their colleagues. Although some 
women saw their emotional intelligence as a strength, other women felt burdened by the need 
to perform this emotional labor. These findings were consistent with Manchester, Leslie, and 
Dahm’s review of the literature on how family responsibilities affect career progressions; they 
found that “laboratory-and field-based experiments, in which all differences between mothers 
and childless women are accounted for, document a motherhood penalty. Mothers are less 
likely to be hired, called back for an interview, given training, and promoted.”35 In spite of 
being a female-dominated profession, mothers still face significant challenges in managing 
their responsibilities in librarianship. This suggests that there is an important opportunity 
to consider how to best support mothers and indeed all parents as they pursue positions as 
academic librarians. 

Interestingly, very few women mentioned low self-esteem as a major reason that they felt 
they faced barriers in management. Several women interested in management did say that they 
did not feel ready to take on management roles, which could be evidence that women underes-



Leveling Up    1163

timate their leadership potential. More than half (57%) of women managers also mentioned that 
learning to think of themselves as managers was a barrier, suggesting that lack of self-esteem was 
a challenge. Future research that asked both men and women librarians to rate their leadership 
potential while controlling for differences in experience or demographics would be useful to 
learn more about whether women librarians do rate their leadership potential lower than men. 

Women managers’ self-reported reasons for their success also indicated that many at-
tributed their success to personal qualities and characteristics. Although many mentioned 
specific skills they had to learn, such as operations management or conflict management, they 
also reported personality traits that helped them succeed, many of which clustered around 
emotional intelligence and building strong relationships with their colleagues. This suggests 
that women interested in management should spend time cultivating their communication 
and conflict resolution skills as much as they focus on learning hard skills. In addition, the 
recommendations that libraries work to overcome gendered behavioral expectations, provide 
coaching and support to women in management, and encourage women to support other 
women suggest that women managers succeed when they feel supported in considering and 
pursuing management and when they are able to build supportive relationships. More research 
into what factors make women librarians feel supported in considering library management 
would elucidate how libraries could better support the development of women managers. 

In exploring how women interested in management perceived factors for success and bar-
riers compared to women in management, the differences were less noticeable than expected. 
Perhaps the most common was that women interested in management tended to think in terms 
of getting a necessary skill set, applying for jobs with gradually increasing responsibility, and 
then eventually reaching a management zenith. Although some women followed this path, 
many women managers got their positions as others in their organizations left their positions 
or as they faced reorganizations.

Limitations
This study has several limitations. The sample size for both the survey and interviews was 
small, meaning that the results of this research are not statistically generalizable to women 
librarians as a whole. This methodology and sample were not designed to measure the 
prevalence or salience of the themes uncovered in this research, although information about 
the number of participants who reported specific kinds of themes was included for context.

In addition, this research predominantly included White or Caucasian participants. 
However, numerous research studies show that women of color in librarianship face ad-
ditional challenges,36 such as regular experiences of microaggressions.37 As Thomas, Trucks, 
and Kouns noted, “Members of marginalized groups, especially people of color and those 
who identify as LGBTQIA, experience hidden workloads, microaggressions, early burnout 
and lower retention.”38 Further research should be done, as Swanson, Tanaka, and Gonzales-
Smith suggested, on how librarians’ intersecting identities inform their lived experiences.39 

Since participants self-selected, it is also possible that this study overreported the expe-
riences of women who were interested in management issues. In addition, survey research 
is a challenge because respondents may not self-report accurately; the same is also true in 
interviews.40 More research is needed on women in library management, specifically their 
experiences pursuing management or their reasons for avoiding management. 



1164  College & Research Libraries November 2020

Conclusion
This study addressed a gap in library literature by exploring how women academic librarians 
understood and described their career progressions. By learning more about the barriers that 
women academic librarians face in management positions or in aspiring to management, as 
well as the factors for success that help women academic library managers succeed, we may 
be able to design interventions that help women gain management experience or overcome 
barriers to taking on management if they want to do so. This study may also help women 
academic librarians understand barriers that may discourage their advancing to management 
positions and help managers, human resources personnel, and deans develop interventions 
to encourage women’s persistence in management positions. Although our profession has 
certainly made great strides in encouraging women in management, there is still an oppor-
tunity for us to learn more about how gender and/or sex influence the work life of academic 
librarians. This research also provided more information about how women experience and 
understand their own work in libraries and how gender and/or sex may play a role in those 
experiences; such research is an opportunity to explore how our profession can limit the nega-
tive outcomes of gendered behavioral expectations and create an environment for “leaders, 
male or female or people who don’t identify in those ways, to be valued for what they each 
bring to their organizations.”41

Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge the University of Utah’s Office of the Vice President for 
Research (VPR) for providing funding to support this project. Many thanks as well to all of the 
folks that participated in this research and reviewed it, including the editor and anonymous 
reviewers. Special thanks to Sarah LeMire, Erika Church, Devan Church, and Sarah Bryan 
for their detailed feedback.



Leveling Up    1165

Appendix. Women’s Academic Librarians’ Career Progression



1166  College & Research Libraries November 2020

Notes
 1. Jason Martin, “Transformational and Transactional Leadership: An Exploration of Gender, Experience, 

and Institution Type,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 15, no. 2 (2015).
 2. Kathleen DeLong, “Career Advancement and Writing about Women Librarians: A Literature Review,” 

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 8, no. 1 (2013): 59–75; Jessica Olin and Michelle Millet, “Gendered 
Expectations for Leadership in Libraries,” In the Library with the Lead Pipe (2015), www.inthelibrarywiththelead-
pipe.org/2015/libleadgender/.

 3. Camille Thomas, Elia Trucks, and H.B. Kouns, “Preparing Early-Career Librarians for Leadership and 
Management: A Feminist Critique,” In the Library with the Lead Pipe (2019), http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.
org/2019/early-career-leadership-and-management/.

 4. Alice Hendrickson Eagly and Linda Lorene Carli, Through the Labyrinth: The Truth about How Women Become 
Leaders (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2007).

 5.  Joan Acker, “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations,” Gender & Society 4, no. 2 
(1990); Dana M. Britton and Laura Logan, “Gendered Organizations: Progress and Prospects,” Sociology Compass 
2, no. 1 (2008); Christine L. Williams, Chandra Muller, and Kristine Kilanski, “Gendered Organizations in the 
New Economy,” Gender & Society 26, no. 4 (2012).

 6. Robert Swisher, Rosemary Ruhig DuMont, and Calvin J. Boyer, “The Motivation to Manage: A Study of 
Academic Librarians and Library Science Students,” Library Trends 34 (1985).

 7. Acker, “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies”; Williams, Muller, and Kilanski, “Gendered Organizations in the New 
Economy”; Eagly and Carli, Through the Labyrinth, 2007.

 8. Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).
 9. Gerry Pallier, “Gender Differences in the Self-Assessment of Accuracy on Cognitive Tasks,” Sex Roles 48, 

no. 5/6 (2003).
10. Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and The Gender Divide (Princeton, NJ: 

Princeton University Press, 2003); Lisa A. Barron, “Ask and You Shall Receive? Gender Differences in Negotiators’ 
Beliefs about Requests for a Higher Salary,” Human Relations 56, no. 6 (2003); Deborah M. Kolb, “Too Bad for the 
Women or Does It Have to Be? Gender and Negotiation Research over the Past Twenty-Five Years,” Negotiation 
Journal 25, no. 4 (2009).

11. Christine L. Williams, “The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the ‘Female’ Professions,” 
Social Problems 39, no. 3 (1992): 253–67; Adia Harvey Wingfield and Ranell L. Myles, “Still a Man’s World? Re-
visiting Men Who Do Women’s Work,” Sociology Compass 8, no. 10 (2014); Christine L. Williams. “The Glass 
Escalator, Revisited: Gender Inequality in Neoliberal Times, SWS Feminist Lecturer,” Gender & Society 27, no. 5 
(2013): 609–29.

12. Kathleen De Long, “True North Journeys in Leadership of Women Library Directors in Canadian Academic 
Libraries,” diss., (Simmons College, 2012); Sharon K. Epps, “African American Women Leaders in Academic 
Research Libraries,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 8, no. 3 (2008).

13. Marta Mestrovic Deyrup, “Is the Revolution Over? Gender, Economic, and Professional Parity in Academic 
Library Leadership Positions,” College & Research Libraries 65, no. 3 (2004); Barbara B. Moran, Elisabeth Leonard, 
and Jessica Zellers, “Women Administrators in Academic Libraries: Three Decades of Change,” Library Trends 
58, no. 2 (2009).

14. Virginia E. Schein, “The Relationship between Sex Role Stereotypes and Requisite Management Char-
acteristics,” Journal of Applied Psychology 57, no. 2 (1973).

15. Anne M. Koenig et al., “Are Leader Stereotypes Masculine? A Meta-analysis of Three Research Paradigms,” 
Psychological Bulletin 137, no. 4 (2011).

16. Kenneth S. Rhee and Tracey H. Sigler, “Untangling the Relationship between Gender and Leadership,” 
Gender in Management 30, no. 2 (2015); Renee Warning and F. Robert Buchanan, “An Exploration of Unspoken 
Bias: Women Who Work for Women,” Gender in Management 24, no. 2 (2009); Kim M. Elsesser and Janet Lever, 
“Does Gender Bias against Female Leaders Persist? Quantitative and Qualitative Data from a Large-Scale Sur-
vey,” Human Relations 64, no. 12 (2011).

17. Rhee and Sigler, “Untangling the Relationship between Gender and Leadership”; Alice H. Eagly and 
Steven J. Karau, “Role Congruity Theory of Prejudice toward Female Leaders,” Psychological Review 109, no. 3 
(2002).

18. Laurie A. Rudman, “Self-promotion as a Risk Factor for Women: The Costs and Benefits of Counterste-
reotypical Impression Management,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74, no. 3 (1998): 629–45; M.E. 
Heilman, “Gender Stereotypes and Workplace Bias,” Research in Organizational Behavior 32 (2012): 113–35.

http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/libleadgender/
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/libleadgender/
http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2019/early-career-leadership-and-management/
http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2019/early-career-leadership-and-management/


Leveling Up    1167

19. Janine Bosak and Sabine Sczesny, “Am I the Right Candidate? Self-Ascribed Fit of Women and Men to a 
Leadership Position,” Sex Roles 58, no. 9/10 (2008).

20. Mary Hogue and Robert G. Lord, “A Multilevel, Complexity Theory Approach to Understanding Gender 
Bias in Leadership,” Leadership Quarterly 18, no. 4 (2007).

21. Robin J. Ely and Deborah L. Rhode, “Women and Leadership: Defining the Challenges,” in Handbook of 
Leadership Theory and Practice, eds. Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Publish-
ing, 2010).

22. Laurie A. Rudman and Julie E. Phelan, “The Effect of Priming Gender Roles on Women’s Implicit Gender 
Beliefs and Career Aspirations,” Social Psychology 41, no. 3 (2010).

23. John W. Creswell, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (Thousand Oaks, 
CA: Sage, 2013), 15–16.

24. J. Andrew Morris and Daniel C. Feldman, “The Dimensions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Emotional 
Labor,” Academy of Management Review 21, no. 4 (1996): 987. 

25 . Olin and Millet, “Gendered Expectations for Leadership in Libraries.” 
26. Candice Benjes-Small et al., “Quantifying the #metoo Narrative: Sexual Harassment in Academic Librar-

ies,” in Recasting the Narrative: The Proceedings of the ACRL 2019 Conference (Cleveland, OH, April 10–13, 2019), 66.
27. Benjes-Small, et al., “Quantifying the #metoo Narrative,” 70.
28. Dana M. Britton, “Beyond the Chilly Climate: The Salience of Gender in Women’s Academic Careers,” 

Gender & Society 13, no. 1 (2017): 23.
29. Chloe Grace Hart, “The Penalties for Self-Reporting Sexual Harassment,” Gender and Society 33, no. 4 

(2019): 536. 
30. Heather McLaughlin, Christopher Uggen, and Amy Blackstone, “The Economic and Career Effects of 

Sexual Harassment on Working Women,” Gender and Society 31, no. 3 (2017): 333–58.
31. Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Karli, “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership” in Contemporary Issues in 

Leadership, eds. William E. Rosenbach, Robert L. Taylor, and Mark A. Youndt (New York, NY: Routledge, 2012), 
152.

32. Eagly and Linda L. Carli, “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership,” 152.
33. Carolyn Caffrey Gardner and Elizabeth Galoozis. “False narratives of generational difference in academic 

libraries: Toward an intersectional approach.” The Library Quarterly 88, no. 2 (2018): 185.
34. Akanji Babatunde, “Occupational Stress: A Review on Conceptualisations, Causes, and Cure,” Economic 

Insights—Trends and Challenges 2, no. 3 (2013): 73–80.
35. Colleen Flaherty Manchester, Lisa M. Leslie, and Patricia C. Dahm, “Family Responsibilities and Career 

Outcomes: Discriminatory and Nondiscriminatory Explanations,” in The Oxford Handbook of Workplace Discrimi-
nation, eds. Adrienne J. Colella and Eden B. King (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015), 204.

36. Juleah Swanson, Azusa Tanaka, and Isabel Gonzalez-Smith, “Lived Experience of Academic Librarians of 
Color,” College & Research Libraries 79, no. 7 (2018): 876–94; Kimberley Bugg, “The Perceptions of People of Color 
in Academic Libraries Concerning the Relationship between Retention and Advancement as Middle Managers,” 
Journal of Library Administration 56, no. 4 (2016): 428–43, https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1105076.

37. Jaena Alabi, “Racial Microaggressions in Academic Libraries: Results of a Survey of Minority and 
Non-Minority Librarians,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 41, no. 1 (2015): 47–53, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acal-
ib.2014.10.008; Jaena Alabi, “‘This Actually Happened’: An Analysis of Librarians’ Responses to a Survey about 
Racial Microaggressions,” Journal of Library Administration 55, no. 3 (2015): 179–91, https://doi.org/10.1080/019308
26.2015.1034040. 

38. Thomas, Trucks, and Kouns, “Preparing Early-Career Librarians for Leadership and Management,” para 
53.

39. Swanson, Tanaka, and Gonzalez-Smith, “Lived Experience of Academic Librarians of Color.”
40. Debra J. Rog and Leonard Bickman, The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods, 2nd ed. (Los 

Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc, 2009), 20. 
41. Olin and Millet, “Gendered Expectations for Leadership in Libraries,” para 2.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1105076
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.10.008
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.10.008
https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1034040
https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1034040