Abstract
Thankfully, Walter G. Bumphus (President and CEO of American Association of Community Colleges [AACC]), recognized the association’s responsibility for publishing a manuscript on influential women leaders who have shaped community colleges during the 1900s. The author, Anne-Marie McCartan, who was a postsecondary education leader for over 40 years, spent over 3 years collecting and capturing the life experiences of these 12 women. She completed the manuscript in 2005; however, it was not picked up by a publisher. She approached Dr. Bumphus in 2015, and he saw the need to capture the biographies of these key women influencers and leaders of community colleges.
Biographies were a popular way to write about saints during the Middle Ages. Historical biographies were written by men and were mostly about “great” men even through the mid-1900s. In the 1960s, the traditional study of kings and conquerors (men) moved to stories of “ordinary” people and incorporated cultural history and brought forth issues such as gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds (Snowman, 2014). I wonder why Dr. McCartan could not find a publisher to print the manuscript. Could it have been because a woman wrote the biographies? Or was it because she intricately focused on the life of each woman and the publisher thought the academic community would need more of a historical picture of the American landscape for the manuscript to be a significant contribution to history (Snowman, 2014)? No matter what the reason was, thankfully Bumphus realized its importance and had AACC publish the manuscript.
Through extensive investigation, Dr. McCartan exquisitely fulfilled the purposes of her research. In particular, she set out to learn from women in her field through biographies. In her preface, she states that she amassed a collection of over 100 biographies and autobiographies from women across the world, who were famous or not famous. This gathering of women’s stories began her journey to search the literature for influential leaders during the junior college movement before World War II and the years of expansion of the community college after World War II. She found that the literature focused on prominent men while omitting the contribution of women. From this finding, she decided to answer her question, “Did any females make unique contributions that affected the direction, image, goals, or curriculum of the movement?” (p. x). In her exquisitely written research design, she selected 12 women for whom she tells their stories in the book. Her attention to the research design and writing of their profiles is superb, and her work is a serious contribution to the history of community colleges.
As a woman higher education researcher and administrator, I wish there were more books on women pioneers in postsecondary education. As a researcher and teacher, I appreciate and value her research design. I would recommend this book for higher education leadership and community college courses, and for qualitative research courses.
Dr. McCartan organized the book into three parts: (I) setting the stage, (II) the 12 women’s profiles, and (III) her reflections or qualitative analysis and findings. She sets the context for which these women worked in Part I before diving into their profiles in Part II. Each profile is less than 10 pages and describes the influencer’s storyline. Based on her criteria, Dr. McCartan selected women who provided a vast array of contributions to community colleges, including student services, research, policy, advocacy, curriculum, and leadership development. The women profiles are as follows:
Margaret James Mosal—a visionary, who championed high-achieving students, with a personal touch through Phi Theta Kappa, an international academic honorary society for 2-year college students.
Mildred L. Montag—the innovator, leader, and teacher for nursing education in 2-year colleges.
Jane Elizabeth Matson—an advocate for counselors, and the mastermind behind offering educational opportunities to community college staff on student development. She was a teacher and mentor to many who developed student development programs across the United States.
Dorothy M. Knoell—a researcher, who was committed to student success and completion at community colleges and who impacted state and federal policy through her critical perspectives on the data.
Marie Y. Martin—a former community college president who became an advocate for community colleges in the Federal government.
K. Patricia Cross—the respected, influential researcher and writer, who challenged community college leadership to understand who their students were and how their students were taught and assessed.
Janet E. Liberman—she is highlighted for her commitment to an idea of serving at-risk youth through a middle college housed within a community college, and for her ability to obtain funds from prestigious foundations and agencies for this work.
Connie Dubose Sutton-Odems—a committed woman leader during a time of transition from segregation to the integration of schools and the schools needing to hire minorities as teachers and staff. She always took on opportunities for growth or leadership, starting as a counselor with a community college to becoming senior vice president at Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.
Mildred Bulpitt and Carolyn Desjardins—Mildred, the visionary who worked to raise the visibility of women in community colleges, and Carolyn, the counselor and advocate for women in community colleges, came together to develop influential leadership workshops for women.
Suanne Davis Roueche— “the first voice for unprepared students” as one former president called Suanne. She was a committed teacher who focused her later work on researching and advocating for developmental education and quality teaching practices.
Wilhelmina Delco—a fighter, role model, and leader for equity and equality in education. Over the years, she ran for higher ranking political positions so she could advocate and change policies regarding finance, access, and retention of minority students.
Women of the Tribal Colleges—the focus is on four dedicated, but vastly diverse women, who created, led, and shaped policy, and obtained private resources to support Tribal Colleges.
Each profile is an easy read, and the stories will be fascinating to people who have a passion for the primary mission of community colleges. Students and individuals working in postsecondary education can learn from one or all of these 12 women influencers. In addition, Dr. McCartan puts her qualitative researcher hat on and provides the themes she uncovered across the 12 women’s profiles in Part III. The themes center on their family backgrounds, personal characteristics, mentoring, timing, and funding.
Dr. McCartan writes about how she determined her research design in an appendix. Even though I realize the focus of her book was on telling why these women were community college influencers, I wanted the appendix with her methodology to be inserted between Part 1—setting the stage—and Part II—profiles. Her method for going about the selection of the women was as a story in itself; thus, I wished I knew about her process upfront. After reading Dr. McCartan’s methodology, my respect for the women she wrote about amplified because of her attention to the details and my understanding of her selection process.
I would highly recommend this book as a reflective guide for young women on their career trajectory to understand the women who were committed to the students, communities, and colleges before them. The title of the book is also important to note for young women because she states, “. . .Unexpected Influence, emphasizes the notion that all of these women attained prominence by happenstance rather than by virtue of a carefully planned career trajectory” (p. xii). I would also propose this book to faculty for use in their higher education and qualitative research courses. The book is an easy read and is an important addition to the literature.