The Coach's Guide for Women Professors

This is a practical guide for women in academe - whether adjuncts, professors or administrators - who often encounter barriers and hostility, especially women of color, and generally carry a heavier load of service, as well as household and care responsibilities, than their male colleagues.

If you find yourself thinking or saying any of the following, this is a book you need to pick up.I know or suspect that I am underpaid, but I hate negotiating. I do everything else first and then write in the time left over.I'm not sure exactly what the promotion requirements are in my department.Since earning tenure, my service load has increased and my research is suffering. I don't get enough time with my family.This is a practical guide for women in academe - whether adjuncts, professors or administrators - who often encounter barriers and hostility, especially women of color, and generally carry a heavier load of service, as well as household and care responsibilities, than their male colleagues. Rena Seltzer, a respected life coach and trainer who has worked with women professors and academic leaders for many years, offers succinct advice on how you can prioritize the multiplicity of demands on your life, negotiate better, create support networks, and move your career forward. Using telling but disguised vignettes of the experiences of women she has mentored, Rena Seltzer offers insights and strategies for managing the situations that all women face - such as challenges to their authority - while also paying attention to how they often play out differently for Latinas, Black and Asian women. She covers issues that arise from early career to senior administrator positions. This is a book you can read cover to cover or dip into as you encounter concerns about time management; your authority and influence; work/life balance; problems with teaching; leadership; negotiating better; finding time to write; developing your networks and social support; or navigating tenure and promotion and your career beyond.

Autorentext

Rena Seltzer is the founder of the coaching and training business, Leader Academic. Over the past decade, Leader Academic has specialized in coaching and workshops for professors and academic leaders. Rena is a popular presenter at major research institutions including Yale, Cornell, the University of Michigan, and the University of Virginia. Rena earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan. With a bachelor's degree in Social Science and Women's Studies and a Master of Social Work degree, Rena has always been interested in both women's issues and the interaction between people and their environment. In Rena's first career as a psychotherapist she specialized in addictions, solution focused work, family therapy, and employee assistance. Rena completed her coach training through the Mentorcoach program and finds that her earlier psychotherapy training and experience add depth to her work as a coach. In recent years Rena has become a student of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) and is a core member of the Community of Applied POS practitioners, a group of coaches and consultants striving to put POS research into practice. Rena has written pieces for the All But Dissertation Survival Guide, The College and University Work and Family Association Newsbriefs, MomMD.com, The Ann Arbor Observer, and Current. She also wrote a series of columns on family issues for Gay.com. Rena lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her physician partner and two sons. She holds a black-belt in Shorin-Ryu Karate and enjoys running, camping, and hiking. Author website: www.leaderacademic.com

Zusammenfassung

"Graduate schools do not prepare women for the numerous challenges they encounter in the various facets of academic life. This book identifies challenges and issues related to women's lives in academe and suggests practical and studied tactics to help women thrive in the academic world and in their own lives.

Rena Seltzer has extensive experience as an academic coach and has gathered a compelling amount of data and first-hand experiences from women professors. She acknowledges that surviving in academia is not easy, especially for women and under-represented minorities. Oftentimes, women feel isolated and are not aware that some of the challenges they face are not uniquely their own. By identifying such challenges, Rena Seltzer achieves the goal of bringing awareness to these common experiences. In addition to identifying these challenges at the different stages of academic life, the book offers a deeper analysis of the issues and obstacles of academic life as well as provides practical advice on how to overcome them.

Anecdotally, all female academics I have shared this book with have expressed great interest in it and admitted they would like or need to read it. One said, 'I wish this book was around when I started out!'

The book is recommended to all women in academia but also to any faculty at any stage in her or his career who is experiencing some of the same challenges."

Reflective Teaching

"I highly recommend Rena Seltzer's book, The Coach's Guide for Women Professors, to anyone who is engaged in or contemplating a tenure track academic career. I connected to this book on two different levels. First, the advice corresponded to conclusions that I have drawn from my research on work/family concerns and women faculty. My own research on dual career couple hiring policies and academic motherhood supports the orientation of this book and the types of advice given. Secondly, I related to the book on a more personal level - being a tenured professor at a research university, being a parent and spouse, and having newly accepted a position as an associate dean. As I read the advice, I found myself nodding in agreement - sometimes recognizing things that I already do to help myself manage my multiple roles and sometimes noting new things that I hadn't yet tried but that might be worth exploring. I loved the checklist at the beginning of the book and I found myself laughing at how many of the items I felt related to my own experiences. Although I read the whole book cover to cover the first time, I did make use of the survey to help me hone in on additional areas where I could use some extra help. The writing style in the book is very engaging and the personal narratives helped to make the advice practical and not preachy. The book is comprehensive - covering a range of topics of interest to women at multiple stages in their careers. I particularly found the advice about voice and about strategies to energize myself to be salient in my current role. Many of the recommendations were things that I have tried (sometimes successfully and sometimes not) as well as things that I would recommend to newer colleagues in my mentoring relationships with them. There is a lot of advice out there to be had on how to successfully manage life as a woman and as an academic - this book gathers it all up and puts it together in a useful manner that will certainly be of service to many."

Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies; Professor, Higher Education

University of Kansas

"I would not have gotten tenure without Rena Seltzer's skillful coaching. I am positive of that. If you can find a way to work with her as a coach, do it! But if you can't, read her book at least twice. It has all the life and career hacks every academic (male and female!) needs. Rena knows academia, in all its glories and pitfalls, and it is exhilarating to see one's world so accurately portrayed through on-point advice. I am a happier, healthier, higher-impact, and more productive academic, thanks to Rena's coaching and book."

Dolly Chugh, Associate Professor

New York University

I needed to transform how I appro…