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Headlines Becoming Dean As businesses and business schools diver- sify, change is slowly coming to the top echelons of academia. One key trend is the increase in female busi- ness school deans. Women now make up 18 percent of the total, up from 12 percent in 2002, according to a survey that looks at the careers and characteristics of deans. The study was sponsored by AACSB International and conducted in 2007 by Susan M. McTiernan, visiting associate professor of man- agement at the University of New Haven in West Haven, Connecti- cut, and Patricia M. Flynn, trustee professor of economics and man- agement at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Of the 350 deans who responded to the survey, 84 percent were from the U.S. and 68 percent led private institutions. Many survey results were devoted to assessing the differences between male and female deans. For instance, female deans are more likely than males to move into a dean's position within their own institutions and to move from interim to full dean. They're also more likely to have marketing degrees. Real differences also center around more personal attributes. While 90 percent of all respondents are married, 9 percent of women deans are single and 8 percent are divorced—a sharp contrast to the 1 percent of male deans who are single and 4 percent who are divorced. Eighty-seven percent of female deans who are married have spouses working outside the home; that's true for only 56 percent of married male deans. And while 75 percent of married female deans have children, only one-quarter of them have three 8 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 Other aspects of the survey focus more generally on the overall charac- teristics of deans. The average age of respondents is 55, with men slightly older (57) than women (55). Eighty- seven percent are white, 5 percent are African American, and another 5 percent are Asian/Pacific Islanders. Ninety-one percent have doctoral degrees. Five percent have master's degrees as their highest degrees, and 2 percent have law degrees. While the respondents began their first deanships at an average age of 49, those responding to the survey ranged in age from 29 to 71. Respondents have been in their or more children. By contrast, 88 percent of male deans are fathers, and nearly three-quarters of them have three or more children. These findings are consistent with research that shows high-achieving corporate women tend to have fewer children and be married less often than their male counterparts. That trend was noted in Sylvia Ann Hew- lett's 2002 Harvard Business Review article, "Executive Women and the Myth of Having It All." current positions for an average of five years, which is similar to the 2002 findings. However, whereas 68 percent of the deans surveyed in 2002 were in their first deanships, this figure had risen to 81 percent by 2007. Before assuming their first dean- ships, most deans establish strong publica- tion records. On average, respondents had published 1.7 books, 16.4 refereed journal articles, 13.3 refer- eed proceedings, and Fund Raising of Business School Deans (in 000's) Year Total 2005–06 2004–05 2003–04 $2,373 1,520 1,432 Male $2,538 1,547 1,329 Female $1,596 1,462 2,050 Respondents raised an average of nearly $2.4 million for their schools in the 2005–2006 school year, a 66 percent increase over 2003–2004. While men raised appreciably more money than women did in recent years, women were much stronger fund raisers than men during 2003–2004.