Gifted adolescent boys and girls have similar professional aspirations, yet they live in a world where women are not making it to the top of any profession anywhere in the world. Through the voices of successful gifted female adults, this session identifies the challenges they faced as they climbed to leadership roles within the fields of academe, industry, and politics. The goals of this session are to provide information and strategies to help gifted middle school girls maintain their trajectory toward high levels of achievement and to help gifted boys identify talent among their peers regardless of gender or race.

1. Leading
From
Behind
Angela Housand, Ph.D.
@HousandA

2. Provost of a Regional University
Director of a Prestigious Center
Associate Dean of a College

3. Contractor / Business Owner
Architect / Operations Manager

5. 18%
C-Suite
White Women

9. 3%
C-Suite
Women of Color

10. Associate Dean of a College
I’ve been given opportunities because I
worked for institutions that realized
they needed to do a little better with
women, and for people of color.

11. Associate Dean of a College
…if we as women or people of color are
at the table, we can try to work to effect
change, despite how we got there.

12. 22.8%
77.2%
National
Parliamentarians

15. Provost of a Regional University
I’ve never worked for a female
chancellor or president —
been all men.

16. 35.0%
65.0%
Ph.D.
Economics &
Philosophy

17. 20.0%
80.0%
Ph.D.
Physics &
Computer Science

18. Image: NASA
11%
89%

19. Image: NASA

21. Provost of a Regional University
I was the oldest of four, two girls and
then two boys. People would say,
“Well, what do you want to be, a
teacher or a nurse?”

22. Contractor / Business Owner
A job doesn’t have to have a sex that
goes with it. It has to have abilities. If
we could just educate people that way.
A job is abilities, not sex.

24. WORK

26. Architect / Operations Manager
…my work consumes me Monday-Friday.

27. Director of a Prestigious Center
…I have a high need for productivity
and for making progress.

28. GREATER GOOD

29. Director of a Prestigious Center
…what all leaders are trying to do, I think,
is to shape their environment in ways they
believe…is best for that field or for the
people who are that community.

30. Contractor / Business Owner
But it is amazing how you do, really
basically for others, and blessings just
come back, tenfold.

31. Architect / Operations Manager
I really like to try to be involved in a lot
of things that are going to affect the
environment in which we live. I try to
make [this city] the best place for us and
for everyone who lives here.

33. Director of a Prestigious Center
Do what you find interesting, and do
what makes you curious to learn .…
And do what makes you happy.

35. Associate Dean of a College
Being able to hang onto who I am no
matter where I am has been something
that I am always aware of.

38. Director of a Prestigious Center
You can do whatever you want if you
put your mind to it.

39. Director of a Prestigious Center
You don’t really have to please anybody
in this world except the person that
you’re looking at that looks back at you
in the mirror.

41. You can’t
have it all…

42. Director of a Prestigious Center
Nobody has everything.They have to
make choices and compromises…
everybody does, everybody does.

43. Architect / Operations Manager
I think it’s just really important for
women in leadership, in particular, to
talk about what their struggles are…

44. Architect / Operations Manager
We all have to realize that we’re all
trying to figure out the balance every
day and we are not always successful…

46. Architect / Operations Manager
I’m lucky I have a husband who does,
I’d say, 90% of everything during the
week…

47. Architect / Operations Manager
…I don’t know how women who have
uninvolved husbands or husbands who
don’t take on those fatherhood roles…I
have no idea how they do anything.
Honestly.

48. CONNECT

49. Provost
Associate Dean
Director
Contractor
Architect

50. Architect / Operations Manager

52. Associate Dean of a College
I join things and I don’t necessarily have a group I’m
doing it with. I don’t have a support network…
I can go and I can try something new and I don’t
need all my friends there with me…
So stick out a little sooner.That’s what I would say.

56. 12-14YEARS OLD

57. CONFIDENCE

58. Architect / Operations Manager
Have confidence in yourself, don’t be afraid
to try something and fail at it because
everyone fails at something…just don’t let
the fear stop you from trying new things.

59. Architect / Operations Manager
You might not be the best.You might
not be the smartest… but that’s okay
you just need to go out there and try…

60. Associate Dean of a College
Don’t be so shy. I was painfully shy when I
was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. I
wanted to do so much but I didn’t always
take advantage of opportunities.

62. Representation in Media & Politics
Access to Quality Education
Climate Change
Body Positivity
Wage Gap

65. 0.83

66. 2119

67. Contractor / Business Owner
And I’ve always tried to be helpful to the
other women who are there, and help bring
them along if they ever wanted anything.

68. Provost of a Regional University
I like mentoring a lot if I think that the
mentoring actually does—and I have
evidence that it does—allow people to
move forward, particularly women…

69. Director of a Prestigious Center
I was very determined to mentor young
reviewers and young researchers into the
quarterly because I thought that was
extraordinarily important and not always easy.

70. makers.com

71. If you set out to be
liked, you would be
prepared to
compromise on
anything at any time,
and you would
achieve nothing.
- Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

72. LET IT GO.

73. Contractor / Business Owner
I have probably lost jobs because I’m a
woman. Other times, I’ve gotten them
because I’m a woman.

74. Architect / Operations Manager
I don’t let those things bother me…
If I let it bother me, it would bother me all
the time. So it’s just not worth it. I kind of
have to pick and choose the things I’m
going to get upset about.

77. Architect / Operations Manager
I wish I had known earlier that it’s okay to
try something and fail at it or not know that
you’re going to succeed at something.

78. It is impossible to live
without failing at something,
unless you live so cautiously
that you might as well
not have lived at all.
In which case,
you fail by default.
J.K. Rowling

81. 20 Minutes

83. Director of a Prestigious Center
…the world is a great and wonderful place, and if
you’re curious, and you are willing to think and plan
and work at it, you can try your hand at virtually
everything. Now that doesn’t tell a child that they’re
going to succeed at everything, but that tells them
they can give it a shot… give it a try.

84. Contractor / Business Owner

85. Contractor / Business Owner
Life is not fair, equal, or just. But if you can
accept those things and still work to rise
above it, not give in, I think that’s the
important thing.You have to rise above
those things.

88. Associate Dean of a College
…the social media infused world that we
live in, does not make you who you are.
So, you don’t need the likes, and the
loves, constantly, to be liked or loved.

89. Associate Dean of a College
I see so many middle school young
people that are beautiful and intelligent,
but they are dependent on this random
click of a button to reinforce who they are.

92. Nothing in life
is to be feared.
It is only to be
understood.
-Marie Curie (1867-1934)

94. Categories of Risk
Intellectual
Social
Emotional
Physical
Spiritual
(Neihart, 1999)

95. Director of a Prestigious Center
You have to realize that you should be
rather fearless about envisioning your
future. Why not? Why not be fearless
about envisioning your future?

97. Provost of a Regional University
…maybe when we say we as women
are held back, I’m not sure that we
don’t contribute to that. I guess that’s
what I’m saying. We may contribute
because of what we value…

105. Not all of us can
do great things.
But we can do
small things
with great love.

106. @HousandA
angelahousand.com