Communicative Understandings of Women's Leadership Development

"Ruminski and Holba have crafted a new look at women and leadership, explaining that the lack of gender equality stems from multiple causes necessitating the metaphor of a labyrinth rather than a glass ceiling. The editors and authors strike neither a falsely positive view of changes in women's leadership roles, nor do they decry and disparage the success that has occurred. In short, this reader provides new information and new ways of viewing known realities. This volume would be highly useful for college classes on communication, leadership, and women's studies."-Judy Pearson, North Dakota State University "An excellent compilation of essays that provide historical perspective, theoretical guidance, and practical experience to help navigate and shape labyrinths within higher education and to prepare students for leadership in labyrinths of the marketplace."-Pat Arneson, Duquesne University "This is a smart and thoughtful collection, taking us well beyond cliches of glass ceilings into more textured understandings of women in leadership as navigating a labyrinth, a complex and demanding series of choices that require creative negotiation. This work informs us of the progressive move from agentic to collective, collaborative discourse models. Ruminski and Holba remind the reader that demanding issues within the labyrinth are not merely isolated decisions to be engaged and forgotten, but rather are creative points of departure for new and genuinely exciting personal, organizational, and professional possibilities of leadership."-Ronald C. Arnett, Duquesne University

Communicative Understandings of Women's Leadership Development: From Ceilings of Glass to Labyrinth Paths, edited by Elesha L. Ruminski and Annette M. Holba, intertwines the disciplines of communication studies, leadership studies, and women's studies to offer theoretical and practical reflection about women's leadership development in academic, organizational, and political contexts. Women's leadership development exists at the intersection of consciousness-raising, communication competence, and education to increase one's knowledge and practice of "leadership," which makes the weaving together of these three disciplines important. Thus, Communicative Understandings of Women's Leadership Development claims a space for women's leadership studies and acknowledges the paradigmatic shift from discussing women's leadership using the glass ceiling phenomenon to what Eagly and Carli (2007) identify as the labyrinth of leadership. Recognizing this metaphoric shift is crucial because many women now develop leadership amid the postmodern flux of organizational change; hierarchical, top-down systems are being eroded in lieu of transformational, collaborative, even improvisational leadership processes. Women's leadership studies is emerging as a fruitful interdisciplinary area that reframes the debate about whether we live, work, and learn within a third-wave feminist or post-feminist context. While this area might include feminist theorizing, it also might not emphasize such epistemologies. For this reason, Ruminski and Holba's edited collection explores and highlights a variety of feminist and non-feminist intersections, and is thus an important and timely contribution to both marking where we are with women's leadership development in higher education and how women can further develop themselves as leaders.