This article is based on conversations between a mother and daughter about academic leadership. Both authors served in different time periods and at different career points as heads of departments ("chairs") in Canadian universities. A literature review suggested that women's academic leadership is a contested topic, especially in…

This article looks at a small group of women in Canadian faculties of education who hold what I call "lower-middle management" positions and considers whether they are on the ladder to recognized academic leadership or are in a revolving-door situation that will take them back to the ranks from whence they came. These nine women are…

This article uses three frames of analysis, each with gendered implications, to interpret the author's narrative of experience as a department chair (head of department) in a Canadian university from 1999 to 2002. The narrative is based not only on memory but on transcripts of interviews conducted with the author at various points during her term…