Women, and especially women of color, are underrepresented in the ranks of full professors and top administrators. Yet alongside such inequalities, women are generally well represented as academic department chairs. In fact, a 2017 report suggests that, although the situation varies enormously across fields, more than half of department chairs are female. [...] The growing numbers of women who step into chair positions confront a mushrooming array of duties. Chair tasks have ballooned in response to elaborate and ever-changing administrative systems, reporting requirements and new institutional initiatives. [...]

Is it a mere coincidence that more women are becoming chairs at a time when the position is becoming more burdensome? Or does the concurrence of these trends implicate them in the reproduction of gender inequalities in higher education? Sociologists use the term “feminization” to describe the entry of women into jobs and employment sectors where they were not generally present before. As women enter them, the positions are reorganized and redefined. They become “women’s jobs”: lower in prestige, rewards and authority than those occupied by men with similar qualifications. Those positions also “feminize” to include more routine, housekeeping tasks and emotional labor—work that has a hidden quality and garners little in the way of recognition and rewards.