Resigning Women: Why Staff are Leaving Higher Education and How Institutions Can Retain Them
Document Type
Poster Presentation
Publication Date
4-17-2026
Keywords
fsc2026
Abstract
This poster is situated in a larger study on women staff in higher education. This excerpt uses a multi-level climate–turnover model to investigate why women staff consider leaving higher education. We treat “climate” as the everyday texture of organizational life—policies, practices, and interactions that signal who belongs and whose work is valued—and nest it across institutional, unit, and individual experience. Building on gendered-organization theory, we assume that many of these signals are not neutral: they reflect and reproduce masculine norms and faculty-first hierarchies that structure staff work and constrain mobility (Acker, 1990; Lewis & Humbert, 2010). To anchor the model in staff evidence, we draw on Mayhew, Grunwald, and Dey’s staff-focused climate research, which shows that perceptions of an inclusive department climate, visible institutional commitment to diversity, and everyday experiences with (or against) bias meaningfully shape how staff judge the overall climate for diversity. In particular, hearing disparaging, identity-based remarks depresses perceptions of a positive climate, while diversity-affirming messages in campus media lift them—patterns that help explain why climate is a plausible engine of exit (Mayhew et al., 2006).
Publication Information
Clark-Taylor, Angela, "Resigning Women: Why Staff are Leaving Higher Education and How Institutions Can Retain Them" (2026). Fisher Showcase 2026. Paper 219.
https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/fsc2026/219
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Comments
Poster presented at the 2026 Fisher Showcase, St. John Fisher University, April 17, 2026.