In universities are ruled by married people, the author discusses the fact that 89% of university presidents are married. She wonders if there is an unwritten expectation that presidents must be married in order to have this top level position. It’s an interesting thought. We probably all carry some assumptions about the sort of life a person must lead to be a university president. Is married part of the assumptions?
October 11th, 2009 at 6:17 am
I don’t know specifically about universities but there are a number of jobs, mostly those with a public face, where the expectation is that there is a spouse and that spouse assists in entertaining and otherwise being part of said public face.
This is why I don’t allow Jon to be in politics. I’d have to be nice to people.
October 11th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Well, it’s definitely a political position. What’s interesting is that much of the entertaining is of the university folks so it’s not necessarily external.
October 11th, 2009 at 7:53 am
From my 20 year experience in the Air Force, every squadron commander, group commander, and wing commander that I worked for was married. Given that these commanders change jobs every 18 to 24 months, it’s surprising that someone was was single-never married or single-divorced was never in a command position.
October 11th, 2009 at 8:59 am
That’s very striking, Steve. I think some of these jobs essentially require an unpaid spouse as part of the job description….
October 12th, 2009 at 7:08 am
The president’s wife is definitely its own job at the college where I work. (President has always been male during my time here… and I think ever.) I don’t know if she gets any pay, but they live on campus (kind of like the White House - there are public areas in the president’s house and then the private residence upstairs), and she gets a college email account.
Recognition of past presidents usually includes the wives, e.g. when a big donation was received recently in honor of the 1970s-era president and his wife.