Chapter 10 Hispanic Women Administrators: Self-Efficacy Factors that Influence Barriers to their Success

In this second decade of the 21st century, Hispanic women in academia continue to lag behind their White counterparts; namely, U.S. Department of Education 2003 data revealed that 1.8% Hispanic women occupied administrative or executive posts at doctoral research universities in comparison with 3.7% of White women (Evans & Chun, 2007). Undoubtedly, Hispanic women administrators in higher education represent the faces of gender and ethnicity and, above all, they are instrumental in facilitating career paths for present and future generations of Hispanic students. Toward this end, this review of literature will provide a framework for the discussion of women's leadership practices and administrative roles, in relation to a number of salient factors, which include Hispanics as a group and prevailing ideologies surrounding this ethnic group; differences among the various Hispanic groups including trajectory and language; self-efficacy as a construct and its relationship to ethnicity and culture; women and the hidden curriculum phenomenon; Discourse theory and sociocultural mechanisms.