Acting President Beverley Pitts said she wishes people would not make a big deal of women in leadership positions.
Doing so makes it sound like women leaders are unusual, Pitts said.
Unfortunately, in Indiana, they are unusual.
After the Board of Trustees named Jo Ann Gora as the new president, Ball State became the first university in Indiana, out of more than 30, to have a female president. It would be wonderful if the state and the country were at a place where a female university president was nothing out of the ordinary. Until that day, though, people need to keep working toward, and talking about, equality.
Working toward equality does not mean that women should be hired simply because of their sex. No one believes that the board chose Gora because of her gender. She is more than qualified for the job.
Nor does anyone blame Blaine Brownell for having gender in mind when he recommended Pitts for the job of provost. She has shown her leadership abilities not only as provost but as acting president, dealing with the death of student Karl Harford, a lawsuit against the university for the death of student Michael McKinney and an angry University Senate and student body over how the presidential search was conducted.
However, that does not mean female leaders should not be proud of what they have accomplished for their gender. Other women are proud of people like Gora and Pitts. People have struggled for decades so that women can reach leadership positions. Gora being hired as president is a good step in reaching equality.
But there are still more steps to take.
Only when women really do fill a balanced portion of leadership positions will people stop making a big deal about a woman being hired as Ball State's president. Until then, people can't act like the inequality doesn't exist.
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