As this month’s cover story illustrates, women in psychology—and many other fields—continue to lack equity with their male colleagues. One way APA is working to address this challenge is through the association’s highly regarded Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology. Since 2008, the institute has worked to prepare, support and empower midcareer women psychologists as leaders. The institute meets twice a year, offering training in management, negotiation, fiscal issues, working with difficult people, balancing work-family life and more—all subjects that psychologists tell us they are eager to learn more about. So far, 350 women have participated in the institute—but its impact is multiplying. Armed with these leadership skills and greater confidence, the women who graduate from the institute go on to achieve positive changes in institutional, organizational and practice settings, as well as in APA governance. In addition, the institute benefits our association by bringing in fresh ideas from a new generation.
And the experience is life changing for participants. As Kate Richmond, PhD, associate professor of psychology and director of women & gender studies at Muhlenberg College told us, “The institute helped me clarify my goals so that my decision to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ comes from values versus a sense of duty or obligation. I also learned some of the more nuanced ways to push back on problematic gendered work expectations.”
Inspired by the success of the institute and the demand for more programs like it, we have now launched APA’s Emerging Leaders in Psychology Academy, an online program of interactive webinar courses designed to give all psychologists at every career stage the skills they need to successfully take on leadership roles.
Supporting programs like the institute and the academy is one of the best investments APA can make in the field’s future because such efforts prepare leaders who can apply psychological knowledge to real-world challenges and raise psychology’s visibility in every domain where psychologists operate, from health-care settings to schools to cities and even on the international stage.
To learn more about APA’s Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology, visit www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/leadership . For more information on APA’s Emerging Leaders in Psychology Academy, visit https://pages.apa.org/emerging-leaders .
