Advancing Women in Leadership

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is the only federal agency with a legislative mandate (Public Law 93-415) to provide specialized services to corrections from a national perspective. NIC provides direct service as the primary means of carrying out its mission and responds directly to needs identified by practitioners working in state and local adult corrections, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, other federal agencies, and the United States Congress. As a center of learning innovation that shapes and advances effective correctional practice and public policy

One of the barriers to advancement for women has been their perception of their abilities as leaders.

"Because of the female social conditioning, women may need more support and encouragement to achieve leadership." (Harriman, 1986, p.168) Women in middle management, often operating in gender isolation, need to be trained sooner and in greater numbers. This program accepts a minimum of eight participants from each state, immediately providing a new support network within the states. By adjoining states cooperating together, the net of support, relationship and a stronger workforce pool is widened. To date, over twenty-five Directors/Commissioners have recognized the value and impact of this training by their applications for participation.

As the number of women entering the workforce increases, organizations in the private and public sectors recognize the need to develop training specifically designed to enhance their capabilities to achieve middle and upper management level positions. Thus, this program supplies the leadership theories, and the leadership assessment tools, followed by numerous learning tasks and activities, structured to use enhance supervisory and leadership abilities. NIC, recognizing that these are our constituents, has taken the much -needed steps to fill the training gap needed to support women having to operate under conventional male-oriented standards.