Feminist Fairy God Mother Blesses Colleges and Universities with Female Presidents

From the Associated Press:

It is the question on everyone’s lips in philanthropy: Who is the mysterious donor giving away millions of dollars to at least a dozen universities nationwide?
A circle of successful businesswomen? A publicity-shy billionaire? Oprah?
What is so unusual is that not even the universities know the answer. But the parlor game is afoot, with only one real clue: So far, all the universities are led by women.
Coincidence? Unlikely. Women lead about 23 percent of U.S. colleges. The odds of a dozen randomly selected institutions all having female leaders are 1 in 50 million.

The article goes on to postulate about the motivation of this woman or group of women donors. Essentially, it seems, someone wants to support female leaders in the academy. After years of a leadership imbalance, women college presidents are slowly moving toward parity and it looks like someone wants to continue to see that happen (college presidents, in part, are judged based on their capacity to bring in money to the school and innovate and develop new programs, all of which requires the benjamins.)
But everyone seems flummoxed about why this donor or group of donors wants to stay cloaked in mystery. Why make us connect the dots with regard to motivation? If this donor or donors really want female college presidents to thrive, why not be out and proud about that desire so other women could contribute resources in that direction? It seems to me that we need more visible female philanthropists, not less.
Thanks to Molly May for the heads up.
Check out community blogger juliap for another perspective.

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