These are the inspiring and illuminating stories of women professors who first broke into the exclusive, all-male academic club of educational administration. Women of this pioneering generation tell how they overcame daunting challenges, traumas, the naivete of others, sexual harassment, and retaliation, as well as how they encountered unexpected kindness and support along the way. Their difficult paths, complex choices, and triumphs are revealed through the experiences of the first black woman professor in educational administration, a fight to the death for tenure, a genteel southerner's confrontation with the aloof North, and a brash northerner's survival of the cultural complexities of the South. These stories speak not simply to women, but to all trailblazers in the workplace, and to those still facing discrimination and relegated to outsider status.