Women Gain Clout Amid UCI Gender Debate : Vice chancellor, one of 11 women in prominent positions at the university, calls criticisms of medical school legitimate, but they need to be taken in context.

IRVINE — Controversy captures headlines and UC Irvine has made front-page news lately over alleged sexual inequities at its College of Medicine.

But supporters of the university say there is another gender-related story that hasn’t received much publicity. Eleven women are now in positions of prominence at UCI--including two vice chancellors, the dean of biological sciences, the director of the medical center and the campus police chief. Half have moved into those spots in the past three years.

And most recently, UCI selected a female chancellor, second in the nine-campus University of California system. Laurel L. Wilkening, an expert on planetary science from the University of Washington, begins in July. Currently, Barbara S. Uehling of UC Santa Barbara is the system’s only woman chancellor.

“There is a nice sense of collegiality among the women managers” at UCI, said Kathleen Jones, 51, vice chancellor in charge of private fund-raising.

When she was selected for the job 22 months ago, Jones was UCI’s first female vice chancellor. And she was the first woman in the entire University of California system to head a school’s private fund-raising effort--contacting corporations, foundations and individuals, who provide about 4% of the university budget each year.

The increasing number of women officials at UCI “is notable,” Jones said, “because of the Rule of Three. If you have three or more female faces around a table, the management and interaction style starts to change.

“I think women and men bring different strengths to management. Women are aggressive problem-solvers, cutting to the heart of a matter. What I’ve learned from men is assertiveness. Also, men don’t second-guess themselves as many times as women do.”

She calls the criticisms leveled against the medical school “legitimate. But they need to be taken in the context of other medical schools.” A study conducted by a task force on the status of women at UCI’s California College of Medicine found that women are seriously underrepresented among the ranks of physicians at the school, that they receive less pay on average and they are less likely to be promoted to tenured positions.

The study said women made up 10% of the medical college faculty in the fall of 1991, the same percentage as in 1981.

One of the medical school faculty members who is leading the push to improve conditions for women, Dr. Phyllis Agran, said she is pleased about the number of visible women leaders at the school. Agran, who is married to former presidential candidate Larry Agran, said, however, “that doesn’t resolve the problem at the College of Medicine.”

Jones’ road to becoming a vice chancellor was a winding one. “I was following my nose,” she said, “which is the way I recommend people develop careers.”

Jones graduated from Stanford University in 1963 with a degree in French. Soon after that, she said, she and her husband taught in Egypt.

She returned to California and took a job at UCI as a technical illustrator. She moved up in her department to become director of the university’s publications. After three years, she left the school: “I realized that I didn’t know what my next step was.”

Jones spent the next five years self-employed, doing a number of odd jobs, including public relations, graphics, silk-screening and advertising.

After all that, Jones said she realized that what she did best was to create an environment where other people could feel successful. “As shapeless as that was,” she said, “I realized that that’s what I wanted to do next.”

She was accepted for a management fellowship at UCI and returned to the school in September, 1981.

About the same time, the man who preceded her as vice chancellor began searching for two subordinates: one to head up fund-raising and the other to publicize the university’s research.

Jones offered to fill the publicity job on an interim basis while the search continued for a permanent hire. He eventually chose Jones as assistant vice chancellor of communications. Seven years and one promotion later, she moved into the boss’s job.

As vice chancellor, her early goals were to raise money and make sure the faculty have a voice in university operations. Last year, private fund-raising dipped 10% to $21.9 million, Jones said, which she is nonetheless proud of in light of the difficult economy.

A goal for the coming months is to engage Orange County’s minority communities in the life of the university. Jones said there are potential contributors among Orange County’s Asian and African-American business people. “Leadership is a willingness to encourage and absorb input, even critical input,” Jones said. “I don’t think you can be a leader unless you are willing to lay your cards on the table.”