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This paper represents a series of reflections on collective and individual efforts of diverse women scholars to reconcile alternative views of scholarship within the academy. We document our collective experience with embedding the concept of the "scholarship of engagement" in our practice of research, teaching, and service through a process of collaborative inquiry. In addition, we discuss individual efforts to challenge university colleagues and students (many of whom are teachers in training) to interrogate issues of social justice, diversity, and marginalization in their academic environments. Our experiences provide a critical examination of the supports needed for diverse women faculty who engage in critical dialogues that challenge traditional institutional structures while on the tenure path. THE SAW GROUPWe explore the experiences of a diverse group of six early career, tenure track, women scholars as they navigate tenure and promotion within the culture of academe. SAW (Six Academic Women) is a group that began in 2005 as a writing support group. We quickly came to realize that we were experiencing many of the same challenges and struggles as we worked to balance our careers and families. The group became a space where we could raise issues, share successes, vent anger, attain advice, feel camaraderie, disagree, and develop solutions and plans of action. As the group evolved, we saw the value in documenting our experiences in a systematic and more formal way to both inform our own decision-making and path-making and to help others to interrogate and critically examine the structures of the institution that were oftentimes barriers to our success as scholars. Here, we present the case for valuing approaches to scholarship that are supportive of women's passions, interests, and ways of understanding their work.

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