During the 1990s, the status of women faculty in higher education was the subject of numerous progress reports. Given the abundance of data available in these reports and articles on women faculty at colleges and universities, a study explored the issues, using another method of investigation--narratives. Six accomplished "resilient" women in the communication discipline, all full college or university professors, were identified and asked to share one or two stories that described critical milestones or markers illustrative of how they survived, if not thrived, in their careers. Themes running through these accounts which can be identified include the necessity of being far above average in competence, discipline, effort, energy, confidence, savvy, rectitude, creativity, and fortitude to survive in academia. Several of the women were afforded the support of a male mentor, and several reported skills in political and organizational power. All of the women hewed unconventional career paths mostly using convention. Resilience perhaps should be defined not only as strength of character--many of the women reported having to recover and rebound from devastating setbacks. (CR)