With women now making up 57% of U.S. college students and the enrollment of women in law, business and medical schools climbing, its only fitting that women are playing increasingly critical rolls in education. Women are running universities, rethinking public education and lobbying for education reform—and many of them are balancing the extra responsibility that comes with motherhood on top of it.

So how did we choose workingmother.com’s Most Powerful Moms in Education? First, the women on this list are all major forces—university presidents, business school deans and Capitol Hill movers and shakers. They also have at least one child at home who is 18 years old or younger. The women on this list are also all from the US, with the exception of Hofstra School of Law dean Nora Demleitner who was born in Germany, but has spent her career stateside.

Meet our Most Powerful Moms in Education in pictures

Many of the women on this list accomplished a first for women in education. Dr. Susan Hockfield, the current President of MIT, is the first woman in the university’s history to hold the position. Dr. Cammy Abernathy, dean of the University of Florida’s Engineering School, was named the first woman to hold the position in the school’s history. Dr. Nancy Andrews ranks as the first woman dean of Duke University’s School of Medicine. And Dr. Alison Davis-Blake holds the title of first woman dean of Carlson’s School of Management. These women have broken barriers for the next generation of women educational leaders coming up the ranks.

One of the best bi-products of the increasing role that women are playing in education is that they are leading the charge to recruit women into higher education and acting as mentors. Barnard President Dr. Debora Spar has made a point of mentoring women throughout her career--believing that the playing field is still not even for women. She says, “Women in our generation grew up thinking that all of our problems had been solved. While some barriers have come down, that does not mean all the problems are solved. The barriers that remain are more subtle.” When Spar was appointed President of Barnard at Columbia University in 2008, many Barnard Trustees pointed to Spar’s reputation as a great mentor of women for helping them to decide she was the right person for the job.

Spar is not alone in her crusade to help women. Abernathy, who heads the engineering school at the University of Florida, has made it a mission to recruit and support women in a field that is notoriously male. When Andrews began her tenure at Duke Medical School she prioritized supporting women faculty. “I hope that it will help to have more women leaders who not only understand what the issues are for young female faculty, but are also in a position to do something about them," Andrews says.

Besides the women who are at the helm of colleges and graduate schools, several women on this list are impacting education reform. Jeanne Allen, a mother of four, founded the Center for Education Reform and is working to promote the ability of parents to choose where their children attend school. Dr. Eva Moskowitz, who founded the Harlem Success Academy, has begun to rethink the structure of public schools—instituting longer school days and requiring strict uniforms at her four charter schools.

Sarah Brown Wessling, an English teacher from Johnston, Iowa, is the mother of three, including a toddler. She has been named national “Teacher of the Year” for 2010 and travels the country for speaking engagements, suggesting that students need better teachers across the board and questioning the current focus on testing. "I remember the teacher who made a difference to me," Wessling says. "And it reminds me how important it is to have that person in the classroom."