Shrinking the Gender Gap in School Administration

I am not a sexist.  I am not a chauvinist.  I am not a racist, an elitist, a fascist, or an ageist (I also am not a columnist, a pharmacist, a flutist, or any other kind of "ist.").  However, when I first saw the blog post titled "The Gender Shift" on the NAESP blog, I immediately thought "Here we go again.  Another study comparing men and women in education." 

This NAESP blog, called the Principal's Office, links the reader to a study completed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).  This study was titled "Characteristics of School Principals."  This study looked at many different characteristics of school principals, but the one I was most interested in was the increase in female principals in public elementary schools over the last 10 years. According to the study,

Between 1993–94 and 2003–04, the percentage of public school principals who were female increased from 41 to 56 percent in elementary schools and from 14 to 26 percent in secondary schools.

Hey, I have no problem with more women becoming principals (some of my best friends are women principals!).  Actually, I believe that it's about time!  Think about the composition of most, if not all of the elementary school teaching staffs.  They are mostly women.  In my school, we have three male teachers (about 8% of the teaching staff). I would venture to guess that most elementary schools have a similar ratio of women to men teachers.  Yet, only 56% of the elementary school principals are women. 

The historical lack of women in the principal's office does not surprise me.  Women have had to break the gender ceiling in just about every aspect of life including business, politics, academia, and sports. Have you ever read the famous Rules for Women Teachers: 1915? The first rule is "You will not marry during the term of the contract."   We have come a long way since 1915, but we still have a way to go. 

For those female teachers with families, being a full time mom and a full time teacher can become quite a juggling act. I would imagine that principal moms have an even harder time juggling all of the responsibilities of parenting and principaling. Again, this is not a sexist observation.  I merely am reflecting on what I perceive as a continuation of our society's double standard.  Women who work are expected to hold down two jobs (both mom and employee) while men have always been perceived as the wage earner or the financial supporter of the family.  How many stay-at-home dads do you know?

As gender roles in society become blurred, I am happy to see more women moving into the elementary school principalship.  I hope the trend continues, and I hope it spreads into secondary education and higher education as well. 

Comments

[Kimberly Moritz]

This was an interesting post Dave--as a female administrator, I enjoyed reading it. It's long been my opinion that my hard work and dedication would see me through, I've always thought of gender as a non-issue. I also have never encountered any barrier based on gender. I did have a female colleague tell me that we'd never see a female superintendent in this district. I remember thinking at the time that it was a ridiculous statement to make. If I want to look for a reason that I don't get a job, I suppose I could say it's because I'm a woman. It's much more likely that it's because of ME--who I am as an administrator, not that I'm a woman.