With more than three million views on YouTube, the speech had a significant impact, resonating with women and men around the world.
Politics continues to provide stark examples of the lack of progess on gender inclusivity and engaging the perspectives of women. For example, on March 23, 2017, in the White House, members of the House Freedom Caucus—all men—decided the fate of maternity coverage in health care plans (Terkel, 2017). The picture that Vice President Mike Pence tweeted of men sitting at a table discussing women’s health care was heavily shared online and became a meme.
At the same time, examples of positive progress for the voices of women in positions of power and influence are present as well. When it comes to female political power, the Queensland government in Australia is smashing the glass barriers. On February 13, 2017, the re-elected government was sworn in with fifty-fifty female-to-male representation and a significant number of women in senior ministerial roles (Caldwell, 2018). A news photo of the labor caucus stood out because of the even ratio and the inclusion of lawmakers of both genders holding their infants.
Reflect on these examples and how they create messages around power and voice. As educators, what messages will our students receive?
How many talented leaders do workplaces stymie because these biases and barriers continue to determine who “looks like” a leader? Our first reason for having more women in leadership focuses on recognizing and calling out these biases and barriers, because shining a light on hidden talent in all its diversity will find leaders who far more represent the world in which they live.
A Better Balance of What People Value in Education
Another practical reason that education needs more women in leadership involves an overemphasis in schools on certain priorities to the detriment of equally important priorities traditionally more connected with the feminine. Since the late 1990s, schools have emphasized academic achievement and standardized testing in reading and mathematics, leading to less emphasis on the arts, social studies, and physical education. Teacher accountability and evaluation systems have become commonplace. While these measures are meant to close achievement gaps among different student groups, U.S. schools saw no significant improvement for twelfth-grade high school students as a result of these measures between 2005 and 2015 (The Nation’s Report Card, 2018). And levels of teacher and student engagement and satisfaction decreased.
Students who report that they feel engaged at school will more likely do well and pursue postsecondary education. The Gallup (2016) Student Poll reports that about 74 percent of fifth graders in the United States find school engaging. However, 34 percent of twelfth graders feel engaged at school, compared with 40 percent in 2011. Further, 32 percent of twelfth graders are actively disengaged, meaning they are ten times more likely to get poor grades and have less hope about their future. Similar figures are noted in Australia, where engagement levels decrease as students become older (Subban, 2016). This has implications not only for progress but also for graduation rates and, ultimately, quality of life.
Unsurprisingly, disengagement remedies involve high levels of teacher efficacy together with high expectations for student progress, with a personalized, purposeful, whole-person approach to learning—all of which relate to whole-child initiatives such as social and emotional learning, working on adult team dynamics, and so on. These adhere more strongly to the traditionally feminine emphasis on relationships and soft skills rather than only academic outcomes.
Similarly, the growing masculine overemphasis on teacher accountability since 2005 or so correlates with a decrease in teacher engagement—and teachers cannot be at their best if they are not engaged in their work. The 2012 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher (Markow & Pieters, 2012) shows that the percentage of teachers satisfied with their jobs dropped from 59 percent in 2009 to 44 percent in 2011. The percentage of teachers planning to leave the profession increased from 17 percent to 29 percent. Further, only about 45 percent felt optimistic that student achievement levels would improve over five years. The results from the Nation’s Report Card (2018) bear out the teachers’ pessimism.
Estimates of attrition vary widely in Australia (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL], 2016). According to the Staff in Australia’s Schools 2013 survey (McKenzie et al., 2014):
5% of primary and 8% of secondary teachers indicated they intended to leave teaching permanently prior to retirement. These figures were slightly higher (7% and 11%) for early career teachers…. The two most important reasons for intended early departures were “workload too heavy” and “insufficient recognition and reward.”
While we will discuss this in depth in chapter 6 (page 99), the accountability measures that have dominated education policy since the late 1990s reflect the values associated with the masculine archetype—values such as being analytical, objective, and logical. These are strong, worthwhile values, but education remains incomplete without the equally worthwhile values that the feminine archetype encompasses, such as being empathetic, creative, and passionate.
Look at the following quotes from female leaders and educators, and consider how more women in power might bring more balance to how we are currently educating children.
The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running. Where it is lacking there are no real students, but only poor caricatures of apprentices who, at the end of their apprenticeship will not even have a trade (as cited in Weekes, 2007, p. 101).
—Simone Weil (1909–1943), French social philosopher and activist
It’s not what is poured into a student, but what is planted (as cited in Weekes, 2007, p. 101).
—Linda Conway, American media scholar
It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought—that is to be educated (as cited in Weekes, 2007, p. 99).
—Edith Hamilton (1867–1963), American educator, translator, and classics scholar
The world is talking about girls’ education and there is an impetus for change…. The shooting of Malala, the kidnapping of girls by Boko Haram, and the increased evidence of how transformative girls education is … Education is about a far more localized service…. It’s got to be sensitive to culture and context (as cited in Isaac, 2016).
—Julia Gillard, Australia’s first (and only) female prime minister
You might find equally inspiring quotes about educating the whole child from male individuals. We chose these to describe the essence of what more female voices might add, even though individuals of either gender might hold different values.
Thus, the critical points about how women might influence what is valued in education include the following.
• Education values are out of balance, putting at risk whether both teachers and students can engage wholeheartedly as learners.
• A focus on certain kinds of student achievement and testing correlates with a decline in student and teacher engagement, with no appreciable improvement in student achievement.
• This imbalance and the consequences came about while society emphasized traditionally masculine values of objectivity and measurability, perhaps in part because men were disproportionately represented in governmental
