need the best women and the best men in leadership because the impact that school leadership has on student outcomes is second only to that of teaching (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). Schools don’t become high performing in the absence of great leadership. Thus, schools need all the great leaders they can get—yet, in a female-dominated workforce, women remain underrepresented in senior educational leadership positions.
At the heart of our why for writing this book, we dream that the gender of those embarking on the school leadership journey will someday no longer influence their willingness or success—ultimately, a world where gender has no influence on whether students aspire to become educators, education leaders, or leaders in any other field. But we simply aren’t there yet. Unconscious bias and the demands of balancing career with other commitments still prevent many women from achieving their leadership potential. In this book, we will delve into the barriers women face in the leadership journey through the ways in which they position themselves as leaders, how limiting notions of gender affect ambition and expectations, how others see women, and how women see themselves.
We need women in educational leadership with power to bring what people have historically seen as feminine wisdom to the world of education, where policies and practices have long stayed within the domain of men. We do not mean to suggest that the masculine approach is somehow wrong, but rather, that it remains incomplete without feminine wisdom contributing to more complex, nuanced, and holistic definitions of power and leadership.
We have both personally experienced gender bias. However, as we’ve listened to other women, gathered stories, and facilitated discussions around barriers that affect women who aspire to influence and lead others toward needed change, we’ve realized that we as white women face challenges that are the final, not the first, hurdle for many.
Imagine being an attorney of African American heritage who also holds a doctorate. You walk up to a registration table at a continuing education event for lawyers. The registrar barely glances at your business attire and says, “This is where the attendees check in, not the service staff, honey.” This happened to one of Jane’s colleagues, who told her, “I don’t ever get to the sexism barrier, because the racism barrier still looms too large.”
If you move in diverse circles, you’ve no doubt heard too many of these stories. We wish to acknowledge that other women face multiple barriers besides gender: racial prejudices, sexual orientation prejudices, religious prejudices, and mental health stigmas, to name just a few. We also want to acknowledge that these barriers cause pain and problems beyond those that women generally face on the path to impactful leadership.
The scope of this book simply cannot do justice to describing and supporting women in overcoming all these other barriers. As societies struggle to acknowledge—let alone confront and remedy—these prejudices, we hope that you can gain some wisdom from the school leadership journey as we describe it from a gender perspective.
The How of This Book
So, what do we want for you? As you read this book and interact with the suggested exercises and reflection activities, we want you to unleash your potential. We have included stories from our experiences and from other women—vivid accounts of their lived experiences and lessons, which they willingly shared with us with the hope of inspiring you to step into leadership. These stories, together with quotes from other successful women outside education, highlight the interconnectedness of our challenges and experiences as women and how we tacitly support, motivate, and empower each other no matter where we are. For this, we give them our heartfelt thanks.
We hope that through our research and observations on leadership, gender, and education, you’ll find guidance for reflecting on your leadership identity—and, as a result, acknowledge and energize your strengths, gifts, and talents to step up as the leader you want to be.
We also hope this book will help you embrace pursuing leadership as a way to gain power to. No doubt women are more than their gender, but gender affects the way many women view leadership opportunities (Wise, 2018). Through the generous contributions of courageous, brilliant, wise, wonderful, and capable women who have successfully transitioned to leadership, you will see that while the road is paved with highs and lows, these ups and downs are part of life. You can make your identity as a leader all-encompassing, not separate from but aligned with who you are as a woman, how you live, what you find important, and the way you engage in opportunities to grow, learn, and lead.
Chapter Overview
Each chapter begins with guiding questions. We hope that you will take a moment to reflect on these questions before delving into the content. What do you already know about the topic? What messages have you heard? What thoughts do the questions bring to mind? Think of these guiding questions as a way to frame the ideas in each chapter. For example, consider the following questions to guide your thinking about these introductory pages.
GUIDING QUESTIONS
• Why focus on women in leadership?
• How might you benefit from leadership programs designed specifically for women?
• How do perceptions of power and position affect women as they contemplate becoming school leaders?
In chapters 1 and 2, we will explore what we know about women in leadership and what keeps them from becoming leaders with power to. These chapters provide context for the heart of our why—the research, statistics, and moral imperatives that point to why we need more women in educational leadership. In the chapters that follow, perhaps you’ll find inspiration for stepping into leadership. And, you might find the answers you need when others ask, “Can’t we set gender aside and just seek the best leaders?”
Chapter 3 guides you in finding time to undertake this important leadership journey, and in chapter 4, you’ll realize why the leadership journey could have value for you. In chapters 5–8, you will examine your strengths, skills, and beliefs, identifying how to use them to become the leader you wish to be. Chapters 9–11 provide grounding in communicating as a female leader, having hard conversations, proactively seeking out opportunities for inspiration and support, and helping other women develop these crucial ways of leading. Finally, in chapter 12, you’ll pull it all together in a plan for continuing this journey. The end of every chapter offers a Step in for Further Reflection section. You may use these activities to reflect on the ideas, strategies, and concepts presented in each chapter.
This isn’t a book on instructional leadership skills, although working with the practical tools in chapters 3–10 may improve your capacity to foster teachers’ professional growth. It also isn’t a book on improving visioning or strategizing or using data to inform decisions—although you may gain new understandings of your strengths and challenges and what to do about them regarding these leadership responsibilities. Instead, these pages are about your own development into the wisest leader you can be, embracing the unique contributions that the feminine brings to personal leadership development
