Skip to main content

Episode 23: The Curious Case of Gender in Educational Leadership


 In the midst of our wider, cultural conversation about women, and power, and leadership, and power, let us pause for a moment to consider the quite curious case of gender in education.

Of course, education is an historically female driven profession - for much of the last century it was, in fact, one of the few jobs a woman could even realistically perform. That history continues to influence our profession today. 76% of classroom teachers remain women. 

As women slowly take on larger and larger roles in industries all over this country, education sits as an - actually rather large - island. An experiment if you will, of sorts - an enormous, functioning machine -  a bureaucracy, a power structure - inhabited almost exclusively by women. 

The lazy among us often joke how the world would be different, how much better it would be, if it could be run by women. 

Well, education gives us a glimpse into what that world might actually be like.  

And apparently we'd just give control over to the men?

The gender inequity that exists in all other power structures in this country, continues in education. A mere 13% of superintendents are women, and surprise, they're paid demonstrably less than male superintendents, and hardly half of our administration are female. 

The statistics are hardly worse than the rest of the country, true, but ... isn't it just somehow even more appalling in 2018? This World War 1 factory floor filled with female workers, while the men look down hardly seems aspirational.

But what, exactly, is perpetuating this inequity? 

In our podcast here we discuss societal messages to women leaders - Lean In, ask for a seat at the table, be assertive - and how those messages, and those leadership behaviors, may be keeping you from succeeding, in, not only a female-dominated workforce, but with male leaders used to a female dominated workforce.

Listen to the podcast here or find us on iTunes and subscribe.

If you're a teacher, a teacher-leader, or an aspiring teacher-leader, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Discussed in depth is Adam Grant's book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. His TED talk on Givers and Takers will get you thinking. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Texas Holds Students With Disabilities to a Higher Standard on State Exams

Let’s just call it like it is. 2016-2017 was not a great year for student assessment in Texas. Between the scandal of mis-graded STAAR tests, graders hired for peanuts on Craigslist, and large numbers of parents and students conscientiously objecting to even taking part in our state’s annual testing rituals, many Texans have been left wondering where, exactly, IS the accountability in our state accountability system.    But if there is one person who is keenly aware of where the accountability is, it’s the high school senior who’s taking a STAAR End of Course test. That senior needs to pass that test in order to graduate in that same month. That student is painfully aware that the STAAR test doesn’t care where he grew up, or who her parents are, or whether he is dyslexic or learning disabled or gifted and talented. Regardless of what challenges she faced or what advantages he received, everyone all sits down and takes the exact same test. That’s what TEA promises. All stude...
1 comment
Read more

Episode 24: Why do you STAY a teacher?

All of us have been asked the question at one point or another. What made you decide to become a teacher? You've been asked it in job interviews, where the right answer seemed critical. You've been asked it by incredulous family members, where the right answer seemed impossible. You've been asked it by students, where the right answer seemed loaded. We've all got our response memorized. Whether that response reflects your deeply felt, inspirational path into the classroom, the safe-for-work, sanitized version of your winding road towards respectability, or is simply a rehearsed tale that carefully avoids saying "I don't know why I do half the things I do." I don't know about you, but I'm bored by my story. It's not particularly inspirational, and, frankly, it's not particularly interesting. You want to see into a teacher's soul? Don't ask us why we started. Ask us why we  stay .  Why do we stay in a career that...
3 comments
Read more

Blog Post: Why do you stay?

I don’t make sweeping generalizations because they are always wrong, but if you are a teacher, people have wondered why you actually do that. The curiosity about WHY on EARTH you would choose this profession is so deep-seated that we even ask it of each other in job interviews. I mean think about that for a second. Can you imagine at NASA: “So Christina, why did you decide to become an astronaut?” Sitting before the medical review board: “What motivated you to become a neurosurgeon?” I guess I don’t really know – perhaps they do ask that sort of question, but it just feels kind of unlikely. My husband’s an electrical engineer who works on fighter planes, and I promise you he has never had to justify to anyone why he chose THAT particular career path. Yet I have justified my career path to everyone from job interviews to grant applications to friends at cocktail parties, and every single time everyone’s left feeling unsatisfied. I can feel them want...
Post a Comment
Read more