Women who are leaders in education, in roles big and small, are treated, spoken to and viewed differently than their male colleagues, and that affects everything from their assignments and salaries to promotions.
The career transitions open to women aspiring to lead often lead them right up to a glass cliff — a leadership role with a high risk of failure. By failing to address this bias, states and districts are preventing the rise of their most talented current and future leaders.
New survey data and research shed light on the experiences and perspectives of women who face this bias and demonstrate the need for systemic change to address the biases that drive gender disparities.
The glass cliff for women is real, but it is not insurmountable. If more leaders — women, but especially men — take just a few steps forward, we can build a bridge to a future where all leaders can realize their full potential.
Here are some ways district and state leaders can transform the pipeline of talent that will drive and lead their systems.
First, women leaders in education need more active support with a shift from mentoring to sponsorship. This requires women and men to be actively involved in developing promising female leaders and all leaders at all stages who can benefit from coaching in the workplace.
These relationships can be game-changing, according to the results of our first annual Women Leading Ed study. And they provide a golden opportunity for men to become allies in promoting gender equality.
Related: Broaden your horizons: Our free bi-weekly newsletter features important voices on innovation in education.
For example, Kayla Johnson-Trammell, a schools principal in Oakland, recalled recently that when she first started, she had a male coach who acted as her sponsor, providing mentorship and introducing her to other experienced leaders.
“When I became the superintendent of Oakland Unified School District, one of our former superintendents called me and this man mentored me every Friday for two years,” Johnson-Trammell recalled. “He helped me and pushed me to be the leader I wanted to be as a Black woman. His sponsorship helped me open doors to connect with people and helped me make connections with other superintendents.”
Second, rebalancing evaluation, promotion, and hiring processes can be an important step in eliminating bias—that means creating diverse applicant pools and hiring committees, and providing bias training to those making key personnel decisions.
Seemingly small changes can have big effects: For example, a recent study in the Harvard Business Review found that having two female candidates on a final list instead of one makes a woman 79 times more likely to be hired.
More broadly, the existing education leadership pipeline continues to disadvantage women: According to U.S. Department of Education data, and supported by Women Leading Ed findings, women are primarily led into elementary school leadership and instructional leadership paths that remain lower down the ladder than top district and state jobs.
But men have been promoted to high school principalships and other school district positions, including finance and administrative roles, exactly the kind of experience prioritized in the superintendent selection process.
The Women Leading Ed survey findings highlight this disparity: Fewer than 20% of respondents with principal experience have worked in a high school. Overall, just over 1 in 20 respondents held a finance or operations role.
In one survey response, a former senior leader in a large urban school district succinctly described the skewed leadership pipeline: “I was told I was too small and would never be anything other than an elementary school principal.”
Third, increased family and well-being support is essential to the advancement of women leaders. This includes parental leave, childcare, caregiving time, and flexible work schedules.
Ascending into the district’s top leadership positions comes at costs to women that men typically do not incur.
Respondents to the Women-Led Education survey reported feeling pressured to go above and beyond expectations in their jobs to prove themselves: Survey data showed that a whopping 95 percent of female superintendents believe they have to make job sacrifices that their male colleagues would not.
Some women reported feeling pressured to maintain unrealistic expectations at work, working long hours that can lead to neglecting their families. Some women pointed to the additional responsibilities women take on in their personal lives, such as caring for children and parents, attending and running school events, helping with homework, and taking family members to doctors’ appointments.
Related: Opinion: We need more women in top leadership positions in our nation’s public schools
Increasing pressures at work and growing responsibilities at home lead to burnout: Nearly six in 10 survey respondents said they have considered quitting their current job due to stress and strain, and three-quarters said they think about quitting daily, weekly or monthly.
Offering quality employee benefits can be a key lever to address these underlying gender inequalities, as can flexible work schedules, hybrid working arrangements and remote work options that give workers flexibility in where and when work is done.
Finally, systems must be held accountable, not just individuals. Setting public targets for women’s leadership on boards and in senior management is a first step. Reporting progress towards these public targets is essential. And ensuring equal pay for equal work is key.
More than half of the superintendents surveyed said they had felt that gender had influenced the outcome of salary discussions or negotiations.
One solution is to conduct pay equity audits and increase transparency around compensation. Another is to include salary ranges in job ads. These can be strong steps towards the goal of pay equity.
More than 700 leaders signed Women Leading Ed’s open letter calling for the adoption of these strategies, which are already taking hold through the advocacy and action of women in education leadership and allies of all genders.
It’s a growing and important movement because research shows that women in leadership positions continue to face a different set of rules than men, and because too often districts give women token roles rather than reforming practices to actually achieve gender equality.
Now is the time for change.
Julia Rafal Barr is the founder and CEO. of Women Leading EducationShe is co-founder and CEO of ILO, a national non-profit network for women in education leadership, and co-founder and CEO of ILO Group, a women-owned education and policy strategy firm.
This story about a female education leader The Hechinger ReportA nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.. Apply Hechinger Newsletter.
