Education Lead(h)ership: Advancing Women in K–12 Administration

An incisive account on the underrepresentation of women, especially women of color, in positions of leadership in K-12 schools and how to correct this bias.

Education Lead(her)ship exposes the systemic obstacles that impede the professional advancement of women in K-12 education and offers readers the tools to recognize and combat these inequities. In this rousing work, educational leadership scholars Jennie Weiner and Monica Higgins investigate patterns of gender bias in the profession, prompted by the observation that, although the great majority of classroom educators are women, disproportionately few women inhabit leadership positions such as principal, superintendent, or school administrator.

Through candid interviews with more than 200 women educational leaders, Weiner and Higgins pinpoint implicit and explicit means of repression and highlight the resources that these leaders have marshaled to punch through systemic barriers. The interviewees recount the many forms of sexism and racism they have confronted in the workplace, including microaggressions, stereotypes about women's work, and the expectation of uncompensated emotional labor.

Taking aim at the widespread gender and racial discrimination in school systems, Weiner and Higgins identify paths to empowerment for women in education. They advocate solidarity, collective action, and leveraging networks of allies to push for the re-engineering of our educational organizations, environments, and cultures to sow a more balanced and equitable leadership landscape.