Rules of engagement: Navigating gender in the superintendency

Linda Marie Boggs

doi:10.7273/000005800

Women in our nation continue to be underrepresented in the role of public school superintendent and there is little extant research about the women who ultimately do become superintendents. Further, there is scant research exploring the role gender plays as both men and women pursue the superintendency. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lives and experiences of four men and four women superintendents to address the issue of gender in the superintendency. Specifically, men's and women's experiences were compared to investigate how gender is negotiated in the journey to the superintendency. This study also sought to expand research by Riehl and Byrd (1997), which focused on career mobility as a construct for understanding what factors may inhibit or support the career path in educational leadership. Analysis of the data yielded two general topic areas: 1) factors related to the professional journey; and, 2) factors related to navigating gender in the superintendency. Further analysis exposed three major themes. First, this study identified communication as a strategy employed by participants to navigate perceived or anticipated gendered experiences. Miscommunication, and the negative experiences which result, were often found to be the catalyst that illuminated gender as a factor in the day-to-day experiences of these superintendents and contributed to communication problems. Second, the data suggest that although the men and women acknowledged gendered experiences, sexism, and discrimination in their day-to-day lives, intriguingly, this realization did not influence or shape the advice they offered to men and women who aspired to be superintendents. Women superintendents failed to provide insight or advice, based on their often negative gendered experiences, to aspiring women superintendents. And, finally, this study indicates that parents' careers influenced the participants' own career paths. However, this phenomenon was not directly identified by the participants' themselves and only emerged through data analysis. The parent's influence differed between the men and the women in the study - the men's fathers had positions in educational leadership, including the superintendency, while the women were encouraged or allowed to pursue higher education, but not with the same vigor or role modeling as their male peers.

Rules of engagement: Navigating gender in the superintendency

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