Edited by: George B. Cunningham, Texas A&M University, USA
Reviewed by: Mindy E. Bergman, Texas A&M University, USA; Andrew C. Pickett, Texas A&M University, USA
*Correspondence: Laura J. Burton
This article was submitted to Organizational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Copyright © 2016 Burton and Weiner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
This study utilized a comparative case study analysis to investigate how gender influenced the experiences of participants in a leadership development program (principal preparation program) designed to lead public K-12 schools identified as requiring turnaround. We closely focused on two participants, a man and a woman, and compared the ways each participant made meaning of his/her experiences as developing leaders in the program. Although both participants conceptualized effective leadership in similar communally-oriented ways, the way they came to construct their identities as leaders varied greatly. These differences were largely influenced by different and, what appeared to be, gendered feedback occurring during the program and when participants entered the job market.
Public school teaching (K-12) is largely a female dominated profession, with more than 86% of teachers in the United States being women (Feistritzer et al.,
Social role theory gives insights into how women and men are differently evaluated for positions of leadership or other higher status positions and therefore provides a useful framework to consider how leadership and the process of leadership development occurs within the context of principal preparation programs. Both role congruity theory (Eagly and Karau,
Importantly, we recognize that gender is only one of multiple identities individuals hold (e.g., race, ethnicity, sexuality), and that those identities intersect to influence each person's experiences (Rusch,
Therefore, utilizing social role theory as our theoretical framework, we contend that stereotyping a principal as a masculine role (i.e., suggesting it requires agentic characteristics) shapes the construction of leadership development within principal preparation programs and subsequently the experiences of men and women enrolled in them. This is important because, if, within such programs, the construction of what it means to be a principal is gendered based on stereotypes, and evaluation of being “effective” is also derived based on these prescribed social roles, women participants may experience the challenges described by role congruity theory (Eagly and Karau,
A growing area of interest among researchers is better understanding the persistent and pernicious gender leadership gap in education (e.g., Reed,
Teaching has long been considered to be a “feminized” profession (e.g., Apple,
Frames placing women in the classroom and men in the principal's office were and continue to be reinforced in schools with women often being actively discouraged or disallowed from taking on administrative roles (Strober and Tyack,
At the same time men often receive greater support to become principals, their dominance in the position may also be perpetuated and reinforced by discourses emphasizing more agentic or stereotypical masculine modes of leadership (Gill and Arnold,
Such rhetoric has been reinforced and expanded by efforts to develop “turnaround
The social role stereotypes of “women take care and men take charge” (p. 1307) impact biased evaluation of women in leadership positions and are both pervasive and resilient (Hoyt and Burnette,
At the same time leadership is defined in these masculine terms, prescribed social roles for women are often framed as communal (e.g., nurturing, caring, demur). Therefore, when women then exercise leadership as traditionally defined (i.e., agentic) they often experience a backlash for violation of their prescribed social roles (e.g., Heilman and Okimoto,
Researchers have identified such barriers as being connected to what can be understood as second generation bias—“powerful but subtle and often invisible barriers for women that arise from cultural assumptions, organizational structures, practices, and patterns of interaction that inadvertently benefit men while putting women at a disadvantage” (Ibarra et al.,
We sought to address this gap by utilizing an in-depth comparative case study method examining the experiences of two participants (female and male) in a turnaround principal preparation program. Using social role theory, the following research questions were used to guide our study:
RQ1: How did gender impact the participants' understanding of him/her self as leader prior to and during the leadership development program?
RQ2: How did gender impact participants' experiences (e.g., feedback, opportunities) in a leadership development program (i.e., principal preparation program)?
This data comes from a larger study that examined how participants in a turnaround principal preparation program came to understand and, later, exercise their roles. In prior work utilizing this data we looked across the sample to analyze emerging themes regarding male and females differing experiences in the program and resulting understandings of leadership and themselves as leaders (Weiner and Burton, unpublished paper).
For this paper, we shift our focus to more closely examine the experiences of two participants in the program to gain a deeper and more holistic account of a phenomenon (Yin,
In particular, this method facilitated our ability to contrast these participants' experiences to help reveal more nuanced patterns that might otherwise be hard to detect in the feedback and support provided to each participant individually (Miles and Huberman,
This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of The University of Connecticut institutional review board (UConn IRB) guidelines. The protocol was approved by the UConn IRB and all participants signed consent forms regarding participation. Each participant was interviewed 4 times over the year at 3 month intervals, each interview lasting approximately 1 h. Initial interviews were structured focusing on the participants' professional background, motivations for engaging in the program, views on principal leadership and what they hope to gain from the program. Later interviews asked participants to reflect and consider whether and how their views had evolved over time (e.g., “In what ways have your views of
As our exploration of role identity emerged over time, early interviews did not ask questions related to this issue directly. In contrast, later included questions responsive to participants' emerging understandings and experiences and hence spoke more directly to issues of gender and how they played out within the context of the program. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim.
This study took place in mid-size state that is currently running a principal leadership preparation program designed to produce “turnaround leaders.” The program included a month long summer intensive, an apprenticeship as a “resident” in a school, on-going coaching in the placement, as well as monthly seminars. Participants (
Tom | White | Male | Late 30s | Heterosexual | Married | Master's degree | Elementary Teacher, Teacher leader |
Thali | Non-white | Female | Late 30s | Heterosexual | Married | Master's degree | Elementary Teacher, Teacher leader |
Our analysis procedures were informed by our theoretical framework, which is the method preferred in analyzing case study data (Yin,
Individual leadership narratives | Leadership as a natural progression | Leadership as struggle |
They [the teachers] had been teaching for, you know, anywhere from 10 to 20 years, a lot of experience, a lot of leadership positions within the school; being on committees and other things like that. And they took me under their wing, and really—really helped me grow, really understand the curriculum, understand the school, just their experience imparting on me (Tom) | Every single principal has told me that I am crazy for going into this program, every single one, which, including my husband who says, “Do you see principals are dropping left and right? No one can even keep them and why are you going into something that everyone is telling you not to?” (Thali) | |
Leadership development feedback | Build on your strengths | Tone it down |
That's one that is so important as a principal…I think I have a long way to go, but I feel with experience, having those conversations and kind of maybe taking your lumps on some of them and maybe winning some of the battles a little bit as a communicator. I feel like I am getting there for that, but I am really looking forward to this year to help. (Tom) | Because I tend to come across very passionate on education which sometimes could be taken wrong because sometimes the passion may come across as being aggressive or narrow-minded, or that was some of the feedback that I had gotten. (Thali) | |
Leadership selection | Validation of fit (Hired) | Rejection of fit (Passed over) |
And I think that's why I got this job, because I really had that message—that high expectations for what we're doing, and for teachers, and for kids. (Tom) | He's awesome—trust me. Like, I am not saying he's not, but when I start to look at who, you know, who am I competing against, I'm thinking her and I. And then this happens—he gets a callback and she doesn't even get a callback—and I'm going…I can't shake the—and then to get the verification of they were really looking to a male leader. (Thali) |
Initially, Tom and Thali framed effective leadership as communal. Both participants emphasized the need for the principal to be out among the teachers, “to be the lead teacher, to lead by example” (Thali), and accessible to the students, for example by “greeting everyone” each day in front of the school (Tom). The goals of these activities being to build a positive school culture based on trust and caring relationships between teachers and students. Yet, despite these similarities regarding their descriptions of how an effective principal should behave, Thali and Tom described themselves as leaders and their journey to becoming enrolled in the principal preparation program quite differently. Thali framed herself as a fighter and her journey as an ongoing and uphill battle, while Tom framed himself as a born leader and his journey to the program as a natural progression filled with positive encouragement and reinforcement.
For example, when asked about how he ended up enrolling in the principal preparation program, Tom emphasized that he considered himself a “natural leader” having been drawn to positions of leadership from an early age. He explained, “I just loved working with people to try to solve problems, to try to move forward, communicating with people, getting people to gain your trust, leading by example, doing things—showing people that you can do things a certain way, communicating; having honest conversations with people.” Here and elsewhere Tom presented leadership as an extension of himself and personality traits (i.e., he is a problem-solver, he is good with people). In this way, his enactment of leadership becomes just one more part of his identity—to not act as a leader would be more unnatural than taking on such roles.
In Tom's retelling, his leadership capabilities and effectiveness were often reinforced by his colleagues in formal and informal ways. First, Tom recalled that his principal and other administrators often asked him to take on formal leadership roles within his school (e.g., serving on the school leadership team, leading the school discipline team). Second, Tom's colleagues also frequently asked him to represent their interests and guide the school's academic reform efforts. Additionally, when talking about his path to the program, Tom was quick to point out the many ways his colleagues supported his ascension toward leadership. This included some of his earliest experiences as a teacher including joining the fourth grade teacher team. He recalled the impact they had on his experience.
They [the teachers] had been teaching for, you know, anywhere from 10 to 20 years, a lot of experience, a lot of leadership positions within the school; being on committees and other things like that. And they took me under their wing, and really—really helped me grow, really understand the curriculum, understand the school, just their experience imparting on me.
Beyond fellow teachers, Tom also pointed to former and current administrators as a source of encouragement as he took on greater leadership roles and responsibilities. His former principal and district leaders had often connected him with additional opportunities for leadership across the system. They also served as an important support system for Tom's decision-making regarding his future and career. For example, he spoke at length about how his principal and vice principal had helped him decide whether he should enroll in the turnaround preparation program.
We talked about you know the difference between finishing the program at [another organization] and then maybe becoming an assistant principal or a principal that way verse going through this principalship; going through the [Program name] and the—you know we just thought that—they thought and they both did the more of the traditional way through school. But they both thought that this training…was so strong that you know you are going to be fine.
The result of this feedback was a further bolstering of Tom's efficacy and his decision to become a principal. Taken together it seems that, from his earliest recollections, Tom received ongoing reinforcement that he was a leader and should pursue further opportunities to lead.
As much as Tom's story of leadership was framed as natural and smooth, Thali's was framed as arduous. When asked to share how she had come to enroll in the program, Thali began her story in high school and how, as a first generation American of non-college educated parents, she had failed to realize that, as late as her sophomore year, that she was placed in a non-college track. This realization came only when a counselor told her that her dreams for college were unrealistic and that she should consider beauty school after graduation. As she told the interviewers, her story might have ended there but for how her favorite teacher reacted when he heard about the counselor's conversation with Thali.
He marched me right down, swore at the guidance counselor, which at the time when you are in high school you think it's super cool that, like, teachers are swearing at each other…and he was like you know, “You blah-blah-blah! Do your job! This is a good kid. How dare you make choices for her future!” Anyhoo, next day all in college prep classes, completely switched my schedule around.
Thali did end up going to college, with a full scholarship, and saw these early experiences as driving her toward leadership and ongoing advocacy for public school students, particularly those living in poverty and underserved by the system. As she explained,
I have very little tolerance for people that don't believe in our urban kids, because I was there. So it's very hard to have a conversation with me about those things, because when someone is like, “Well, what do you expect from a kid that blah-blah-blah?,” you know I am always like, “Well, that was me. And they are like, “Oh well you are the exception.” I am like, “Well, I shouldn't be thought, see but I shouldn't be the exception; I shouldn't be.”
Throughout her interviews, Thali returned to this incident and how her experiences of being largely overlooked by her teachers drove her desire to be a turnaround principal and an advocate for students she felt were also often overlooked. In this way, her vision of leadership was framed as a mechanism to go against the tide and fight for what she believed.
Like Tom, once she became a teacher, Thali received a great deal of positive reinforcement regarded her effectiveness, winning prestigious national and district awards, serving on a variety of committees and being recruited by her principal to move to with him to a new school to be the reading specialist. That said, unlike Tom, Thali described the enactment of some her leadership roles as fraught, with colleagues often showing active resistance toward her and her efforts. Recalling her work as a reading specialist, she said,
Year one…I cried every day; came home. I mean teachers were like horrible. Like they were just like, “Screw you, and who do you think you are? You are like 12!” You know how that works. I mean you are—when you are young coming in and I remember going home like “Why am I doing this?” And like I kept telling myself, “because that school needs help and they don't see that now.” And I am telling you—it was like—I get goose bumps because like my last year like teachers were like, “I can't believe you're leaving.” And I'm like you hated me! You hated me so much! [Laughter].
Again, though she was inevitably successful in her efforts, it was clear from this story and others that Thali felt that each success was the result of struggle. Moreover, it seems that, as presented by Thali, much of people's discomfort with her leadership had to do with social or cultural norms (e.g., seniority) rather than her skills and knowledge. However, it is interesting to note, that rather than identify these norms as responsible for teachers' response to her, Thali instead tended to identify her way of enacting leadership as the underlying problem. She explained, “I am very annoying…I am like rah-rah-rah! You can do it! Come on guys! And people are like, ‘Oh my God!’ They don't have the energy for that.”
These early experiences of having to rail against negative or discouraging feedback to accomplish her goals was reinforced as she considered whether to apply for principal preparation program. Instead of the support Tom experienced, Thali received a barrage of negative feedback regarding her desire to become a principal.
Every single principal has told me that I am crazy for going into this program, every single one, which, including my husband who says, “Do you see principals are dropping left and right? No one can even keep them and why are you going into something that everyone is telling you not to?” And I am talking about the best of the best and the worst of the worst have said to me, “Trust me, it's bad; don't do it. Just go back into the room and like just live in your four walls. It's really, really bad out there.” But that's what drives me. See, it's just how crazy I am.
Here Thali makes clear that despite her success in her prior roles, few people encouraged her to become a principal. Moreover, this feedback seemed to be oriented toward Thali's capacity, or lack thereof, to deal with adversity (i.e., she will not be able to handle how bad it is). While these negative messages appeared to have done little to deter Thali from her goals, given these warnings from those she looked to for encouragement, one wonders whether, if she were to face difficulties during the program or after, she would have access to supports seemingly so freely accessible to Tom. Additionally, while Thali's narrative did seem to empower her to move forward, by using words like “crazy” and, in other instances, “insane,” to describe her way of engaging in leadership, it positioned her as a kind of “other”—someone who lives outside the boundaries of expectations. Taken together then, we can understand Thali's and Tom's narratives regarding their leadership journeys and themselves as leaders were quite different at the onset of the program and, as we discuss in more detail throughout the paper, seemed to reflect larger gendered messages regarding leadership.
We now shift from examining how Thali and Tom presented their leadership journey and themselves as leaders to the preparation program itself. In particular, we focus on how each participant experienced the programmatic feedback and the messages it sent about effective leadership in turnaround schools. To do so, we begin with Tom and Thali's early assessments of their leadership skills and what they hoped to achieve as a result of program participation.
Given the differences in how Thali and Tom framed themselves as leaders, it is perhaps not a surprise that they had different views of what they might gain from the program. First, and in keeping with her prior difficulties with colleagues resistant to her leadership efforts, Thali hoped that the program would help her to “shut up…and just be quiet and listen” and become, “a better listener without already thinking of a rebuttal.” According to Thali, efforts to decrease her “roar” had already produced positive results in her former role.
I have become more polished—way more polished and I was a spitfire, like second, third year of teaching. I mean, I was that teacher that was like, “Ah, no! this is absolutely not right for our kids! This is an injustice!” Where I've learned now that it's like the roar doesn't help sometimes because it actually, makes people shut off, where you have to be very—think about how it is that you are presenting yourself first and then you can kind of, like, lay it out.
Whether warranted or not, Thali framed her goals as focused on toning down her presentation of self and making her views and beliefs more palatable to others. Additionally, by framing this more dispassionate leadership orientation as “polished,” she privileges a measured form of leadership above her own orientation (i.e., rougher). In this way, Thali starts the program naming her style as problematic and in need of reform.
In contrast, Tom framed his desired development in terms of building upon his existing skills. For Tom, this included becoming more forceful in his approach, to “work on the communicating, having the honest conversations with people” so that he could “win” those conversations.
I've improved a lot in the last year with having conversations and communicating with people both bad and good and tough ones. So that's a tough one. That's one that is so important as a principal…I think I have a long way to go, but I feel with experience, having those conversations and kind of maybe taking your lumps on some of them and maybe winning some of the battles a little bit as a communicator. I feel like I am getting there for that, but I am really looking forward to this year to help.
Like Thali, much of Tom's emphasis in building his skills was outwards. He hoped to improve his communication to improve the likelihood that others would listen to and accept his views. However, unlike Thali, who focused on toning down her approach, Tom emphasized that, to communicate more effectively, he needed to be more forceful or aggressive, likening communication to a battle. Additionally, Tom framed his learning as coming primarily with experience rather than through negative reinforcement. Overall, his comments suggest that he felt that while needed development, he was moving toward success (e.g. “I am getting there”), an orientation that fit with his larger narrative of leadership as a natural progression.
Throughout their program participation, these leadership self-assessments were reinforced (i.e., Tom needing to be more forceful, Thali needing to be less so) in a variety of implicit and explicit ways. For Thali, some of this reinforcement came as early as the program's interview process in which candidates participated in a small group interview to collaboratively complete a mock leadership task. During this process, Thali described feeling conflicted by her desire to be assertive in the discussion while also trying to be deferential to other participants' comments. This internal conflict left Thali feeling as though she had not demonstrated her strengths as a leader or an ability to be successful in the program.
And so the reason I say I found it odd was because you are obviously vying for this position, but you also want to be respectful of other's having an opinion. But as you are sitting there, you are going “Now wait, are they looking for someone that is going to be very assertive in this environment?” because obviously, as a leader, you must. Or do you not want to overpower someone because that's also not being mindful of their opinions?…I felt as though I couldn't come across the way I wanted to because I didn't want to overtake the interview, but then in my—and then in my mind, I was like, “Or should I?” I mean, so it was—I almost felt like I couldn't really ah—ah think to the task.
While Thali revealed this internal conflict, Tom only said that he “felt really good leaving that first interview.” He did not express any discomfort or a need to balance or regulate parts of himself to ensure acceptability to others. Rather, he said that the experience was so positive that it convinced him to enroll. As he put it, “What sold it for me was that first interview. I went into that interview going, ‘this is going to be great experience,’ and I left that interview saying, ‘I want this…” While this dichotomy between Tom and Thali could be, in part, attributable to personality differences, given the participants later responses highlighting the often gendered nature of feedback and framing of leadership within the program, it suggest that their feelings may also be partially due to implicit messages about what kinds of leadership were, and would be valued, in the program.
As time went on, these trends in Thali's and Tom's experiences continued and were strengthened by the feedback they received in their program sessions. This feedback was frequent, generally oral and provided to participants in seminar sessions in front of peers. As recalled by Tom and Thali, while some of the feedback focused on content knowledge (e.g., budgeting, human resources, emergency policies), much more pertained to the “softer” skills associated with leadership (e.g., communication, vision, strategy). Moreover it was related to this second group of topics, discussing how leaders should behave in relation to others, that the feedback was understood quite differently based on the participant's gender.
For example, much of the feedback Thali said she received was focused on limiting her emotion and presenting as “less passionate.” She was also told to limit the movement of her hands when she talked and to wear less jewelry because it was “distracting,” and could result in others not taking her seriously. Alternatively, Tom revealed that the feedback he received was to push to “put himself out there,” to “trust his instincts” and exert greater authority in his interpersonal behaviors. He did not mention receiving feedback regarding his appearance or how it might impact others.
Indeed, throughout his interviews, Tom rarely presented program feedback as anything but positive and orientated toward strengthening his already burgeoning leadership capabilities. This was true even when the feedback he received aimed to change Tom's behavior. For example, when Tom asked one of the program facilitators how he might improve his communication to engage more productively in seminar discussions, he recalled receiving the following response,
She [the program facilitator] said that's something a leader would do, so right there I felt pretty good, with some confidence. And then building me back up, and then asking questions, she said, would be a great way to enter these conversations, and “if you don't know, you don't know, but you want to learn, and put yourself out there.” So, I have no problem doing that. So, the next day it all changed for me in a positive way, because of that feedback I got, and I was asking questions, getting involved in the conversation. I felt like I was moving the conversation. And then receiving feedback on that later that day that she was happy that I was using the feedback given the day before, and then a week later reflecting on all of it with the facilitators.
Here, the feedback is presented as both solicited by Tom and targeted toward increasing or enhancing his ability to exert his voice in the conversation. It also seems worth noting that Tom appeared to take this feedback in stride, trying it out almost immediately and with great success. As presented then, it seems that both the nature and the substance of the feedback was, to some degree, aligned with Tom's view of himself as a leader and how he might become more effective.
As the year progressed, Tom continued to receive feedback aimed at helping him to speak up and out and, as he put it, to use more “edge” when communicating with others. According to Tom, the program facilitators told him that this edginess was necessary to lead in turnaround environments where he was likely to encounter resistance from his staff. To support Tom and the other participants in dealing with such situations, the facilitators often used role plays in class, asking the participants to engage in difficult and realistic scenarios to practice their communication skills. When asked to explain what the facilitators meant when they suggested that he build his edge, Tom recalled one of these role plays in which he was meant to address a recalcitrant teacher unwilling to implement the school reform efforts he, as the principal, had laid out. As he explained to the interviewer, this was an example of his edge in that he told the teacher, “We're doing this, and it's going to help kids; it's not just about your kids…That's what we're going to do here. I'm not just going to worry about one class. We're got to worry about the whole school.”
In response to Tom's efforts, one of the program leaders turned to him, applauded his efforts and said, “Tom, you've grown so butch!” Laughing as he told this story, Tom understood the facilitator to be reinforcing his behavior as appropriate and strong. And yet, looking a bit closer, we might also understand this feedback to be fairly autocratic in nature, suggesting that the teacher's views lacked value and that it would be inappropriate for Tom to try to defuse the situation rather than to fight her on the issue. When Tom recalled this and other instances in which he was told to be more aggressive, he made clear that the pros and cons of such an approach were not discussed. The message he received was that an aggressive stance was appropriate when others were challenging his position regardless of the specific context of the situation or the players.
While Tom was being told to act more aggressively, Thali was receiving the opposite feedback—that she needed to tone down her way of communicating. Throughout her interviews Thali mentioned receiving feedback that her communication style was likely hindering her ability to be an effective leader. As she explained,
Right at the end of summer intensive, we had to write where we felt our strengths were, but then also where we felt that we needed improvement on and we had to take that and kind of use that within our residency. And mine was communication and the way that I come across, because I tend to come across very passionate on education which sometimes could be taken wrong because sometimes the passion may come across as being aggressive or narrow-minded, or that was some of the feedback that I had gotten.
Thali, like Tom, presented herself as already aware of her areas for growth and desirous of enhancing her practice. That said, her needs are framed as deficits and not as existing strengths that require bolstering. As presented here, her current way of communicating is wrong in that those experiencing it are made to feel uncomfortable or put off. Additionally, the sources of this ineffective communication is inherent to her personality, it comes directly from her “passion.” This framing seems a sharp juxtaposition to Tom's experience in which the feedback appeared to call for him to communicate greater passion with what might be considered little consideration for whom he put off or made to feel uncomfortable.
Beyond the substance of the feedback, also unlike Tom, Thali gave few examples in which she received positive, reinforcing feedback from program facilitators. Instead, when talking about her areas of improvement, Thali tended to look inwards for affirmation. She explained,
I'm definitely trying to work on putting myself in the lens of others and really listening and analyzing the situation as opposed to automatically coming back with a rebuttal or I can solve that or let me give you my side of it…I'm glad to say that I've been able to, kind of like, really work on it, find my defaults and understand how my body language kind of will change.
Again, through these comments, Thali makes clear that, to be successful, she needs to fundamentally shift her way of being, she must find and reprogram her “defaults.” Additionally, unlike Tom who appeared to receive frequent external reinforcement for his incorporation of feedback, Thali's moves to improve appear to have remained outside the public eye. In these ways, we can understand Thali's experiences to be primarily about suppression and silencing and Tom's to be about activation and voice.
Despite her reported willingness to change her behaviors to align with program's and perhaps external expectations, upon graduating Thali had substantial difficulty finding a principal position. Tom, on the other hand, was the first in the cohort to be hired as a principal, receiving the news before the end of the program. In reflecting on why this was the case, Tom made clear that part of it was his ability to clearly communicate the strength of his vision, “And I think that's why I got this job, because I really had that message—that high expectations for what we're doing, and for teachers, and for kids.” Later in the interview, Tom went further and directly attributed this strength to the program and how the feedback he received had given him the confidence to present that strong vision.
I always felt like I had the work ethic, and that was never an issue, and they [the program facilitators] challenged that, too, but just the–like the confidence, I felt like the only thing that would be slowing me down would be myself, like I'm getting my own way sometimes with things, just because I might doubt it, or might have confidence about issues about it, and I still a little have those things, but I feel that—I really feel rock solid on why I'm doing this, and it's for the kids.
Overall then, it seemed that the hiring process was fairly smooth for Tom, reinforcing his approach to leadership as well as his prior experiences of leadership as a natural result of continued effort.
In contrast to Tom, not only did it take a long time for Thali to find a job, but she also found the process to be quite painful and emotionally draining. First, despite what she perceived to be her hard work toning down her communication style to make it more palatable to others, the feedback she received during and after interviews was that the school's hiring committee found her to be too aggressive or intimidating. Others said they worried about her ability to discipline students and lead the staff (in comparison to a male candidate). In an attempt to respond to these mixed messages (i.e., that she was both too aggressive and too weak to be a principal), Thali revealed that she had been working harder to “play the game,” doing whatever she could to remove people's negative perceptions about her potential fit or capability to lead. As she explained, in one of her more recent interviews,
I completely played. I did. It was a part of me that I said to myself, “I'm going to speak as though my entire faculty is amazing, and everyone's there for the right reason.” And that's how I spoke. So I spoke in the words of collaboration, shared leadership—which are things I believe in—I can't do it alone…So I know for a fact that I was very soft. I was very cognizant of coming across as overpowering So, I'm telling you, I know for a fact that I mentally told myself, “You have to get in the door.” Right? So this is the way I looked at it. I said, “You have to get in the door and whatever you do when you walk in the door is different than what your interview sounds like.”
However, despite these efforts, Thali was not offered the job. Interested in trying to understand how this strategy of giving the committee more of what she perceived they wanted failed to work, she activated her networks to find out why she was not selected.
I sit there and I'm like, “I am really confused about all of this.” [I] do some investigative work. But the feedback I get from specific people that—not from the interview panel but from other people—was that they were really looking for a male leader for the building. They felt more comfortable being led by a male.
In response to these ongoing disappointing and what Thali was beginning to recognize as gender biased results, Thali initially said that they were making her stronger and more resilient. She continued to express confidence in her skills and her talents and believed her work and effort would lead to a principal position. Given her concerns about being perceived as aggressive and her acknowledgement that her male colleagues were more successful in landing principal positions, Thali attributed her confidence to being more “male,” giving voice to the overconfidence that she witnessed in other male participants in the program and in other aspects of leadership.
And I'm saying—there's nothing else that I would be able to bring to the table. So I'm proud that I've not let this consume, or let it question, my begin—so, I'm proud about that. And, like I said, my learning from it is, I'm super resilient. I am super positive. I know who I am. I know what I can offer. And I don't know if that makes me a male [laughs].
However, whether only for show or deeply felt, as Thali talked further, this resilience began to wane as she made further and deeper connections between her gender and the lack of success she was experiencing on the job market.
I'm really fixated, like, on the male and female thing. I am so—like, I'm trying not to think of it so much, but I can't help but to say to myself—we have, in our cohort…we have six females and three males. [name of colleague], who is…her expertise is, phenomenal. Like, she is amazing. She didn't get a call back. One of our male cohorts did…He's awesome—trust me. Like, I am not saying he's not, but when I start to look at who, you know, who am I competing against, I'm thinking her and I. And then this happens—he gets a callback and she doesn't even get a callback—and I'm going…I can't shake the—and then to get the verification of they were really looking to a male leader. And I am going, “Why? Why do we do this? Like, why do females do this to other females?…That's why I say, like this whole week, or last two weeks, I'm like, I need to really sit and meditate and think about some of this stuff, because what does that mean?
Deconstructing these comments a bit, it seems that part of what is so disappointing to Thali is the lack of control she and her female colleagues have in the hiring process. They can be skilled—even “phenomenal” and will be passed up because of underlying gender issues. Additionally, she seems particularly perturbed about the fact that these hiring committee are often made up primarily of women, as most teachers as women. In this way, Thali situates the problem primarily as one of female-on-female aggression. Unfortunately, by doing so, one might argue that Thali's comments serve to do what she is complaining about (i.e., making women, including herself, the problem) and suggests that the underlying larger issue of social and institutional sexism (i.e., second-generation bias) remained somewhat obfuscated.
Together, her negative experiences on the job market coupled with her confusion and disappointment regarding their cause, left her discouraged and wondering whether it would be possible for her to both hang on to her values and to herself—while remaining in the profession. She articulated this struggle in this way.
It's a bad place to be in, mentally. I don't know what to do with that information, because I won't—you know, someone's like, “Well, you should start your own school.” I won't do that. That's not the solution….Could I do it? Sure. Is it enticing? Sure. Is that how I feel we're going to change the state of education? Nope. I would just create more reasons to why we need to do an us versus them, you know?…So many dilemmas, but—you know, you take your small victories and you go with that and, hopefully, I—I still l have faith and hope. I just have to re-examine and re-determine what that is and what that looks like, and we will go from there.
Whether in schools, corporations, or government, women remain underrepresented as leaders (Dworkin et al.,
First, though, it is important to mention that our findings reinforce that stereotypes regarding leadership and how men and women can exercise leadership behaviors develop long before individuals pursue such positions (Eagly and Karau,
Specifically, while the male participant framed himself as a natural leader and his journey toward leadership as well supported and somewhat inevitable, the female participant framed her ascension to leadership as arduous requiring that she position herself as a fighter. Our participants' divergent experiences to leadership reflect role stereotypes, as both leadership and masculine gender roles were perceived as congruent roles for the male participant and incongruent for our female participant (Eagly and Karau,
When considering the impact of gender on the participants' experiences in the program, we want to first call attention to the fact that the site selected for this study was unique in that there were a greater proportion of female participants than would typically be found in principal preparation programs. This fact, on its face, would appear to be an initial attempt to increase the pipeline of women into school leadership (Darling-Hammond et al.,
The findings from our study call attention to the problems of educational leadership development, and in this particular case, principal preparation programs, when such programs fail to identify, name, or address that leadership is conceptualized and understood that reflect the dominant normative culture. Such reflections include, as seen in our study gendered norms and gendered roles as well as other constructions of leadership that favor whiteness (Banks,
Developing an identity as a leader is a critical component to leadership development. Failure to include discussion of identity writ large and gender identity in particular in the discussion of leadership identity development within this program was highly problematic for the female participant in our study. Failure to talk about gender identity and its impact on leadership identity both projected and experienced by Thali was “fraught at the outset” as women in leadership “must establish credibility in a culture that is deeply conflicted about her authority” (Ely et al.,
Together, these experiences suggest that the principal preparation program failed to provide her with the support to understand the contradictions and biases she would face in her leadership role (Coleman and Fitzgerald,
Given the understanding that leadership development can offer opportunities for transformation of organizations (Harris and Leberman,
This study is not without limitations. As this is a comparative case study of two participants from a single principal preparation program, it was neither the objective of this study nor would it be appropriate to generalize findings to other principal preparation programs. The research was also focused on the participants' perceptions regarding their program experiences. As such, we did not gather data regarding those interacting with participants nor include observations of those moments. Therefore, additional research is required to better understand how and which programmatic elements serve to shape participants' views. Further, as noted early, our analysis surfaced issues specific to gender, though we recognize that race/ethnicity and other identities impact gender role stereotypes and occupational fit (Hall et al.,
We offer the following suggestions for consideration to enhance opportunities for women in leadership development programs, with a focus on educational leadership development programs in particular. First, such programs need to address issues of identity including gender, second-generation bias, and how this bias influences leadership within the context of educational leadership (Coleman and Fitzgerald,
Additionally, principal preparation programs should also include examination, by both participants and instructors, of biases and stereotypes regarding leadership, including discussion of the impact of these biases and stereotypes on women and other minorities when they exercise leadership. Without this examination, instructors and participants can reinforce (implicitly or explicitly) biases and stereotypes of leadership that negatively impact participants in these programs. By recognizing and naming biases and stereotypes, leadership development programs can “give participants a more nuanced understanding of the subtle and pervasive effects of gender bias, how it may be playing out in their development as leaders, and what they can do to counter it” and help make participants less susceptible to the negative outcomes of these challenges (Ely et al.,
Finally, despite the emotional strain it caused, some might consider the final outcome of Thali's experience as positive; she was eventually hired as a principal in a turnaround school. And yet, we would caution that while parity in employment is important, it is also important to consider the potential different challenges leadership positions, even among similarly categorized organizations leaders of different genders might face. Indeed, research suggests that women are more likely to be selected for precarious, as compared to more favorable, leadership positions (e.g., organization that has undergone a crisis) (Haslam and Ryan,
This work is significant in that it gives new insights into why women are still underrepresented as principals and perhaps in educational leadership positions more broadly. Further this work begins to address the need to better understand the intersection of gender and leadership development within the context of educational leadership (Coleman and Fitzgerald,
Both authors made significant contributions to all phases of manuscript development.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer, MEB, and handling Editor declared their shared affiliation, and the handling Editor states that the process nevertheless met the standards of a fair and objective review. The reviewer, ACP, and handling Editor declared their shared affiliation, and the handling Editor states that the process nevertheless met the standards of a fair and objective review.
1Meant to “spur systemic reform to improve teaching and learning in America's schools,” (U.S. Department of Education,