GENDER EQUALITY IN EDUCATION: LOOKING BEYOND

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1 GENDER EQUALITY IN EDUCATION: LOOKING BEYOND PARITY An IIEP evidence-based Policy Forum 3-4 October 2011, Paris CREATING AND SUPPORTING WOMEN S LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION: CHARTING THE EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES JILL SPERANDIO, LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, USA 0

2 This document, not published by IIEP, has been presented on the occasion of the IIEP Policy Forum on Gender Equality in Education held on the 3-4 October, 2011 in Paris, France. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of UNESCO or IIEP. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this review do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or IIEP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries. International Institute for Educational Planning 7 9 rue Eugène Delacroix, Paris, France info@iiep.unesco.org UNESCO

3 INTRODUCTION Educational leadership at the secondary school, district, and national level continues in most nations to be characterized by an underrepresentation of women. The last three decades have seen a growing understanding of the primary causes of this underrepresentation. These include the continuation of long held societal attitudes that assume women make poor leaders, direct harassment and exclusion of women in the work place in male dominated organizational situations, and seemingly gender neutral policies that nevertheless prevent women who must balance work and family commitments from accessing leadership positions. The last three decades have also seen a growing understanding of the problems that the underrepresentation of women creates in any field of public decision-making. These problems include the replication of existing work and organizational patterns reflecting male life and male employment preferences and expectations. Given the large numbers of women in the lower ranks of education in many nations, their failure to progress into decision-making and leadership roles must result in a lost of talent and experience to their communities and countries, in addition to raising social justice issues. Yet, despite growing awareness of these problems and increased understanding of historical causes, progress towards gender equality in educational leadership, paralleling the movement of women into the governing boards of public and corporate organizations, remains slow. RESEARCHING WOMEN IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Qualitative Approaches The research that currently informs our understanding of the characteristics of women s journeys to educational leadership has been shaped by the dearth of available study participants. It has also been limited, until comparatively recently, to the USA and a few other western educational settings. The small number of women in educational leadership positions has precluded the use of quantitative research techniques such as surveys, traditionally used for establishing large scale patterns and the ranking and significance of factors that contribute to successful or thwarted career aspirations. Instead, researchers have adopted qualitative techniques including case study and cross case analyses, to tease out the factors that women perceive as helping or hindering them in developing, and achieving, aspirations to educational leadership. Researchers have argued that although surveys may be the best way to discover the prevalence of a problem, interviews are needed to fully understand women s experiences and theorize these experiences in a way that has practical applications in bringing about social change. Qualitative techniques such as interviews and the recordings of focused personal narratives are powerful in their ability to give insights into aspects of personal psychology, life patterns and work experiences that influence women s choices and aspirations towards educational leadership. They also provide an opportunity for the voices of women speaking to these career choice issues to be heard directly in the presentation of data. Cross case analysis of studies of women in educational leadership may reveal common themes and experiences for women operating in similar educational and cultural environments, and can highlight the differences that may be attributed to ethnicity and social class. As researchers have more recently turned their attention to studies of women in education leadership in non-western countries, the emergence of case studies from very different social environments have allowed for cross-cultural analyses to reveal commonalities and differences in women s experiences in contrasting cultures and educational systems. 2

4 Gender evaluations and audits While academic research into women in educational leadership has adopted a critical theory approach using qualitative research methods, development agencies have refined the use of gender evaluations and participatory gender audits to establish the impact of measures taken to address gender imbalances. There is general acceptance of the need for gender equality in all walks of life, a term that is defined as women and men experiencing equal conditions for realizing their full human rights, and having equal opportunities to contribute to and benefit from national, political, economic, social and cultural development (CIDA, 1999). There has also been growing recognition by international funding agencies of the different needs and priorities of men and women and that actions designed to address inequality must take these into consideration. To show evidence of sensitivity to gender equality issues, implementation and impact evaluations and gender audits are commonly used. Implementation evaluations have been used to monitor and evaluate the implementation of gender issues into procedures while impact evaluations have been used to access or measure the impact of interventions on gender equality and women s empowerment. It has been suggested that the empowerment of women in any field of activity needs to occur along six different dimensions: economic, socio-cultural, familial/interpersonal, legal, political and psychological and that each of these should be measured at various levels of social aggregation, from the household, to the community, to broader national, regional and global levels (Malhotra et al., 2003; Kabeer, 2005). Gender audits have also come into common use by development agencies with the growing awareness of the central role of organizational structure and culture in the design and delivery of gender-sensitive programs and projects. They focus on aspects of organizational culture which discriminate against women employees. They are increasingly using employee interviews to construct a picture of perceptions and attitudes, and may use participant questionnaires and focus group discussions to access results and design action plans (Moser, 2005). Gender evaluations and audits have to date been rarely used in the field of educational leadership for a number of reasons. The issue of women s representation in educational leadership in developing countries has been eclipsed by the need to ensure equality of girls in education systems, even though a number of studies suggest that these two may be related. Interest in gender equality in developed countries has focused on issues around the participation of women in the political process, their representation on corporate boards, entry into mathematics and science fields, and the rights of women to make decisions about their own health and welfare. Gender differentiated statistics for teacher employment are now widely available from most national education authorities. This can be attributed to requirements established for the provision of aid for the maintenance and improvement of schools, together with the development of computer based data storage and analysis systems. However, statistics giving the gender distribution of school administrators and educational decision-makers at the national level are not routinely computed and disseminated. A world picture of the representation of women in educational leadership is thus currently difficult to ascertain. EDUCATIONAL REFORM AND A FOCUS ON EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP 3

5 The rapidly growing worldwide interest in reforming education systems to better meet the needs of children growing up in the 21 st century has stimulated research to identify elements of schooling that most positively impact student outcomes. From this, research has emerged that highlights an appreciation for the contributions of good schools to student success. The linking of positive student outcomes to educational leadership has, in turn, led to calls to institute formal training of educational leaders and managers in education systems that, in the past, have simply promoted teachers to leadership positions. Nations searching for models of leadership training to adopt or adapt have little choice. The USA is one of the few countries that require specific academic and experiential qualifications before appointing aspirants to school leadership and subsequent promotion to district, state, and national educational decision-making positions. Yet the leadership training that currently exists in the USA has, to date, done little to help women access leadership positions, with women still occupying only 20% of the school district superintendent positions in the nation. While there is an increasing awareness in the US of the differences in perceptions, approaches and needs of men and women in educational leadership, little has been done to address the problems of access to decision-making positions that many women face. Furthermore, few changes have been made to new leadership preparation programs to honor the differences that exist in men and women s approaches and understandings of leadership. However, drawing more women into leadership preparation and changing the expectations of leadership roles to make them more gender inclusive presents numerous challenges. An analysis of case studies of women s career paths to leadership from different nations, and between cultural groups within nations, suggests that the factors that act as barriers and enablers to their journey are context specific. In different countries, workplaces, and policy contexts these factors interact to create unique environments for the career building that is a prerequisite of leadership preparation for women. What may be a barrier in one context, may be an enabler in another. The challenge for nations and agencies designing and supporting gender equal leadership preparation programs is to envisage expectations of successful school leadership achievable by both men and women, while designing specific activities aimed at empowering women who may not have had the opportunities at, or experiences of, leadership that have come more naturally to men in male designed and dominated education systems. FIRST STEPS IN CREATING A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS OF WOMEN S ASPIRATIONS AND ACCESS TO EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Currently, researchers seek to move beyond the single, multiple or cross case analysis approaches that have characterized research of women in educational leadership. Designers and providers of programs for the preparation of educational leaders seek to ensure that there is gender equity with regards to access to leadership and program relevance for both men and women within the context of the educational system in which they are working. There is clearly a need for a predictive framework or model to aid both endeavors. Use of the research methodology of Grounded Theory (Creswell, 2008; Patton, 2002) has the potential to provide a model capable of predicting the probability of women aspiring to, and realizing a career in, educational leadership in any given situation. Such a model would allow those working for gender equality in educational leadership to isolate and address the factors that may discourage or enable the entry of women into leadership roles in any given context. 4

6 Grounded Theory methodology calls for the analysis of qualitative research to establish categories and relationships that influence a given outcome. In the case of women s experiences with educational leadership studies there are two aspects that must be considered: the factors that lead or discourage women to aspire to educational leadership, and the factors that affect their ability to access it should they have the aspiration. Using access and aspiration as the analytical lens for the case studies and gender reports that have been undertaken over the last three decades indicates a number of factors influencing the decisions and experiences of women seeking positions in educational leadership. These factors, isolated from the case studies, can be grouped into categories at the discretion of the researcher. My reading of existing research studies of women in educational leadership, and my own studies in Uganda and the Indian subcontinent, lead me to propose that factors that impact women s aspirations and access to leadership can be grouped into international, national, organizational and personal categories (see Fig. 1). Given that the nature of each of the factors varies by national, societal or cultural contexts, I refer to the factors as variables. Close reading of the existing research also gives an indication of the direction of relationships between variables and categories of variables in different contexts. Developing an understanding of the interrelationship between categories and individual variables in any situation gives a prediction of the likelihood that women will aspire for leadership and have these aspirations supported, and of the ease with which they will be able to access leadership positions. 5

7 Figure 1: Variables influencing women s aspirations and access to educational leadership National Variables Organization Variables Personal Variables International Variables Existence of international agreements about gender equality Pressure from international organizations on nations to meet gender equality standards to qualify for program assistance Governmental responses to international gender equality standards in employment and women s access to the workplace National religious and philosophical doctrines Reflection of cultural understanding of gender roles and leadership in national organizations Women in high profile leadership roles serving as role models and mentors to women Government provision of equality of education and training access Employment and the economy Valuing of educational leadership positions by financial reward, security or prestige and power Opportunities for women to experience responsibility and leadership Availability of mentoring A climate of respect and understanding for women s career aspirations School boards accepting of women as school leaders Recognition and allowance for differences in career paths between men and women due to personal factors Alternative paths to leadership in different organizational structures in private and nonformal education Childhood socialization regarding gender defined roles and leadership and development of self-esteem Availability of financial resources to access required education and training Understandings and preferences about marriage, childrearing and homemaking Job and career aspiration preferences Opportunity to purchase household/child care support Family support Mobility Women s Aspiration Gender Equality in Educational Leadership Women s Access Procedures for assigning qualified candidates to available vacancies. 6

8 APPLYING THE MODEL Figure 2. Uganda pre-2000 National Level Variables No Free Universal Education No gender quotas or auditing n government Ministries or the Civil Service Promotion requirements unachievable by most women Promotion boards composed primarily of men High numbers of well qualified men competing for leadership positions High status of educational leadership positions attract male applicants Few women in leadership positions to act as role models and mentors Organizational Level ( schools and Ministry of Education) Male teachers, male students and school boards dismissive of women in leadership positions except in girls schools Male heads of school discourage women from accessing positions of responsibility and gaining experience in secondary schools In the Ministry, women assigned to clerical and secretarial roles, men to decision-making roles Rotation of head of schools required moving families, which most women could not do Personal Level Variables Childhood socialization of women to play secondary roles in society gives few opportunities to experience leadership and low aspirations Family resources rarely spent on education girls to college level Wives expected to be subordinate to husbands, and to manage the household even when additional household labor is purchased Women s Aspirations to School Leadership (Low) Gender Equality in Educational Leadership (Low) Women s Access to Educational Leadership (Limited) 7

9 Qualitative studies conducted with women in educational leadership positions in Uganda, combined with data gathered about processes and procedures for promotion, allocation of positions, and government policies suggests how changes can be brought about to the benefit of women. Previous to 2000, the national education system did not provide universal free education and the personal/family costs associated with primary and secondary education resulted in few girls educated to secondary and tertiary levels in a society that valued boys over girls. There was no provision for private education pre High unemployment resulted in high levels of competition for government and civil service posts, including teaching and school leadership, which favored men. A male oriented culture was unsupportive of women moving into leadership positions, and resulted in the structuring of organizations to the benefit of men male preferences for leadership styles were valued above those of women, making it difficult for women to command the respect of male subordinates. Women were socialized to assume secondary positions in the home and workplace, had few female role models in leadership to inspire them and were unlikely to have family support if they chose to aspire to leadership positions. Cultural understandings of gender roles discouraged women from aspiring to positions that placed them in situations of greater power or prestige than their husbands, nor could they expect their husbands to relocate if their promotion depended upon this, which was often the case in Uganda where school leadership positions were rotated every three years (Kagoda and Sperandio, 2009). Within the education system, promotion requirements and procedures also excluded most women aspiring to leadership. Applicants were required to have a university degree, a teaching qualification and six years experience in secondary school teaching, including two years in a position of responsibility. An examination of the applicants for school leadership positions in 2005 (Sperandio and Kagoda, 2008) revealed that most female candidates failed to meet these requirements. Further investigation indicated that for women to have completed the seven years of training and service requirement, they would have had to graduate before The school census for 2000 indicated that only 1,934 women in Uganda had the required university degree and teaching qualification and far fewer of those had acquired the six years of teaching and two years of administrative experience. Women aspiring to leadership positions were required to obtain recommendations and appraisals from members of the school administration, which was heavily male dominated. They were also required to go before a selection committee comprised of senior educators, similarly weighted towards male members. 8

10 Personal Level Variables CHANGES Figure 3 Uganda post 2000 International Variables Millennium Gender Goals and other Gender Equity International Agreements International Organizations Gender Equality Requirements National Level Variables Government acceptance of international gender goals and establishment of quotas for hiring women in Ministries and other civil service positions including school leadership Government posts provided for women in the nation government provide high profile role models Government provides universal free education to the secondary level and opens private education Changes in requirements for promotion, composition of promotion boards, and selection procedures Campaigns for women s rights in many fields Families able to educate all children girls have more opportunity to gain the qualifications they need to aspire to leadership Socialization of girls to accept secondary roles in part balanced by national and NGO campaigns for children s rights and empowerment of women Family and spousal support for women taking leadership roles still limited More mentoring and role models available to women considering educational leadership More educational leadership positions available Organizational Level (Schools and Ministry of Education) Schools required to appoint men and women leaders Women s Aspirations to School Leadership Increasing Women in Educational Leadership Increasing High unemployment and competition for positions remains Women still face difficulties balancing household demands and leadership position responsibilities Women still have problems with mobility needed to pursue a career in educational leadership Women s Access to Educational Leadership Increasing 9

11 The setting of international goals for gender equality (UNDP, 2003) and Uganda s adoption of the international gender equality indicators embedded in them, together with the acceptance of gender auditing and the use of affirmative action in the form of quotas has required all government departments, including those involved with educational decision-making, to recruit more women. The current government has been proactive in allocating elected offices to women, hence providing visible role models who raise the aspirations of women at every level of society. An active women s movement mentors women with aspirations to leadership in all fields and targets female students. The opening up and expansion of private education has created additional teaching and leadership positions in coeducational schools (although it is unclear whether biases against female school leaders still operate) and has increased the number of single sex girls schools, who prefer female administrators. In response to calls for the provision of safer and more supportive school environments for adolescent girls in Uganda, government regulations also require that each coeducational school has a woman in the position of principal or deputy principal (Republic of Uganda, 2002). The institution of universal primary and secondary education in 2000 and 2008 respectively will ultimately increase the pool of educated women reaching tertiary education and teacher training for secondary schools. Recent changes in the civil service procedures and regulations for the composition of selection committees may ultimately offset cultural biases against women seeking promotion to leadership positions. Comparing Figures 2 and 3 suggests that these changes have been a top-down process initiated in part by international concern with gender equity and Uganda s economic dependence on the goodwill of international agencies. In addition, national politics have led to the fast tracking of universal education and the recognition of the importance of women s support in the polls. However, deeply imbedded social beliefs about gender roles, and the fierce competition for high status and well rewarded employment, together with mobility issues that affect women rather than men, still have to be resolved before women s representation in educational leadership is equal to that of men. Example 2. Bangladesh Bangladesh s Muslim society has discouraged women from obtaining higher education qualifications or using them in employment activities outside the home, such that the education system, even at the primary school level, has traditionally been male dominated. Women who have obtained a degree and have chosen to work face similar problems of access to government school leadership. There has been little expansion of government secondary schools, which have similar qualifications for selection and promotion as well as similar promotion procedures as Uganda, all of which have a bias towards male applicants. Leadership positions in government schools only become available on the retirement or resignation of incumbents, with a group of highly qualified and long serving male practitioners waiting their turn. The only women who have been able to meet the formal qualifications, which include years of service and leadership experience just as in Uganda, are women employed in a small number of girls schools. Where a number of applicants for school leadership positions hold similar qualifications, selection is undertaken by committees staffed primarily by men who, given cultural stereotyping of women, are unlikely to look favorably on women applying for leadership of co-ed or boys schools. The private school sector has expanded rapidly in Bangladesh just as in Uganda, potentially offering opportunities for leadership to women who are able to circumnavigate cultural barriers, less strong in middle and upper socio/economic groups. Bangladesh provides a number of examples of 10

12 female entrepreneurs who have opened and operate their own private schools (Sperandio, 2007). Affirmative action taken by the government to ensure women are represented on school governing boards has had a debatable effect. Studies undertaken regarding the roles played by female board members suggests that they are often relegated to less powerful positions, a response to cultural expectations around their supporting, rather than leading, roles in society, regardless of their qualifications. However, in the non-formal education sector, where schools are opened and operated by non-government organizations (NGOs) charged with filling the gaps in the government s provision of basic education, women have much greater access to school leadership and educational policy making and implementation. This has been in response to the deliberate policies of these organizations to adopt internationally recognized gender equity standards motivated both by philosophical considerations and the practical need to qualify for external funding for their projects. One example is BRAC, a nongovernment organization which provides schooling to over a million Bangladeshi children. The organization has adopted a deliberate policy of appointing women to lead over 90% of its schools. To do this, they have changed traditional hiring and promotion requirements for educational leadership. Married women in rural villages are targeted for these positions, and are only required to have ten years of schooling as long as they and their families agree to their attendance at a monthly training session held at a regional center. The women who apply must have the support of their communities and are filling the roles of teacher and school head, both traditionally assigned to men. Both community support and assumption of traditional male roles have challenged existing cultural patterns. In this way, a national organization responding to international understandings about gender equality has used hiring and promotion processes to remove the barriers to educational leadership for a group of Bangladeshi women (Sperandio, 2009;2010a &b). Example 3. India India provides an example of how factors impacting the level of women s representation in educational leadership are context sensitive, producing increased representation in some contexts, while limiting representation in others. In both Uganda and Bangladesh, promotion practices in the government school/civil service sector worked against women attempting to access leadership roles. Promotion requirements have traditionally required levels of experience and educational qualifications that are beyond the reach of most women and selection procedures to male committee members and superiors with cultural biases against women in leadership. In India, by comparison, the promotion of teachers to school principalships in government run primary and secondary schools is on the basis of seniority or seniority-cum-merit. All teachers at state and district level are ranked by the number of days worked from gaining their teacher qualifications and appointment to a first teaching position. Promotion to department head, vice principal or head of school is solely on the basis of seniority when a vacancy opens, the teacher at the top of the seniority list is offered the position. There is no pre-appointment administrator training or qualifications to be gained before appointment and no competition for vacancies. States and districts now publish their seniority list to further the transparency of the process. At first glance, this gender neutral promotion practice still appears to favor men despite the removal of the selection committees and recommendations from, most commonly, male superiors required in other contexts. Indian female teachers taking time out during a career for childrearing will rank much lower than male counterparts on the seniority scale and thus get offered a leadership 11

13 position much later in their careers. If a woman moves, perhaps to accommodate her spouse s career, she must re-establish her seniority in her new district. But despite the apparent disadvantaging of women by a practice that penalizes them for undertaking family duties expected by societal norms, conversations with three women heads of schools in a suburban area of Bangalore (Sperandio and Reo, 2009) suggested that a number of cultural factors could offset the negative effects of the promotion system for some women. The high value placed on education by their families, from three quite different socio-economic backgrounds, resulted in continued support for both their education and careers through early marriage and childrearing. The women noted they were expected by their husbands and families to take on the traditional managerial roles within the family that custom demanded of Indian women, activities that in many cultures require women to take time away from the workplace. But these women were able to fulfill domestic obligations and continue on their career paths due to the availability of low-waged household staff and the traditional involvement in childrearing of grandparents and other family members, with whom they lived in accordance with accepted tradition. This allowed the female school heads to direct household affairs without being directly involved in the work associated with providing for the family and to return to school for evening activities and events as required. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Recently, many countries reforming their education systems have become interested in developing educational leadership preparation through focused attention on the content of these programs. However, this interest should not eclipse the ongoing need to strive for gender equality in educational leadership. The causes of the underrepresentation of women in educational leadership are not uniform across cultures and education systems. Rather, they are the product of complex interactions between cultural understandings of gender roles, national policy and organizational structures, and pressure from the international community that are highly context specific. Developing frameworks and models that illuminate the factors that affect women s aspirations and access to positions of leadership and that indicate the interrelationships between factors and how they operate in different contexts, provides a method for increasing the understanding of an existing situation and the effects of proposed changes to it. As such, they should be the first step in designing interventions to ensure gender equality in educational leadership. 12

14 REFERENCES CIDA CIDA s policy of gender equality. Hull: CIDA. Creswell, J. W Educational Research (3 rd.ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Educational. Kagoda, A., and Sperandio, J Ugandan women: Moving beyond historical and cultural understandings of educational leadership. In H. Sobehart (Eds), Women leading education across the continents (pp.49-57). New York: Rowland and Littlefield Education. Kabeer, N Gender equality and women s empowerment: A critical analysis of the third Millennium Development Goal. In: Gender and Development 13(1), Malhotra, A.; Schuler, S.; Beoender, C Measuring women s empowerment as a variable in international development. Paper presented at the ICCRW Insight and Action Seminar, Washington, DC, 12 th November. Moser, C An introduction to Gender Audit Methodology: Its design and implementation in DFID Malawi. London: Overseas Development Institute. Patton, M.Q Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3 rd.ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage. Sperandio, J. 2010a. Women s empowerment through leadership of non-formal schools in rural Bangladesh. In: Gender and Education 23(2), Sperandio, J. 2010b. Modeling cultural context for aspirating women educational leaders. Journal of Educational Administration 48(6), Sperandio, J., and Lapier, E Confronting gender and ethnicity in a leadership preparation program for aspiring urban principals. In: Journal of Research on Educational Leadership, 4(4), Sperandio, J Preparing women for educational leadership: Opportunities in non-formal education in Bangladesh. In: H. Sobehart (Eds), Women leading education across the continents (pp ). New York: Rowland and Littlefield Education. Sperandio, J., and Kagoda, A Context and the gendered status of teachers: Women teachers aspirations to school leadership in Uganda. In: International Journal of Educational Management, 24(1), Sperandio, J Women leading and owning schools in Bangladesh: Opportunities in public, informal and private education. In: Journal of Women ineducational Leadership, 5(1), UNDP Millenium Development Goals: National reports, a look through a gender lens. New York: UNDP. 13

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