Women in Leadership Roles

This report determines the research on sex equity in educational lead published since 1997until 2010. dismantle off though wo men coining jobs in direct leading has increased, women still do non fill administrative daubs in comparison to men. The majority of research related to women and leadership examines the barriers women face in entering or moving up in the leadership hierarchy. flavor at the differences and similarities in how men and women take on and exercise leadership roles, the authors of the articles suggest ideas based on biological, psychological and sociological theories that stress sexual urge difference.The article, Re-thinking educational leadership exploring the impact of cultural and vox populi systems written by Shah, discusses how education and educational leadership theories and practices be influenced by culture and belief systems with a focus on gender in Muslim societies. The starting clock time priority of Muslim women was to look after th eir family at that placefore, before taking on any professional responsibility they had to ensure that no decisions or actions brought assault to their family or extended families.According to Shah, the Muslim women who participated in leadership positions a lot felt powerless because their decisions and actions were regularly scrutinized by men. The second article, Gender Differences Among unfermented Recruits to take Administration Cautionary Footnotes to an Optimistic Tale written by Riehl and Byrd discusses the factors affecting leadership among men and women in elementary and lowly education. Even though the women were as highly educated as the men, the men practic ally were given publicy more opportunities. Women were still follow throughn as displaying nurturing characteristics in their leadership mood.The article also discusses womens leadership aspirations to that of their anthropoid counterparts. The third article, School leadership, sex and gender welcome to di fference written by Kruger brings into blank the biological differences in genetic make up of men and women. It discusses how contrasting hormones and brain structure atomic number 18 the reasons for differences in behaviour and privateity among men and women, which is considered a deciding factor in their leadership styles. Kruger also examines how the environs plays an important role in the realization of gender differences in leadership.The abide article, Gender and educational Leadership in England a comparison of tributary headteachers views over time written by Coleman discusses the expectations of women and men as principals in England in the 1990s and in 2004. The article focuses on women with regards to work and personal life. Coleman reports that women live with larger roles at work and at home, whereas men broadly speaking concern themselves with work lone(prenominal). Notably, women were seen as inferior so they adopted manly work ethics. The results of Colema ns studies argon similar to those in other countries.It was rattling interesting to review the articles I chose to better understand the ways that educational leadership is perceived with respect to gender in the education system. As I continued to review the research, I thought it was of importance to examine the differing leadership styles and barriers, along with the similarities women faced in both western and non-western cultures. end-to-end this inquiry I will cite several reasons for the low correspondence of women as educational leaders. According to Shah, Men and women are conceptually dual-lane into two separate worlds.Home is defined as a womans legitimate ideological and physical space, while a man dominates the world go forthside the home (p. 31). With the ever-changing society, Muslim women started exploring their options and took more of an quick role outside the home. Interestingly, the women who attained positions of leadership worked in the women-only establi shments. It was troublesome for a woman to work in a mixed gender milieu because their educational decisions went through a manful counterpart, regardless of their seniority.Women still held unbendable beliefs and values with respect to education similar to western cultures, provided the whim of women in a male dominated hierarchy was still considered problematic. I strongly believe that family and home responsibilities are still more probable to affect the career paths of women than of men today as they pursue administrative positions. Riehl and Byrd also believe that gender plays a major factor in the career development process to the degree that men and women encounter divergent circumstances, act differently, and/or experience different outcomes.The theoretical explanations that have emerged are as follows women have not been socialized to aspire to administrative roles or to prepare for them, higher(prenominal) level jobs were designed to exclude women and school leaders hip is located in male dominance in society overall, not just educational (p. 46). I believe society as a whole is more accepting of these barriers now however, these issues are still evident, but not as strong. Similar to today, women as teachers and principals were more likely to be found at the elementary level and men at the secondary level.While I do see many women teaching as previously mentioned, it was interesting to hear that men at their level suck up more administrative practice, thus leading to senior administrative positions. Also, the union of education one received didnt play a huge factor in the hiring process. According to Riel and Bryd even the objective factors such as obtaining education or experience increased womens chances of becoming administrators, they did not bring womens chances to parity with mens (p. 61). Kruger also examines gender differences but relates it to the biological sex differences in school leadership.Women by personality have a more co ndole with, nurturing personality and this influences their administrative styles in a male dominant society. Kruger found that women are stronger educational leaders than their male colleagues. They carry out more educational activities and spend more time on educational matters than men. Women are more focused on counsel and education, on the school goals, they are higher on creating a supreme culture and an orderly learning atmosphere, they have a stronger course of studyroom orientation, they final payment teachers more often and they create more professional development opportunities for teachers (p. 62). It appears as though women are strong educational leaders however, we have wise to(p) throughout this course that male and female styles tend to differ even when they occupy the aforementioned(prenominal) leadership role. Women, who already face enough foe and obstacles in a male dominated field, find their leadership styles are judged more harshly by men however this i s not the aforementioned(prenominal) for the men. According to Kruger, Women who display male leadership styles are more negatively judged compared with those who do not, but men with a female leadership style do not seem to be more negatively judged (p. 164).patronage these factors more women tend to work under male principals then they do women. The reason for this is perhaps do to personality conflicts they may have with the same sexes on ideas of what successful administration entails. Another deciding factor in this is that women tend to be more education rooted and become administrators because out of their desire to improve education, whereas men take on administer roles mainly for the salary. Colemans research states that the stereotypical leader is a white, heterosexual, middle class male therefore, women are often viewed as outsiders in a position of leadership.Coleman identifies various factors effecting womens likelihood of becoming leaders such as discrimination, lack of confidence, hesitation in making career plans, stereotyped into caring pastoral roles that were then not seen as fitting them for leadership and there were multiple difficulties for women in combining a family and career (p. 385). Womens leadership styles were seen as passive and gentle, while men were stronger and more decisive. In 2004, only half of the women surveyed report experience in discrimination related to advancements cod to the likelihood of being labeled a feminist (Coleman, p. 86). Surprisingly, the traditional male style leadership has given way to more feminine styles of leadership. Males have been seen as putting work first over family at all clock, which has influenced women to the point of minimizing maternity leave and foregoing their desire to be corroboratory figures to younger women. Throughout this course we have discussed various effective educational leadership practices. Leaders should be able to adapt their leadership styles harmonise to the situa tion. Therefore, convince is necessary if we want to move ahead in our individual field.The passive, nurturing, education orientated and productive styles depicted by women in these articles are accepted today by both genders in leadership positions. Noteworthy, a strong dominant leader is not always effective or seen as an acceptable style. As a teacher, I often see different leadership styles and can conclude that men and women at times see things differently. In conclusion, the role of women in educational leadership positions continues to explicate however, there still needs to be work done in order to ensure equality.If one were to look at our current careen of administrators in the school board they would notice that there is significant higher ratio of male to female administrators. The females are often placed in small, rural elementary schools or are the vice-principals of secondary schools. I rightfully believe women will always face barriers while trying to attain le adership positions however, if we work together, take charge and voice our opinions things may change in the upcoming years.