Women in the Superintendency

The percentage of women in the superintendency remained stagnant over 80 years of the last century and has only increased slightly, to just fewer than 14% of the public school superintendents in the U.S. today. In other words, the glass ceiling still exists. The persistent reasons for lack of change are gender prejudice and gender structuring—frequently referred to as sexism. The selection and promotion process for the school district CEO is conducted by school boards and search groups, the majority of whom are white men who tend to select other white men to carry on the heritage of the school superintendency.

Why do these low numbers still exist and what can be done to promote change? These and other questions are addressed in Women in the Superintendency: Leadership Denied. This book presents the essential ethic for women's leadership, identifies the ideologies from which challenges to women's leadership emanate, provides case studies to illustrate gender prejudice and gender structuring, and finishes with ways for women to strengthen their leadership to reduce the "discarding" effect.

This book will be of interest to school leaders, boards of education, and superintendents as well as educational leadership preparatory programs and women's studies programs.

Joyce A. Dana completed 34 years of public school service 18 as an administrator, with 13 of those as a school superintendent and served on a school board. She currently is an assistant professor at Saint Louis University in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Diana M. Bourisaw has spent 28 years in education serving as teacher, principal, superintendent, and school board member in both suburban and urban districts. Currently, she is president of Education Options, a consulting group working primarily with high poverty districts, coaching both school boards and their superintendents.