Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - chapter 4 BARRIERS TO JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP - gender

BARRIERS TO JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP

Chapter Four: Gender

Stereotypes of leaders have been a barrier to women, including Janet, from reaching the top of the mountain in education or lengthening the time it takes to get there, when compared to male counterparts. If people only see men in leadership positions this becomes the norm and many women may choose to not even try to climb. 

4.1 Women teach and men lead - the stereotypes of men and women in education

The characteristics of teachers are often connected to female traits and in discussion with Janet, the features of leadership are intrinsically linked to masculine traits (Fawver, 2014). This in turn creates, as Janet called it, an “old boys club” of principals.  This is the same term Yvonne Masters (2105) employed when describing the male principals and priests in the Catholic schools of the area of Australia she was researching.  This “old boys club” is especially pertinent in New Zealand’s neo-liberal context when an organisation is focussed on outcomes rather than processes with an emphasis on productivity, competiveness, hierarchy and logic which are stereotypical male attributes (Fitzgerald & Wilkinson, 2010). 

As women do not reflect the image of the high school principal (Coleman, 2005) and are not part of the “old boys club” they may not even be shortlisted for principal positions even when they are more than qualified.  This is because some people (including those on shortlisting panels) doubt women’s commitment due to the demands upon them as wives and mothers (Coleman, 2007; Hewlett & Luce, 2005).  It is interesting to note that the opposite has been reported in the UK for men and there is actually a "fatherhood bonus."  Male head teachers who were fathers recounted that they felt that they were received more positively by governors and parents than if they were childless (The Future Leaders Trust, 2015). If women do get appointed to principalship they may find themselves “ignored, challenged and asked if they were the ‘real principal’” (Fawver, 2014, p. 29). 

One reason could be that women and men, differ in their leadership style and skills (Eckman, 2004) as “feminist educational leadership is educational rather than managerial” (Strachan, 2009, p. 124).  However, Fuller (2013) questioned this as she argued that women can use power to control and men can use it to empower.  Janet nevertheless uses a collaborative approach which is not associated with a stereotypical male, authoritarian style and gives the “responsibility and authority” to her senior leadership team (Lyman et al., 2012).  She is not afraid to show her vulnerabilities which some male principals may find difficult:                                                           

It is a female principal thing, I haven’t come across any male principal doing this. Like if I talk to a male principal and I don’t know something then I want an  answer, very rarely will they admit they don’t know whereas I am the first one  to say, well I don’t know but I will go and find out for you.

Asking for help, being seen as too kind, too gentle, over emotional, sensitive and a person who can’t make difficult decisions may also add to the stereotype that women are incapable of being leaders (Bassett, 2009; Fawver, 2014; Fuller, 2013).  This can make them vulnerable and exposed to retaliations (Shah, 2015) as some people (both men and women) believe that women do not possess the necessary characteristics to be able to handle the complex role of being a principal (Fawver, 2014; Fuller, 2013).    However, asking questions, like Janet does, can be reasoned as a strong leadership characteristic as it ensures accountability and builds capacity by engaging several people in the decision making process (Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011). 

It did take Janet a while to “get accepted as an equal rather than a woman deputy principal who has stepped up” to prove that she was capable of doing the job.  Numerous studies (Christman & McClellan, 2008; Neale & Ozkanli, 2011; Painter-Morland, 2011) reported that some female principals may take on overt masculine or feminine personas to overcome any expectations of female incompetence.  Janet, as other female educational leaders have done, moves dynamically and fluidly across binary gender norms even if these are linked to stereotypes (Christman & McClellan, 2008; Coleman, 2009).  She said that “I can play the dumb female, help me, help me I don’t know what I am doing” but she also takes on the role of “I am actually a woman and I have got to this position and I don’t need any of you men to help me. I can stand up in my own right.”  Janet tries to find “a balance of those two” because “you need their [the male principals] support a lot of the time.”