Chapter
One: Introduction
1.1 Setting the scene
Girls are now outpacing
boys in high schools and universities around the world and are currently
entering the work force at higher salaries than ever before (Slaughter,
2015). However, there
has been minimal changes in the proportion of females in top executive
positions in the last decade (Fitzgerald & Wilkinson, 2010; Hansen, 2014;
Kelsey, Allen, Coke & Ballard, 2014) despite alterations to the law to
create a more equitable practice (Shah,
2015). Consequently, leadership and the power
and influence for change that is associated with it, remains highly gendered (Lyman, Strachan & Lazaridou, 2012).
This gendered practice translates
into education as although in most westernised countries, including New Zealand,
the majority of teachers are women, the majority of principals are men (Fuller,
2013; Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011; Ho, 2015). If women do manage to attain leadership
positions these are often concentrated in the most disadvantaged schools
(Duncan, 2013; Ho, 2015) which is another gendered process.
1.2 Gender and careers in
Aotearoa New Zealand
The Census of Women’s
Participation (HRC, 2008, as cited in Fitzgerald & Wilkinson, 2010) indicated
that women have advanced in their careers in New Zealand society but they have
not secured equal opportunities in relation to employment, retention, promotion
and status (Fitzgerald & Wilkinson, 2010) which concurs with international
research. In 2015 the National Council
of Women of New Zealand in its report “Enabling women’s potential – the
economic, social and ethical imperative” signposted that the state of
inequality included:
·
Estimates
of New Zealand’s gender pay gap range from women being paid 11.8% to 14% less [than
men].
·
Women
achieve 61% of the tertiary qualifications but they are generally for lower
paid industries.
·
Women’s
unemployment rates are higher than men’s, while more women aged 15- 24 years of
age are not in employment, education or training.
·
Only
14 per cent of directors on NZX 100 top companies are women. Nearly 42 per cent
of public sector directors are female (p. i).
The Human Rights Commission of
New Zealand (2015) has stated that the gender pay gap “is a human rights issue
and action needs to be taken.” Rae Duff (2015), the National president of the
National Council of Women of New Zealand, agreed and advocated that to address
the gender pay gap and other gender inequities “we need to change the way we
think and act around gender issues. We need culture change to remove the
entrenched sexism underpinning many of the outcomes we see for women” (Foreword).
1.3 Gender and leadership in Aotearoa
New Zealand education
In the New Zealand education system
gender and leadership is an under researched topic. The most recent joint report
on gender is from 2008 by the Ministry of Education, Teaching Unions and New
Zealand School Trustees Association: the “Pay and Employment Equity Review,
Compulsory Schooling Sector.” It stated unequivocally
that there was gender disadvantage for women teachers and principals in high
school career advancement; in 2008 men were more than 3 times more likely to
win a principal position (Ministry of Education, Pay and Employment Equity
Review, 2008, p. 27). This disadvantage continued as the 2012 figures from the Ministry of
Education (Enquiries National Team, Ministry of Education, personal
communication, July 24, 2015) revealed that male teachers are three times more
likely to become principals than their female colleagues. In other words in 2012 around 60% of
the total number of high school teachers (years 7-15 and 9-15 inclusive) were
women but less than 33% of all principal positions were held by women (Enquiries National Team, Ministry of Education,
personal communication, July 24, 2015).
1.4 Neo-liberalism in Aotearoa
New Zealand education
Since the 1990s neo-liberalism
has driven the economic, social and cultural reconstruction of New Zealand and shapes
the work of New Zealand’s education system and its educational leaders (Thrupp,
2008). Thrupp (2010) recommended that skilled principals, both males and
females, understand the local, national and global political context in which
they live by recognising and critiquing the neo-liberal “effects of educational
markets, managerialism, performativity and privatization” (p.9). However, it is
also important to understand the neo-liberal context of the education system
when addressing gender inequity in principalship especially as women are
achieving higher success in other senior management and middle management roles
within education (Enquiries National Team,
Ministry of Education, personal communication, July 24, 2015).
1.5 How neo-liberalism specifically affects
women in the New Zealand education system
I have identified three reasons
why I believe neo-liberalism specifically affects women. Women may choose not
to become principals in this climate (Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011; Fuller,
2015) because they are less likely to agree with the neo-liberal educational
policy which emphasises the managerialist processes of inspection and
performance management and “reduces people to numbers or grades” (Fuller, 2015,
p. 182).
Two, even if women do target principalship
the team shortlisting the principal applications (including Board of Trustee
members and/or private companies) may perceive women as putting people before
results. This does not fit with
neo-liberal traits of an effective leader and therefore women are less likely
to be offered interviews (Fitzgerald & Wilkinson, 2010; Neidhardt, 2009).
Three, after the long journey
to principalship, as it takes women much longer to become principals than men
(Duncan, 2013; Sobehart, 2015), women are more likely to
find themselves stood precariously on the “glass cliff.” This analogy
represents a person who is a leader at a risky or precarious organisation where
the chance of failure is higher (Ryan & Haslam, 2005, p. 81). In 2012 43%
of the principals at Decile 1 schools were women, although the figures are
lower at Decile 2 with 21% and Decile 3 schools with 34% (Enquiries National
Team, Ministry of Education, personal communication, July 24, 2015) (1). Lower socio-economic schools do receive more
money per student from the Government than higher decile schools. Nonetheless, as schools are self-managing, higher
decile schools are more economically stable as they raise money through school
donations, fundraisers and foreign students (Barry, 2006; Codd, 2005). As lower
decile schools cannot raise similar amounts of money, they become financially
poorer and may also have to deal with an increase in issues as students from
lower socio-economic homes often have more “messy details” in their lives (Thrupp
& Lupton, 2006, p.319). This in turn
can lead to white flight where more affluent European members of a community
choose to send their children to high decile schools with a greater proportion
of European students rather than their local schools (Waslander & Thrupp, 1995).
Schools in poorer areas end up with lower numbers, less funding and a lowering
of decile and these principals, who are often women, find themselves on a precarious
“glass cliff.” Here it is difficult for
principals to be “successful” in neo-liberal terms of results and the high
levels of stress make it harder for them to find a work/life balance
(Shakeshaft, Robinson, Grogan & Sherman Newcomb, 2015).
1.6 Why everyone should be
interested in women’s underrepresentation in principal positions
Grogan and Shakeshaft (2011)
contended that despite four decades of research
on women’s challenges in educational leadership many people are not aware of
the issue or people in powerful positions such as politicians don’t consider
that it is important enough to make tangible changes. This is demonstrated by the lack of
implementation of the recommendations of the New Zealand 2008 “Pay and
Employment Equity Review, Compulsory Schooling Sector” report (2) and the
demise of the Department of Labour’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit itself in
2009 (Public Service Association, 2009, May, 14).
However, women’s
underrepresentation in principal positions is especially significant in schools
if society wants an equitable education and future for all students. An effective principal can make
a huge difference to the success of a school and if the best person is not appointed
then the students may be held back (Wintour, 2014, March, 21). Students also need
exposure to appropriate interactions and relationships by observing a variety
of men and women on staff (and I would add a diversity of other attributes too)
in all positions in schools to inform their aspirations (Coleman, 2009; Hansen,
2014). Therefore, I believe that it
is imperative to challenge the current reality until
the proportion of female leaders mirrors the proportion of female teachers
(Sobehart,
2015).
1.7 What are Janet’s “embers
of truth?”
This study investigates a
female first time principal, Janet, to discover the barriers that stopped or
slowed her journey to principalship and the enablers, the people and
opportunities who supported her. I wanted
find out her “embers of truth” (Sobehart, 2015, p. xi) through a dialogical,
ethnographical interview (Le Fevre & Farquhar, 2015; Lyman et al., 2012) by discovering how her lived
experiences, her roles and her reality, influenced her career path story.
1.8 Abaida
Mahmood’s visual metaphor illuminating the barriers facing women to reach the
top
Figure 1
Abaida Mahmood’s (2015) visual metaphor of the barriers in a women’s life to
achieving leadership positions
As a starting
point I was impressed by Abaida Mahmood’s (2015) visual metaphor, which is the representation of an idea by way of a visual image, as it clearly shows the barriers a woman
may face in her climb towards leadership compared to a man’s professional journey. On the left a man navigates
his career pathway to the top with only his brief case to carry and his eyes
firmly on the prize. On the right a
woman has numerous things to contend with in her career pathway including
housework, crying children, her eyes aren’t fixed on the summit and it looks
more treacherous. Through the investigation of Janet’s barriers and her
enablers in this study I adapted this visual
metaphor to incorporate new findings, and this features in the conclusion. I do recognise that analogies are not perfect,
including this one as it could reflect the notion that principalship is the
only goal in a teacher’s career or that a principal should be at the top
“shouting down instructions” to everyone below her. However, I think that for Janet the visual
image of climbing a mountain reflects her journey appropriately.
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