Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - chapter 7 ENABLERS IN JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP - Support

Chapter Seven: Support

Janet’s husband, whānau and colleagues all supported and are still supporting Janet by pulling and pushing her up the mountain and enabling her to stay there at the top.

7.1 “It’s good to have a supportive husband” (Janet)

During her interview Janet signposted a number of times that a support system both as a wife and mother was necessary while she was a deputy principal but also played a big part in her decision to become a principal.

Male principals often have a traditional home life with their wife at home looking after the children although female principals usually share responsibilities with their husbands (Coleman, 2009).  Janet utilised before and during principalship a wide variety of support systems in the same way as has been reported for other female educational leaders in the USA (Hansen, 2014; Sperandio, 2015) including: family, female friends and paying for a housekeeper to keep on top of the running of their home.

International research maintains the importance of a husband’s backing when a woman becomes a principal or takes on a similar leadership role such as superintendent (Kelsey et al., 2014) or school administrator in the USA (Young & McLeod, 2001), principal in Australia (Masters, 2015) and president in higher education institutions in the Philippines (Rosario, 2015).  This corresponds with Janet’s experiences and she specified that her own husband was “a great support” when their daughter was younger and now.  She felt “lucky because he is a shift worker” and when their daughter was at day care he would sometimes pick her up at 2 pm so he could spend time with her before going back on shift.  This would make Janet return home by 3.45 pm so he could go to work although sometimes she took her daughter back to school with her. When Janet became a principal he mowed lawns and fixed things until they got a caretaker at the school.  When she has difficult times at school and doesn’t know what she is doing he asks “shall I come to school and sort them out?” 

Family connections and support are of the utmost importance to both Janet and her husband.  When setting up as a new principal Janet had “aunties and uncles, nieces and nephews coming in hanging up curtains and putting them into classrooms.”  Janet believed that backing from whānau was vital in her success in becoming a principal which concurs with Loder’s (2005) USA research which also found that family was a help when women administrators had to negotiate work-family conflicts. 

A third support system for Janet was her female colleagues with small children who also used the school’s day care centre.  Janet reminisced “it was nice that a lot of teachers had their children there, had that empathy and quite often one of us would go and pick up four kids, while their mothers were still working.” In the USA Hansen (2014) and Young and McLeod (2001) determined that when women were in leadership positions they could also rely on their female colleagues with children to assist them if not practically but emotionally by giving them opportunities to discuss how to balance their careers and families. 

Janet did find support in a number of people which could have helped her to become a principal at an earlier time as support or lack of it can make or break a woman’s decision to take on this role (Loder, 2005) but decided that it was not the right time for her. Janet understood the external influences in her life and was pragmatic about them.  She did have agency over her life but chose to work within her boundaries (Smith, 2011).   

Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - chapter 6 ENABLERS IN JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP - Social Justice

ENABLERS IN JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP

Chapter Six: Social Justice

Social justice came out strongly as an enabler that kept Janet’s eye on the target of principal and helped pull her to the top.  It also compels her to remain there, even if she has days when she just craves to get down.

6.1 We “can’t have any more kids falling through the cracks and doing nothing” (Janet, 2015)

It is vital to ensure that no society wastes “the talent of its children and citizens” (Harris, James, Gunraj, Clarke & Harris, 2006, p.4) and social justice is high on Janet’s agenda.  However, social justice is an elusive concept and has a plethora of meanings (Sandretto, 2004).   I base my definition on Sandretto’s (2004) and Noddings’ (1999) proposals that all people must be treated equitably but also connect it to action (Lyman et al., 2012).  Therefore, in education, all students should be treated as individuals and given equitable opportunities to escape from “exploitation, economic marginalisation and deprivation” (Taysum & Gunter, 2008, p. 197). 

Janet’s mother was deacon in the Anglican Church and this had a “huge influence” on her values and beliefs even though Janet did not carry on in the church once she left home. Her mother was also a Justice of the Peace so Janet “saw her dealing with many social issues.” Janet uses these family values as her moral “guiding compass” (Lyman et al., 2012, p. 83) which steered her throughout her teaching career, directed her up to principalship and kept her there once she arrived.

Janet has a true passion for her community which has a “myriad of socio-economic problems” (Harris et al., 2006, p. 6) and her “extended kids.” This includes her own whānau as she has “a niece and a nephew in this town who walked out of school aged 15 who now sit in this community, have done nothing and receive the dole.”  Consequently, Janet felt that she “need[ed] to come back.”   She truly believes that society “can’t have any more kids falling through the cracks and doing nothing” as many other female principals and other leaders have indicated (Brown, 2002; Harris et al., 2006; Theoharis, 2007).  Social justice compelled Janet to make the journey from deputy principal up to the peak.  

Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - chapter 5 BARRIERS TO JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP - whanau and motherhood

Chapter Five: Whānau and motherhood

I identified two barriers in Janet’s life, related to her family that made it more difficult for her to circumnavigate the mountain to Principalship and compelled her to wait until her daughter had left school:  being a wife and being a mother of a school aged child.

5.1 Principalship “does put pressure on relationships, marriages” (Janet)

Women principals undertake multiple roles as they are not only principals but are often homemakers/mothers/carers of young children, teenagers and older parents (Hansen, 2014).  These multiple roles take an inordinate amount of energy and therefore women may find it more difficult to try to strike a balance between career and family than their male counterparts (Christman & McClellan, 2008; Fitzgerald & Wilkinson, 2010; Fuller, 2013).  If women do set themselves the goal of scaling the mountain or starting out the journey earlier towards principalship then they are more likely to be single and have fewer children than male principals (Fuller, 2013).

Gino, Wilmuth and Brooks (2015) uncovered that the goals people set for themselves are a powerful motivator for behaviour and are driven by what will make them happy in life as well as the way they imagine their future to be. Compared to men, women have a higher number of life goals with a smaller proportion related to achieving power (the desire to influence other people) at work.  Of course research by its very nature is generalised and men are also affected by work/family tensions but women tend to be more directly affected (Coleman, 2009) as they often put their needs of their partner and family ahead of their own career aspirations (Neidhart, 2009).   This decision could happen because women are “encumbered by the expectations” of their “life context” (Hansen, 2014, p. 20) or because women do not want to position one life goal above another, especially in relation to their careers, as much as men do (Gino et al., 2015).

An example of this is relocation to a different place for employment.  Research shows that few women have the luxury of relocating (Neidhardt, 2009; Robinson, 2015) and Robinson (2015) found that in the USA “society discourages family change for the sake a of a wife’s career” (p. 59).  However, Janet and her husband had “looked at moving but house prices were absolutely phenomenal [and she was] quite happy to travel” for around 45 minutes each way to her new school as a deputy principal. “It was a good relaxation in the morning; wind down, wind up.”  With both of her parents deceased and her husband’s family in town “I would have stayed around here anyway.”

If women choose to put their own needs first they may even have to “let go” of their husbands to take on more leadership responsibility (Brunner, 1999, as cited in Robinson, 2015, p. 11) and Duncan (2013) observed that female principals were more likely to be single, divorced or separated compared to their male counterparts.  Janet understood that principalship “does put pressure on relationships, marriages.”  This made her less willing to make the sacrifice of home/career balance including time spent away from her husband and daughter if she became a principal.  Janet wanted to wait until she had more time and less responsibilities.  This waiting for the right time concurs with USA research findings from Litmanovitz’s (2011) who studied female educational leaders at all levels and Sperandio’s (2015) investigation into female superintendents.   

5.2 Being a mother “I was one of those mothers who thought I would have five years off and within six months I was going up the wall” (Janet)

Janet thought that she would always be the kind of mother who would have a baby and then “have five years off” until her child started school.  However, when her daughter was born within six months she was “going up the wall.”  The day care centre was attached to the high school and only for the use of the school staff so her daughter went there and Janet returned to work.  Janet said “I was the worse mother as she got every bug under the sun when mixing with other children.” Janet also commented that she “made use of every hour” of the day care and was “probably the last terrible parent to pick the child up.” Although she said that “sometimes I regret that, looking back now on her life” Janet could also see the benefits.  For example, her daughter was an only child so at day care she “had lots of company.” When her daughter went to school at 5 the teachers said that “she’s a typical teacher’s child, she was taught how to count and do it all in English and Māori”. Janet retorted “I tell you what it hasn’t come from me. When I get home at 6 pm I barely have time to talk to her, bath her, put her to bed and carry on working. I said she got that from the day centre!” Janet had to be a “superwoman” (Moneypenny, 2013, p. 5) as a deputy principal just to survive let alone be effective.  However, this workload is nothing compare to that of a principal where Fuller (2013) reported that the unofficial working week of a UK head teacher was 62.4 hours.  Here in New Zealand Janet has “between a 6-7 start, [and is] last to leave at night 6-6.30” or 8-9 pm when her husband is at work.  To Janet it did not appear to be sustainable to have a child and to be a principal.

When Janet’s daughter went to primary school she would catch the bus back from there to the high school so her mother could carry on working. When her daughter was older and Janet moved to a deputy principal position in another town her daughter came with her to college.  As Janet said “it was a transport thing, [but] also a safety thing.”  As her father was on shift she did not want her sitting in their home town while she was in a different town so she “came where I was” and “waited for me to finish and came home in the car with me.”  Janet had to incorporate her family life into her job (Robinson, 2015) if she wanted to take on a promotion where she had to travel.

Janet was a deputy principal for a long time but this corresponds with research that illustrated how women delay their careers progression due to family obligations (Eckman, 2004; Fawver, 2014).  Janet weighed up her life goals (Gino et al., 2015) and decided that there was no place for her at the highest point of the mountain while her daughter was in school, echoing what Fuller (2013) revealed in her research.  Her goal of being a mother was stronger than the goal of becoming a principal and Janet waited until daughter had left school before she pursued the role of principal.  Janet asserted “I would never recommend it [principalship] if you have little children, our daughter had left home” which coincides with the opinions of a number of female leaders in the USA (Fawver, 2014; Kelsey et al., 2014).  Eckman (2004) ascertained from her USA study that having young children at home delayed the careers of women while it inspired men.  However, more recent research, again in the USA, detected that a new generation of women appear ready to access leadership positions at a younger age as they accepted the compromises in their home and work life (Sperandio, 2015). 

It appeared that Janet put everything on hold for her whānau but this is not true.  She did have agency and a fulfilling career in senior leadership and she loved the contact with the students which she knew would go (as observed from her previous principals) if she moved up the mountain. Even though being a deputy principal wasn’t challenging as Janet said “I could be a DP (deputy principal), standing on my head” she decided to place her “professional self-actualization in the back seat” (Hansen, 2014, p. 20) until her time was right. She knew that she had one chance to challenge the status quo as principal which took more time than she was willing to give while her daughter was still at home.  Janet had other life goals as a mother and wanted to continue to coach her daughter’s sports teams and help with her other extra-curricular activities.   

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.”   

Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - chapter 3 Background to Janet’s life

Chapter Three: Background to Janet’s life

3.1 “Teaching was in her blood!” (Janet, 2015)

Janet was born on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand in an urban area.  She was the second child in a New Zealand European family with an older and a younger brother.  Her parents had very big roles to play in Janet’s identity as teaching, music, social justice and family stood out to me as four of her main passions in life. 

Janet was a fifth generation teacher in New Zealand on her maternal side with her mother a kindergarten teacher and her mother’s father a principal.  Janet and her brothers spent a lot of time at their mother’s kindergarten after school as it was only three doors down from where they lived so teaching was the norm growing up.   Janet also used to mark both of her brothers’ homework after school and “although she wasn’t a good speller” she liked to “use the red pen.”  Janet’s mother often said to her when she was young that “teaching was in her blood.” 

The musical side of Janet came from her father who was a singer and a pianist.  There was a lot of music in the family as she was growing up and Janet was also heavily involved participating in a number of shows and musicals and was part of the New Zealand Youth choir.  When Janet was about to leave school she wanted to train to become a singer at Victoria University or go to Teachers’ College to become a teacher.  Her father said to her that at the end of the qualification she could be a singer with no job or a teacher with a guaranteed job. Janet chose teaching but specialised in music which gave her the best of both worlds.

In the early 1980s Janet attended the nearest Teachers’ College to where she lived as pre-service was then zoned in New Zealand.  According to Janet “experience was more important [at that time] than your qualifications” and she came out qualified to teach but without her degree.  On the positive side there were no fees for Janet’s study but this also meant that she was bonded for 3 years to a specific school. Towards the end of her time at Teachers’ College she applied for 172 jobs and was offered 3.  She decided as a single white female to take one at an intermediate school in the “back of beyond” of the central North Island with a high percentage of Māori in the community.  There was huge white flight from this community in the 1990s due to the change in the rules about workers in the mill living in the area which led to a decline in the economic situation.  There is now a very high percentage of solo parents and grandparents raising grandchildren.  Janet reflected that “[w]e’ve got a lots on the poverty line and below it even” but it’s a “really neat small community” and these “are my extended kids.” This reflected Fuller’s (2013) findings in her study of a number of head teachers in the UK, both male and female, that social justice issues such as poverty and the lack of opportunities for low socio-economic families, which Janet also detected in her area, affected their leadership and reasons they stayed in these communities.  Janet came, met and married her husband, had a child and “never left.”

Janet soon moved to the secondary school to create a musical pathway from the intermediate but this move wasn’t an easy option.  She “struggled with a lot of disharmony over the years as there wasn’t pay parity” as then secondary teachers were paid more than their primary colleagues.  There were also teachers at the secondary school who complained: “who was this primary trained teacher who thought she could come into a secondary school and teach?”  As Janet articulated, they did not know about her music background and qualifications. 

3.2 Summary of career progression

Janet applied for a dean position after a couple of years at the college.  She was then encouraged to apply for the assistant principal position which was made into a deputy principal position when the school flattened the leadership positions.  Janet remained as deputy principal here for eight years until she applied and was appointed to a deputy principal position at a larger school where she remained for thirteen years until she returned to her first high school as principal.

Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - chapter 2 My paradigm and methodology

Chapter Two: My paradigm and methodology

2.1 Overcoming “intellectual seasickness”

Using feminist theory, where the personal is the political, encourages researchers to take action to improve the lives of people (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2003; Fontana & Frey, 2000). In my case the action is my own emancipation from ignorance which will help me to become a better leader and perhaps future principal, as well as signpost some practical and challenging insights in how to support future female leaders (Bishop, 1997; Kemmis & McTaggart, 2003; Ryan, 2004; Megginson & Clutterbuck, 2005).  Therefore, I chose to highlight Janet’s unique lived experience and the significance of her everyday life (Neal & Ozkanli, 2011) on her journey as a first time principal.

I am “drawn to multiple, seemingly incompatible, feminist gender theories” (Fuller, 2013, p.5) as I see both sides of the ‘equality-versus-difference’ debate. Gender theory is complex and I often experience “intellectual sea-sickness” (Reed, 2001, as cited in Fuller, 2013, p.5) where my thinking becomes paralysed (Fuller, 2013). Sometimes I believe in essentialism and that men and women are different but equal while at other times, I am drawn to arguments that women and men are more alike than different (Shakeshaft et al., 2015).  It wasn’t until I embraced Fuller’s (2013) ideas that it was acceptable to move between the seemingly opposed concepts that I could finally, on an intellectual level, relax and understand that it is acceptable to draw on multiple gender theories to explore this issue. 

2.2 Methodology and a fascination with the “minutiae of human life”

As well as being comfortable with multiple truths, roles and realities I am fascinated in the “minutiae of human life” (Fontana & Frey, 2000, p. 665).  As I don’t hide under a “veil of neutrality” (Stake, 2000, p. 447) I chose to conduct a qualitative study using the guided interview framework; characterised by my creation of themes with open ended questions which gave Janet and me the freedom to go choose our own path to some extent (Fontana & Frey, 2000, p. 654-5). 

After receiving ethical approval from the University of Waikato I sent out a number of emails to female high school first time principals from the First Time Principals Programme website (http://www.firstprincipals.ac.nz) and received five replies agreeing to participate in my research.  I chose Janet as she was closest for me to visit and was the principal of a co-educational school which is the sector of education that I am most interested in.  After a number of emails I spent over two hours with her at her school discussing her career pathway and her present position and recorded the interview.  When I returned home the recording was transcribed and I emailed it to Janet to see if she sought any changes or additions as she may not have been able to express her true meaning during the interview (Bishop, 1997; Delamont, 2002). I also sent her a number of emails to clarify certain ideas.  This was essential to me as I wanted to respect Janet as a human being with the right to define meaning in her own life alongside helping to dispel bias and increase validity (Weiler, 1997).  However, Delamont (2002) reminded me that I shouldn’t assume that Janet holds more of the truth than I do and that to create quality research I need the reader to experience my interpretative commentary as “the glue” I have added to her words (Eisenhart, 2006, p. 571). 

2.3 Coding, creating thick descriptors and my interpretative commentary as the glue I have added to Janet’s words  

I coded and indexed the transcript by drawing out patterns and then revised and revamped my codes (Delamont, 2002; Hansen 2014; Menter, Elliot, Hulme, Lewin & Lowden, 2011).  This allowed me to create the thick, vivid descriptors that made the “familiar strange and the exotic familiar” (Delamont, 2002, p. 149).  While pasting my interpretative glue to the descriptors (Eisenhart, 2006, p. 571) I constructed Janet’s life history which is an innovative method of pinpointing events in the progression of her career (Glesne, 2011; Hansen, 2014).  A well-researched life history and therefore a well-researched career life history “illustrates the uniqueness, dilemmas, and complexities of a person in such a way that it causes readers to reflect upon themselves and to bring their own situations and questions to the story” (Glesne, 2011, p. 11).    I recognised that my involvement in this topic as a female school leader would influence my selection of texts (Bell, 2010; Lincoln, Lynham & Guba, 2005; Weiler, 1997) but as it was a qualitative study this was expected.

2.4 Validity to ensure that the knowledge Janet and I have created together makes sense of her life and circumstances

I believe that this solo study into one woman’s reality of her rise to leadership is valid as validity is established when it can be determined that a study actually measures what it was intended to measure (Kvale & Brinkman, 2009, as cited in Neidhart, 2009).  This same reasoning was used by Neidhart (2009) in her New Zealand study of seven female primary school Deputy Principals about barriers to becoming principals.   I intended to measure the career path of a first time female principal and I believe together, Janet and I were able to create a rich, valid description that will be applicable to myself and other women who aspire to become principals.

2.5 Ethical considerations and New Zealand as part of a small-world network

In my initial contact with Janet I was open and honest about what I was hoping to achieve, especially around the topics I wanted to cover, as I preferred that she pulled out before the research began rather than half way through it (Bell, 2010).   

For me, the most challenging ethical consideration is anonymity, or the lack of it, in New Zealand.  Internet commentator David Farrar (2007) pointed out that there is only “two degrees of separation” between anyone in New Zealand and statisticians state that New Zealand is part of a small-world network (MacGibbon, 2008).  I found a professional connection with Janet within the first two minutes we met which is important when co-constructing research (Bishop, 2005) but can be problematic.  Smaller population numbers in New Zealand compared to many other countries means fewer professional networks and an increased awareness of colleagues (Neidhardt, 2009).  Therefore, when asking Janet for details about her career journey to principalship I was clear about my definition of confidentiality and anonymity and heeded any of her concerns (Bell, 2010; Stake, 2000). 

2.6 Conclusion and suiting myself in relation to a research model

Human beings are complex and ever changing and there are endless ways to discover information about them (Fontana & Frey, 2000).  I listened to the wise words of Judith Bell (2010) who said that I should “suit myself” (p. 183) and select the research model which is right for my purpose as there are “many different arguments for doing different things” to explore the “respondents’ beliefs, interpretations and understanding of issues” (p. 166).  I believe that I chose the right approach as long as I was reflexive, had good manners and acted within a strict ethical code.  This enabled me to fashion a valid and ethical piece of research that gave a voice to Janet on the influences in her career pathway to principalship (Bell, 2010; Hoppey & McLeskey, 2013; Stake, 2000). 

Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - introduction

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.