In the Spring of 2020, I interviewed over 70 successful female leaders (in international schools, and some public and private schools around the world) for the Women Who Lead programme. I wanted to seek their personal stories and insights on the challenges and realities facing women in leadership in education.
Those interviews highlighted many of the unique challenges that women face pursuing a leadership role in schools – and their stories can help aspiring leaders recognize some common experiences and barriers for those who do not fit the stereotypical view of “a leader”.
Although there is the perception that there are more women moving into leadership roles in recent years, the data shows that is not the case. During the Women Who Lead interviews, I spoke to Deb Welsh, then CEO of the Academy of International School Heads, who noted that the percentage of women in head of school positions has remained steady at 28-33 per cent over the last ten years.
“People think there are more women moving into leadership roles but the data shows that is not the case.”
While we may see more women than before in lower leadership positions, the results of the Diversity Collaborative 2019 Survey finds that “the pipeline is a trickle by the time you get to the upper end”. The reality is that this is an ongoing problem in international, public and private schools around the world.
In the interviews I conducted, several key themes emerged as unique challenges for women pursuing a leadership role. Many readers will find these stories familiar. For those who are hearing these types of stories for the first time, you may want to seek out opportunities to dig deeper into why that might be. In this first article I’ll be highlighting some specific stories regarding the following four of the challenges faced by women in educational leadership:
- unconscious bias and daily microaggressions
- physical expectations
- linguistic expectations
- cultural expectations of “leaders”
All the following direct quotes are excerpts from the Women Who Lead Interview Series (Cofino, 2020).
Unconscious Bias and Daily Microaggressions
While many people might find themselves facing the problem of dealing with microaggressions in the work environment, women in leadership, and even more so women of colour, often encounter particularly elevated levels of these negative interactions, since in their positions they so visibly combine the lightning-rod issues of gender and power dynamics.
“Being in the public eye of a leadership position leaves women more exposed to these daily attacks.”
Junlah Madalinski, elementary and middle school principal at Shutz American School, Alexandria, Egypt, described this clearly in our conversation: “What happens when women of colour are in leadership positions is it makes them more visible. Instead of having yourself within your classroom, you have…a larger audience and microaggressions tend to play themselves out in that way.”
Women, and women of colour in particular, no longer have the safety of “staying in their classroom” once they take on the mantle of leadership. Being in the more public eye of a leadership position leaves them more exposed to these daily attacks, unless there is action taken to improve the school culture.
In fact, these kinds of microaggressions can begin even in the interview process. For example, Katie Wellbook, assistant principal for Academics at Suzhou Singapore International School, China, has heard comments such as: ‘Your earrings are too big, they’re a distraction. Is that a power suit you’re wearing? Is it possible to be too ambitious?” As she says, “women have to determine if these comments are misogynistic. Would they ask this to a man?”
“Many women spoke about their appearance or stature being an unspoken obstacle to a leadership role.”
While these kinds of comments might be an initial warning sign to determine if the recruiting organization is the right fit for the individual, we need to shift the culture to be unaccepting of this kind of language and commentary in any setting.
Physical Expectations
Many women also spoke about realizing that their actual appearance or stature had been an unspoken obstacle to securing a leadership position. When you combine physical size with heritage, linguistic background, and other qualities subject to bias, a unique set of intersectional challenges is created.
As Madeleine Heide, then head of school at Lincoln American School, Buenos Aires, Argentina, highlighted in her interview: “I don’t have the profile of being a leader: I’m a woman, I come from Early Childhood, I’m not a white woman, I’m biracial, my heritage is Philipino and I claim my Philipino-ness. These are all ‘points against me’ in terms of stepping up to the top leadership position. In my experience, people have stereotyped notions about what leadership looks like.”
Jasmeen Philleen, assistant principal at International School Manila, talked about the weight of responsibility she feels of not only representing herself as a Black woman, but also representing a long line of African American people.
“People have stereotyped notions about what leadership looks like.”
“She is forced to carefully try to navigate the world knowing that when she’s new to a school, parents can be initially reluctant to have her as their child’s teacher – simply because of the colour of her skin. While these stereotypes exist at all levels of education, it’s definitely still the exception to see many faces like Jasmeen’s in leadership positions in international schools.
As a leader, she realizes that she’s unique, and this, as she mentioned, “makes me strive even harder to prove myself, to prove that I am worthy.” Similarly, Tambi Tyler, head of school at the Colorado Springs School, highlighted that she had “Three strikes [against her] coming out of the gate: as a leader, I’m young, I’m black, I’m a woman.”
Linguistic Expectations
Elsa Donohue, head of school at Vientiane International School in Laos, realized early on that not only her gender, but her speaking accent got in the way of her being offered head of school positions.
During her Women Who Lead interview she points out that for “schools that were defined as being American schools, I didn’t potentially fit. Though that was never explained to me, I could figure it out.” Elsa discovered that an unspoken requirement of speaking English with a stereotypically “Anglo” accent was one of a number of factors that, particularly for women, might impede their progress or even tip the balance one way or the other during hiring.
“Being the only young Muslim woman in her school community, she always felt like she had to prove herself.”
Marta Medved, head of school at Western Academy of Beijing, China, also feels that she’s categorized as “different”, not in terms of appearance, but of language background. She described experiencing this inequality in attending professional learning “when you are surrounded by a group of 20 native speakers, and you’re the only second language speaker,” noting that in these situations it might take longer to process in a second language.
Cultural Expectations
In fact, regardless of physical or linguistic conformity to expectations, women leaders with cultural, religious, or national backgrounds that differ from the standard face unique challenges as well. As Abeer Shinnawi pointed out, “for me as a hijabi, there’s an extra layer. There are always preconceived notions about what I will be like. I know automatically that they don’t get what they thought they were going to get when they see me.”
Being the only young Muslim woman in her school community, she always felt like she had to prove herself, and even among peers and colleagues, she always had to push against the perception of being a meek “wilting flower” because of her hijab.
Many interviewees discussed similar stories of being treated differently because of their background. Fighting against these stereotypes, particularly ones involving visible signs of cultural and/or religious affiliation, can seem like a never-ending battle.
This article was first published in the latest edition of International School Magazine, out now.
