Gatekeeping in Educational Administration Hiring Decisions: A Resume Audit Study

• In Event: Examining and Enhancing the Leadership Pipeline

Abstract

This study examines gatekeeping in educational administration hiring decisions. The researcher conducted a resume audit study with educational administrators from Kansas to understand gender biases in hiring decisions for administrative roles. This study found evidence of gatekeeping that favored men from subjective evaluation of candidate hireability based on resume name when controlling for resume contents. These findings suggest gatekeeping is occurring in educational administration hiring decisions which contributes to gender stratification for valued executive-level careers in education. These findings set the stage for future research to more comprehensively study access to educational administration.

Author

• Katherine Merriweather, Austin Community College