Women Rising: The Pathway to Becoming a Female Superintendent in a Metropolitan District Through the Lens of Female Assistant Superintendents

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Examining Women's Paths Into and Experience in Leadership

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated the scarcity of females in the superintendency in the U.S. public school systems through the lens of the little-studied female assistant superintendent. Females remain underrepresented in the superintendency, with very little change in the last century. While 76% of the K-12 educators in the United States are female, only 22.6% of superintendents are female. To understand this issue, the researcher conducted a constructivist, grounded theory study, framed within social role theory and feminist standpoint theory. Through semistructured interviews, 12 female assistant superintendents in a metropolitan area presented the barriers, motivators, and relationship they have had with power as they climbed the career ladder.

Authors

• Holly Brookins, Atlanta Public Schools

• Carol A. Isaac, Mercer University