Postures of Resistance: Women in Positions of Educational Leadership

• In Event: Race and Gender Matters: Students, Faculty, and Leaders

Abstract

This paper explores the experiences of twelve women in positions of educational leadership. Drawing on individual and focus group interviews, the researchers sought to explore how overt and covert forms of discrimination affect interactions and subjectivities. Resonant with the extant literature on women and leadership, the participants in this study faced gendered and racialized microaggressions as they worked to gain and maintain positions of authority. Moving beyond these findings, which have been documented in the extant literature, this paper takes up Barad’s (2007) theory of intra-action and Foucault’s (1977) commentary on surveillance to explore resistances adopted by the participants in response to microaggressions, desertion tactics, and sabotage maneuvers.

Authors

• Liz Chase, St. John's University

• Jen Martin, Mount Union