Provided by Institute of Education EPrints
Gender and headship in the twenty-first century (draft - published by NCSL
early 2005)
Marianne Coleman
Introduction
NCSL are committed to supporting diversity in leadership, and as part of that
commitment are pursuing a programme of gender related initiatives including: middle
leadership training for women; support for established women leaders and auditing
for gender issues on the range of leadership programmes they provide. These
priorities were identified following- discussions at the Gender Agenda meeting at
NCSL in November 2003.
Interview and survey research on the gender related experience of women and men
secondary headteachers in the 1990s (Coleman, 2000, 2001 and 2002) partly
informed these discussions and in early 2004, NCSL funded a further survey on
gender issues, extending it to primary and special school headteachers (see
methodology section at the end of the report and appendix 1 for the questionnaire).
This report focuses on the findings of the 2004 survey but draws comparisons with
the data from the 1990s survey. A summary of some of the conclusions from the
earlier research is included at the end of the introduction and some direct
comparisons between the two sets of findings are included in the conclusion. The
concluding section also contains recommendations for schools, national programmes
and aspiring heads, and suggestions for further research.
Gender and leadership in schools: the 2004 figures
Most teachers in both secondary and primary schools are women, but most heads of
secondary schools are men and the proportion of men who are heads in primary
schools is large in comparison to the overall number of women in primary teaching.
However, the proportion of women who are headteachers and deputy headteachers
is growing; for example in 1997, 26 per cent of secondary headteachers and 35 per
cent of deputies were women in a teaching force that was 52 per cent women. In
2002, 31 per cent of secondary heads and 39 per cent of deputy heads were women
out of a teaching force that was 55 per cent women (DfES, 2004).
In the nursery and primary sector the proportion of women teachers has risen
marginally from 83 per cent in 1997 to 84 per cent in 2002 and the proportion of
women heads has increased from 56 per cent to 62 per cent in 2002 (DfES, 2004).
The picture in special schools and pupil referral units also shows men having a
disproportionate number of headships. In 2002 53 per cent of the heads were men
but they only made up 32 per cent of the teaching force, a picture that has been more
or less static since 1997 (DfES, 2004).
Although there are changes in the numbers of women holding senior leadership
positions in schools, particularly in the secondary sector, a man teacher still has a
greater chance of being a headteacher than a woman in both the secondary and the
primary phase and in special schools.