in her late 40s said that she doubted her ability to obtain headship when: 'I got my
deputy headship and my marriage broke up'.
A woman primary head teacher in her early 50s stated that: 'Most of my career I
have had young children and elderly parents to care for. I am only just free to take
up a headship.' Another in the same age group, commented that she doubted her
ability to become a head: 'moving round Europe due to my husband's career'.
Similar comments relating to children and partners came from women secondary
headteachers, but they were not the norm amongst the men, although a few men did
mention the impact of domestic responsibilities or marriage break up and one male
primary headteacher in his early 40s did say that he had doubted his ability to
achieve headship: 'when my children were very young and I couldn't devote long
hours after school.' Men and women both mentioned the difficulty of being tied to a
geographical area by their children's schooling.
A further factor that is likely to be perceived as difficult for women relates to age and
qualifications. For women who have taken a career break or 'back-pedalled' because
of children, age and experience can be seen to be a problem. For older women in
primary schools who are more likely to have a Certificate of Education and less likely
to have a degree it may be a particular difficulty. But in secondary schools too,
qualifications can be a barrier. One woman secondary head in her late 40s said that
she doubted her ability to become a head when: 'an attached advisor suggested a
BEd was not intellectual enough for headship - so I did an MA.'
Both men and women pointed to issues relating to current government education
policies or the impact of the LEA that had knocked their confidence:
• the LEA: 'suspicion of bias by advisers'. (Male primary head, late 40s)
• a poor Ofsted report,
• going into 'serious weaknesses as a deputy headteacher' (woman
primary head early 40s)
• not succeeding at NPQH 'I did not complete this and if I had not got
headship before it was statutory I would not have gone on'. (woman
secondary head late 40s).
Confidence is very important for successful promotion and lack of confidence has
been particularly linked to women (see for example Shakeshaft, 1989). The next
section looks at the sources of support for those who aspire to headship.
Sources of support including mentoring
There are sources of support in both the home and the workplace. Since the 1990s
surveys there has been an overall shift towards professional influences being rated
as important in comparison with the support from home. All the heads, men and
women, primary and secondary rated the support of a previous head as the most
important influence on them, with men secondary heads naming them more than any
one else.
Support from the home was rated next most important, with partner and family being
particularly important for women. Their ‘own parents’ were mentioned more by men
and women primary men than by secondary heads.
Virtually all the heads said that they had been encouraged to apply for promotion and
again this encouragement was most likely to have come from their own previous
headteacher and in the case of secondary heads other senior managers in the
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