Table 11: Headteachers with a child or children 2004
%
Women secondary 63
Women primary 79
Men secondary 90
Men primary 93
In the earlier survey of secondary women (reported in Coleman, 2000 and 2002), the
proportion of women who were aged 40 - 50 were much less likely to have a child or
children than their older women colleagues. Over half of them apparently had taken
a decision to remain child free, presumably because of the difficulties associated with
combining motherhood and the role of headteacher.
Table 12: The percentages of male and female (by age group) secondary
headteachers having children 1990s
All men All women Women 50 and over Women under 50
94.0 51.7 61.6 44.4
Although the proportion of women secondary headteachers having a child or children
is now on average 63 per cent (similar to the figure for the over 50s in the 1990s),
there does appear to have been a particular cohort of women who did remain child
free. They can be identified in the figures in the 2004 survey as the cohort who are
now in the 46-55 age group and who are less likely to have children than either those
women who are older or who are younger than them.
Table 13: Percentage of Secondary women heads (by age group) with children
2004
Age group 40 - 45 46 - 50 51 - 55 56 - 60
61 53 52 71
The percentage of secondary women having children dips significantly for age
groups 46 - 50 and 51 - 55. This cohort had less children than those older and those
younger. It may be that this cohort of women were influenced by the feminist
movement of the 1970s and/or the achievement orientation of the Thatcherite 1980s.
They also were the first cohort to experience the effects of having statutory maternity
leave. Although maternity leave protects women's rights to return to work, it does
have the effect of changing expectations about how much time women take off to
have children. The older women headteachers were much more likely to have taken
off considerable amounts of time when their children were young - 27 per cent of the
over 50s had taken a break of more than a year compared to only 4.5 per cent of the
under 50s in the 1990's survey (Coleman, 2002). In 2004 only 11 per cent overall
had taken a longer break and most of these were in the older age group. The
general expectation now is that women who are making progress up the career
ladder will take maternity leave and come straight back to work, with all the attendant
difficulties. Perhaps this change in expectations had an effect on the age group
which first experienced it. What is clear is that the reduction in child-bearing for the
women secondary headteachers in the late 1990s has not continued as a downward
trend in the current decade. However, the fact remains that women headteachers,
20