4. Are there differences in the ways that women and men headteachers say
that they operate as leaders?
There are stereotypes about how men and women lead. As we have seen from the
reported views of governors and others in the earlier sections, there are often doubts
about whether women will be tough enough as a headteacher. A woman secondary
head in her early 40s was asked by male interviewers if she 'had steel enough to do
the job', another reported: 'aggressive interviewing from male governors who seem to
regard you as a "little woman" who couldn't possibly be tough enough for headship!'
Men in primary schools report that they perceived doubts about the their ability to
manage in some circumstances. The underlying stereotypes are of a soft, caring
woman leader and a tough, dominant male leader. These stereotypes can serve to
support the belief that women are less suitable than men to be headteachers.
The survey set out to see how the heads actually perceived their own leadership
style. As data were collected through a survey, it was not possible to check the
answers of the heads against the views of their staff, therefore the views expressed
here are the perceptions of the heads themselves who may have wanted to draw a
favourable picture of the ways in which they operate.
They were asked first of all to identify three adjectives that expressed the way that
they saw their own management style. They had a free choice in this, and of course
a wide range of words was suggested. The words chosen most by heads from all the
different types of school were the same for men and women, and the same in
primary, secondary and special schools, although the order was slightly different:
open
consultative
inclusive
collegiate
supportive
collaborative
democratic
coaching
and these words seem to sum up what is seen by the heads as the dominant style of
management and leadership. However, following these words in popularity is a
second style which has more in common with the target driven, potentially
managerial style that may be being demanded of today's leaders. Typical words
mentioned here are:
decisive
determined
visionary
challenging
authoritative
strategic
In the choice of these words, there was not much difference between the sexes, but
these more directive words were more common in secondary schools and less
common in primary schools.
In the surveys done at the end of the 1990s the same question was asked of
secondary women and men heads, and then as in 2004, most men and women
36