Gender and headship in the twenty-first century



can't get them interested in promotion.' Another said she encourages women by:
'praising successes, giving them confidence, looking for areas to develop.'

In the secondary schools, maternity leave was mentioned as a particular issue and a
woman head in her early 40s stated that she offered: 'practical advice and support
over maternity leave and return to work.' Another that she shows: understanding
when children are ill, or family days, breakdown in childcare etc.'. Other approaches
mentioned are facilitating job shares and flexible part-time arrangements, and job
sharing. Although some of the comments from women heads were empathetic about
maternity leave, there was actually little difference between the responses of the
women and men heads overall.

In all this the place of men is not forgotten, one woman secondary head in her 50s
summed up her attitude to women with: 'consideration of work/life balance - as for
the men who also have family responsibilities'. Another in the same age group
stated that: 'I don't specifically encourage men or women but I do specially
encourage those who I think are good, but lacking in confidence.'

In all, although it is less than half who actively support women in their career
development, in comparison with the late 1990s there seems to be a much richer
offering of development opportunities and a greater recognition of the possibilities of
being flexible and creative in relation to staffing, to the advantage of women easing
their way back into work after having a child, and for the men and women with young
families.

Learning points

There are very few differences in the ways that men and women
headteachers say that they operate as leaders.

The dominant style for both men and women is 'feminine' and typified by
collaboration and openness. The second style that is important is much more
directive and efficient and this style is much more common now than it was at
the end of the 1990s and slightly more common amongst women secondary
heads than any other group. Again this cuts across the gender stereotypes
about leadership.

The impact of the vocabulary of national initiatives and training can be seen
in the choices of adjectives to describe the heads' choice of words to describe
their leadership style.

Most heads report that they are readily available to see their staff, but
secondary heads are more likely to make appointments now than they were
in the previous study.

Opportunities for career development reported for men and women are more
varied and creative than in the 1990s .

Most heads do not offer special encouragement to their women staff, but
those that do most often specify flexible arrangements related to maternity
leave and families.

41



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