Most Teachers Are Women. Why Are There So Few Women Superintendents?

Most schoolteachers in the United States are women, but few superintendents are.

Although women make up 76% of K–12 teachers in the U.S., they are just 54% of principals, and only 24% of superintendents, according to federal data and a survey done by AASA, the School Superintendents Association. But several initiatives are underway that are designed to improve these numbers by creating opportunities for women educators obtain top positions.

Besides the obvious imperative to create equal professional opportunities for women in the field of education, many leaders of these initiatives point to the impact on students of seeing more women in leadership positions. “I think that students recognize constantly what is happening around them,” says Emily Hartnett, senior managing director of ILO Group, a woman-owned policy strategy and policy firm that focuses on education. “They are able to make those connections to how it reflects on parts of their identity, and how they see themselves in the world around them.”

But to increase such opportunities for both women educators and the students who look up to them, leaders must identify and confront the barriers and challenges facing women in the field.

“It’s not very different from the corporate world,” says Barbara Jenkins, a former superintendent who heads the Women in Leadership initiative for the educators’ advocacy group Chiefs for Change. “I think the numbers are even more tilted when you get to the very top.”

And similar to other fields, the reasons for women’s low representation in the upper echelons include bias in hiring (including school boards having preconceived notions of what a superintendent should look like), insufficient mentoring and preparation for women, a “boys’ club” mentality that shuts women out of networking, and, in some cases, women’s own hesitation to put themselves up for the top job. Women often feel compelled to check every box and gain every skill needed before seeking higher positions, whereas men go right toward those roles even if they lack some of the necessary skills for them.

“Women are more hesitant to pursue the role until they feel like they’re absolutely prepared for the role with every possible experience,” explains Jenkins. “Males, on the other hand, are anxious enough to move forward and apply if they already have or possess about 50% of the skills.”

Another barrier is that women are subject to no-win expectations around work and family in this demanding position that often requires working several nights a week. Women superintendents find themselves criticized if they are seen as allowing the job to take them away from their families, and also criticized if they take time from the job for their families.

Susan Enfield, the superintendent of Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada, says a friend with three children became a superintendent. That friend took time off to see her kids’ sporting events, which made some in the school community question her priorities.

“If a man did that, he’d be celebrated,” says Enfield. “And you flip that, I do not have children of my own. So when I make a decision, people say, well, she doesn’t have kids of her own, she just doesn’t get it.”

AASA, the ILO Group, and Chiefs for Change are among the groups seeking to help women become superintendents despite the challenges. They have created professional programs, networking opportunities, and support groups. The AASA has several programs where a mentor is assigned to a candidate. AASA also has such programs geared toward education leaders of color, such as a partnership with Howard University to encourage Black women to become superintendents.

Emily Hartnett says ILO Group’s Women Leading Ed program is where its members come together to support one another. “I would say the biggest thing is creating community,” Hartnett says. “And this can look a lot of different ways. It can be executive coaching, it can be programming that is for groups of executive leaders within a regional area, district, or state. And it’s really tailored to what is happening for that individual, for the groups of leaders that we’re working with, and being really responsive to what their needs are, and sort of like walking side by side, in thinking about how we really support them in the stage of their leadership journey that they’re in.”

Sonya Hunte, the senior director of the Office of Equity and Community Engagement for the school district in Anchorage, Alaska, is a member of Women Leading Ed. She explains that one way she finds women to mentor is by volunteering at a college preparatory program where she meets young women exploring careers. “You do have some influence in sharing some possibilities based on their strengths, and even areas of growth,” she says. “But I’ve met students in high school and in college before finishing, and mentor them all the way up through now working in public education spaces.”

But even with support and mentorship opportunities, there are still challenges that stand in the way of more women becoming superintendents, especially in recent years. Those Women’s Media Center spoke to agree that both the pandemic and the controversies over mask mandates exhausted many educators, reducing the ranks of those who could have been in the running for bigger positions.

“When the pandemic occurred,” says Valarie Truesdale, the assistant executive director at AASA, “school leaders, district leaders were lauded as saving communities, because we figured out how to … teach [students] when they weren’t in school. And we did it pretty quickly, actually. And then this mask thing started. And the attacks on elected leaders began to grow a lot. And then there was January 6, and attacks on officials. It’s been growing and growing. So, a large number of folks are beginning to say, is it worth it, to constantly have these personal attacks.”

Hartnett explains that while she has heard many stories of exhaustion and demoralization from many teachers, both men and women, the women educators have expressed feeling as if they are “sponges” soaking up the vitriol in the community. However, Hartnett says few educators publicly say why they are leaving their roles because they signed nondisclosure agreements or do not want their public explanation to affect them from getting another job.

Meanwhile, the nationwide teacher shortage is also contributing to a dearth of candidates. According to Emily Hartnett says when women leave their superintendent roles, they are replaced by men two-thirds of the time. Enfield sees these factors as making the need for networking all the more urgent.

“There’s a lot of turnover right now,” she says. “It makes the job harder and more stressful. And it’s our reality right now, and we just have to find ways through it. But this is really, in my mind, where the networking thing comes in. Like you’ve got to be able to turn to colleagues that you can get ideas from that you can lean on. Because no one of us has the answer for this. But together, I believe we can figure it out. But it’s going to take a while.”

But Hunte is optimistic. She is hopeful that the pandemic will inspire others to get involved in education.

“Although the teacher shortage exists,” she says. “I think that there are people that are working in other professions that say, I really want to do something meaningful within the public education space, and will explore the possibilities of teaching. I think we’ll see in a short space of time that there’ll be an uptick and people coming into the profession.”

“Women actually are better managing during the crises,” says Jenkins, referring to a 2020 study in the Harvard Business Review. “Probably because we’re always putting out fires and [living] multifaceted lives. I wish [school boards] could screen applications or almost interview without knowing the [applicant’s] gender. So we have to get past whatever stereotype and whatever predispositions are in place to somehow imply that a woman is less qualified to lead.”

“But we also need to make sure, just like in corporate America, that women do not have to deal with the glass ceilings.”