Advancing Women in Leadership Journal
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Principal Gender as Related to Campus Size, Level, and Academic Rating
Get PDFA comparative, quantitative research design was utilized with a Pearson χ² test statistic. Procedures for the study included gathering the gender of all public school principals in the state of Texas by utilizing a TEA data bank. The 2006 AEIS report generated information regarding campus size, campus level, and campus rating for every school in the state of Texas. Results indicated that a significant relationship exists between each of the variables tested. The prevalence of gender at particular school campuses has continued, as gender was found to be significantly related to campus size, campus rating, and campus level. Discussion presented is related to hiring practices and future research
Women-only Leadership Positions in the Middle East: Exploring Cultural Attitudes towards Syrian Women for Sport Career Development
Get PDFBased on the gender ratios in the leadership positions of general sport organisation in Syria, this article aims to explore the reasons behind the low level of women in sport leadership positions. Leadership training used in the general sport organisation in Syria for high-skilled leaders serves to understand the how individual leaders develop in sport bodies, but it fails to explain the reasons for the low level of women in senior sport administrative positions. In this study, I attempt to analyze the cultural aspects to find out: the nature of challenges surrounding women\u27s\u27 career development; and how Syrian women learn and develop within the institutional-cultural context of Syria. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with ten Syrian women leaders: eight from sports governing bodies, one from the National Olympic Committee, and one from the high executive committee. Implications for addressing the challenges for the low level of women in top management in Syrian sport are outlined.Keywords: national culture, leadership, development, Syrian women, and sport
Women in Leadership: Rocky Road to the Superintendency
Get PDFThe inequities associated with gender imbalance in leadership require national attention. Wilson (2004)found that of 435 seats in the House of Representatives, only 59 are women; of the 100 senators, only 14 arewomen. Only 24 women have ever been governors in the United States . Women are nearly half theworkforce, yet we make up only 12% of top executives and hold 12.4% of board seats in 500 of thecountry\u27s largest companies. Although these statistics are significant, they are not nearly as staggering as thestatistics about the positions held by women in the superintendency. Of our nation\u27s 13,728 superintendents,1,984 today are women. Although 72% of K-12 educators are women in the United States , 87% of the topleaders in the school districts, the superintendents, are males according to the U.S. Department of Education.Many questions have been posed and researched about why there are so few women in the superintendentposition. Also, search committees have been formed and new programs have been put into place to recruitwomen into administration. Yet, there has been an inconsequential increase nationally in identifying andhiring women to the superintendency (Nogay, 1996). In reviewing research on women in thesuperintendency, several common strands have been identified that speculate reasons why there are so fewwomen in the superintendency and possible solutions to this significant issue.Besides the commonly held belief that women are discouraged from the superintendency, there are sixdocumented reasons that are substantiated across literature related to why women are not at the top ofschool districts. The six categories encompass a wide range of issues including credentials, school boards,positions held, job structure, age, and mentoring
Women Leaders and Spirituality
Get PDFIn addressing leadership, there are often two interlocking strands. One of these strands centers on thecontributions of leadership grounded in men\u27s leadership experiences (Regan & Brooks, 1995). The secondinterlocking strand includes feminist attributes. This contributes to nuances of meaning that arise fromwomen\u27s experiences of leadership. Regan and Brooks noted five attributes of leadership among women:collaboration, caring, courage, intuition, and vision. Often these attributes are embedded in firmly heldbeliefs which are at the heart of a notion of relational leadership. Over twenty years ago, Jaggar (1983)further emphasized that "feminist theory is at its best when it reflects the lived experiences of women, whenit bridges the gap between mind and body, reason, and emotion, thinking and feeling" (p. x)
Motivators and Inhibitors for Women Superintendents
Get PDFFindings indicated that the top five motivators for women were desire to make a difference, ability to initiatechange, desire to positively impact people, and the personal and professional challenge. There were no significant differences for male superintendents. The top female inhibitors were increased time commitment, the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy, community politics, working with the school board, and isolation from the campus setting. Increased time commitment was significantly more important to females than to males
Prime Minister Mrs. Margaret Thatcher Advancing Gender Equality: Recruitment, Roles, Pay, and Pensions in the Armed Forces
Get PDFMargaret Thatcher, the United Kingdom \u27s first female Prime Minister, moved to initiate policy that wouldsee gender equality in recruitment and pay in the armed forces, but not for pensions or combatant roles. In areview of the events and Thatcher\u27s formulation of policy toward women in the armed forces, as a debate ongender equality and social justice, the salient variables and issues taken into consideration include:Thatcher\u27s personal agenda; her ideological position; her policy priorities; her relations with womenorganizations; the domestic and international political situation in which she lived; and such concerns thatshe might have entertained, such as appearing to show favoritism toward other women or indeed appearingto be weak. Thatcher, the Member of Parliament, had preference to gender equality, though, once electedPrime Minister, prioritized pragmatism and patriotism due to circumstances
Entrepreneurial Skills in Academia: A Curriculum for Teaching Proposal Writing to Female Graduate Students
Get PDFThis article addresses the development of entrepreneurial skills in academic and human service settings byreporting on a curriculum for teaching proposal writing for funded research and program developmentgrants. The article includes a review of current challenges in preparing primarily female graduate studentswith skills needed for grant seeking in their careers in human services. A description of the proposal writingcurriculum, teaching methodologies used, and outcomes obtained during the past six offerings of the courseare described. In addition, preliminary evaluation data from a survey of a nonrandom sample of participantsin the course (N=30) about their perceptions of the course and its utility are included. Lessons learned andimplications for using the curriculum with other populations, such as female faculty and agency-basedhuman service professionals, are also explored
Gender and the Network Structures of Social Capital in Professional-Client Relationships
Get PDFRecent studies in industrialized economies document a shift in gender composition of the labor market.They report an increase in the amount of women entering the labor force and in the number securing toplevelpositions in organizations (Jacobs, 1992; Kanter, 1977; Reskin & Roos, 1990). In professional labormarkets, organizations\u27 efforts to hire and promote women to senior ranks have assisted gender equality, buttop-ranking male professionals still outnumber women professionals across many high-status professionalsectors. This social phenomenon prevails in most professions and organizational forms, includingprofessional service firms. Gender stratification, for example, within the legal profession is very apparent,producing income differences that are more substantial than that exists in the total labor force (Hagan,1990).This paper proposes using social capital theory to examine the influences of gender in professional servicefirms. Moving beyond the intra-organizational perspective, we argue for the significance of networkstructures that extend across organizational boundaries. We focus specifically on gender differences innetwork relationships with clients and on the structural nature of the professional\u27s social capital. Weadvance four propositions for future research on how individuals\u27 network structures influence theattainment of higher income and status position in the firm. Finally, we make some suggestions on whatindividuals and professional service firms can do to promote more gender equality
The Role of Forgiveness in the Leadership Practices of Women Leaders in Higher Education
Get PDFThis study examined the use of interpersonal forgiveness in the leadership practices of women leaders inhigher education. Six women, with senior level administrative positions in a large public university, wereinterviewed and asked a range of questions regarding their use of forgiveness in leadership practices.Responses from participants were grouped together using cross-case analysis to discover meaning andinterpreting themes. The interview guide sought to elicit a common definition of forgiveness, examined theuse of forgiveness, and identified steps in the process of forgiveness in leadership practices. The evidence isthat the participants in the study defined forgiveness as choosing and making a decision to reduce negativethoughts, such as blame and anger. Recognizing the problem, identifying the nature of the problem, andaddressing the problem were identified as key steps in the process of forgiveness. Growth producingexperiences and improved relationships are cited as additional benefits. Working through conflict in apositive manner is a primary reason that the women studied utilized forgiveness in their leadership practices.Modeling the behavior and mentoring others are additional approaches used to demonstrate the purpose andmeaning of forgiveness. All participants identified mentoring as an important relationship and described amentor as one who exhibited and used some aspect of the principles of forgiveness in their leadershippractices. Additionally, females were said to utilize forgiveness more often than males. The reason given forthis was that females are seen as being more interested in maintaining relationships than are men. The studyalso provides some general insights into actions and behaviors associated with the exercise of forgiveness inleadership practices within the workplace
Designing a Conference for Women Entering Academe in the Sciences and Engineering
Get PDFWomen are underrepresented among faculty in the sciences and engineering. The National Science Foundation\u27s ADVANCE program seeks to address this issue through comprehensive and creative strategies aimed at institutional transformation. Virginia Tech\u27s ADVANCE program (AdvanceVT) hosted a conference for women in the academic pipeline to facilitate their entry into academic careers. This paper discusses our efforts in designing this conference; we hope that it will help to address the relative lack of literature on conference design and provide a starting point for others who are designing conferences. We first introduce four conference design heuristics that emerged during the process of determining what information to present at the AdvanceVT conference and how to present it: (1) undertake requirements elicitation, (2) choose an appropriate modality for presenting information, (3) account for interactions, and (4) emphasize shared interests and traits. We then discuss the application of these heuristics to the first design iteration of the AdvanceVT conference. Included in the discussion of the application of the heuristics are the results of three requirements elicitation activities: an online survey, focus groups, and interviews.