Illuminating Widespread Bias in Education Leadership: Women Leading Ed Releases First-Ever Survey of Women Leaders from Across the Country

By PR Newswire On Mar 20, 2024

The experiences illustrated by the Women Leading Ed Insight Survey 2024 demonstrate the need for systemic change to take on the gender gap in education leadership. Fortunately, there is now a playbook for just that.

Women Leading Ed, the largest national nonprofit network of women in education leadership, released the results of its first-ever Insight Survey, to understand and document the views, aspirations, and experiences of women in education leadership in states and districts across the country.

The findings show that women in these positions–including top district and state jobs–nearly universally experience gender-based bias that impacts their ability to do their job, how they feel about their work, and their overall wellbeing.

Between November 2023 and January 2024, over 110 women responded to the inaugural WLE Insight Survey 2023-2024–nearly half of respondents identify as persons of color. Collectively, the respondents serve nearly 8 million students in 81 different school systems in 28 states. Those who participated serve in roles ranging from district and state superintendents to aspiring leaders in various administrative positions in bipartisan administrations. The survey report also includes the first-person accounts of these leaders, giving added texture to its quantitative data.

“The results of our first-annual survey paint a clear and at times painful picture of the reality that women face in education leadership,” said Dr. Julia Rafal-Baer, CEO of Women Leading Ed. “Bias continues to hold talented and capable women back and constrain their impact. It’s a reality so ingrained and accepted that it’s taken on the quality of wallpaper or background noise. The survey results expose just how little has truly changed, despite women gaining some entry into top leadership. We are in the same spaces, but women are still required to play a different game.”

Key findings of the first-annual WLE Insight Survey include:

Widespread Bias Impacts Women in Leadership: 82% of respondents reported often or sometimes feeling external pressure to dress, speak, or behave a certain way because they are women in a superintendent or senior leadership role. Women of color feel even more pressure: 55% of women of color report that they “often” feel this pressure, compared to 36% of white women.
Women Forced to Make Sacrifices Males Peers Do Not: Fully 95% of superintendents said they believe that they have to make sacrifices that their male colleagues do not in their professional life.
Gender Impacting Advancement and Compensation: 57% say they have been overlooked or passed up for advance opportunities that were given to male colleagues & 53% of superintendents say they have had conversations or negotiations about their salary where they felt their gender influenced the outcome.
Burnout Due to Stress and Strain: Nearly 6 out of 10 respondents stated that they think about leaving their current position due to the strain and stress of their job. Of the women who registered this sentiment, 75% said they think about leaving daily, weekly, or monthly.
Women Face a Skewed Leadership Pipeline: Of the respondents who had ever been principals, just 18% served as a high school leader and 75% of respondents spent the majority of their career in academic pathway. These results reflect the fact that leadership pipelines often position men more quickly and efficiently for top leadership positions, from teacher through high school principal to executive leadership and ultimately to superintendent, while women are coached into roles in elementary- or middle-school leadership and academic pathways.

The experiences illustrated by the Women Leading Ed Insight Survey 2024 demonstrate the need for systemic change to take on the gender gap in education leadership. Fortunately, there is now a playbook for just that.

In 2023, more than 100 top female leaders in K-12 education came together to call for evidence-based action at the district, state, and federal levels to take on gender bias in education leadership and ensure that female leaders have a fair shot at top jobs. The result was The Time is Now: A New Playbook for Women in Education Leadership which synthesizes years of workplace research and outlines catalytic strategies including:

Create and promote intentional support systems to prepare women for leadership roles
Re-balance the hiring process through requirements and the promotion of best practices
Provide family and wellbeing supports
Set public goals for female leadership and increase transparency
Ensure financial fairness

More than 700 education leaders signed onto an open letter calling for the adoption of the strategies contained within The Time is Now.

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