Background: Though approximately 80% of teachers are women, they hold only about 50% of all principalships, and just a quarter of superintendent positions (Finnan and McCord, 2017; Robinson et al., 2017; Tienken, 2021; White, 2023). When women do take on leadership positions, evidence suggests they tend to work in districts serving students with…

This study explored the motivators and inhibitors experienced by women pursuing high school administration positions. Additionally, it sought to identify the reasons behind the gender discrepancies to support improved hiring practices and job requirements and inform districts and states about areas for improvement to attract and retain qualified…

A recent study published in "Educational Researcher" by White (2023) examined superintendent gender gaps. This work required 4 years of internet searches to identify and match superintendent names with each of the roughly 13,000 school districts in the United States. Although this study provided important insights into the superintendent…

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to explore the experiences of female superintendents in leadership positions, focusing on the opportunities and barriers they faced on the journey to the superintendency and in the position of superintendent. Women are underrepresented in the superintendency in the female-dominated educational field.…

Objective: This research study examined gender wage equality among administrators across Arizona's ten community college districts comprising 19 colleges. Method: Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze salary data. Results: All 19 college campuses evidenced differences in median income between 12-month, full-time women…

To lead is to create a climate in which a human being and community flourish together. In trying to achieve this, a leader should be conscious of the ambivalent feelings of people and mindful of how to restore them. As a woman in a position of authority in a setting where there was a structural lack of recognition of women in leadership,…

The importance of gender equality in academic leadership has been widely recognised, yet this issue has been underexplored outside the Anglo-Saxon countries. In this systematic review, we analysed 62 academic articles on women's academic leadership in Bangladesh (15), China (17) and Finland (30), published between 2000 and 2021. Our study revealed…

A national narrative around a historically Black college and university (HBCU) presidential turnover rate crisis has emerged in the last few years. Much of the narrative around this story is absent or lightly nods to the contextual adversities facing historically Black colleges and universities and their decades of under-resourcing. Almost none of…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how Christian higher education institutions within the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) empower women into executive levels of leadership. More research has been done on women and breaking barriers to leadership, however, less research has been done on the…

Despite gains of women in senior administrative positions in the larger economy, they continue to be dramatically underrepresented in college athletic administration. Women are underrepresented in a segment of athletic administration, specifically Athletic Director (AD), which has become increasingly driven by business and revenue generation…

This study reviews if the glass cliff phenomenon is occurring in U.S. higher education presidential hires. This topic is essential to review as U.S. higher education institutions are primarily presided over by male presidents. Female presidents do exist, but more often at more risky institutions. One reason for the lack of equity may be the glass…

The glass cliff phenomenon (GCP) maintains that women are more likely to lead risky organizations than men. Quantitative measures of risk for assessing a possible GCP exist for leaders in the business sector, but no quantitative measures exist for college or university leadership. This article tests one variable of risk for college and university…

Male superintendents predominantly hold superintendency in K-12 public school districts in the southern United States. The research problem was the underrepresentation of female superintendents in K-12 public school districts. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how female superintendents perceive the underrepresentation of…

The study draws on mixed methods research with further education middle managers across England in order to explore whether there are gendered differences in management. There remain debates about whether there are gender differences in management or leadership. The study adds to this debate with results that reveal that women and men are…

It is widely known that gender bias persists in male-dominated fields. Gender bias is often defined as acts that position one prototypical social group over another (Begeny et al., 2020; Gloor et al., 2020; Roberts & Brown, 2019; Scheifele et al., 2021). It is unknown how male superintendents mentor women while established in their…