Perspectives of women as they navigate their path to principalship in Australian secondary schools

Abstract

In most countries around the world, teaching is a highly feminized profession. However, despite the higher percentage of female teachers in secondary schools, women continue to be under-represented in secondary principal roles. Similar to the United Kingdom, in Australia more than 60% of all teachers in secondary schools are female, and 40% of the principals in secondary schools are female. Furthermore, on average it takes female teachers 2.7 years longer to attain a principal role and consequently have a shorter career as a principal. Therefore, it is important to understand the pathway of female principals as they progress through middle leadership roles to senior leadership. This article investigates and reports on the career pathways of 14 female principals in Australian secondary schools. Each individual pathway to principalship was mapped out to specifically identify the types of middle leadership roles undertaken over each principal's career. The mapping of the pathways identifies the types of roles which were more commonly held by the female principals prior to senior leadership. Interviews with the principals enabled the identification of a range of shared challenges and affordances on their pathway to principalship.