Womans In Educational Administration: The Glass Ceiling Is Still There Essay, Research Paper
WOMEN IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
THE GLASS CEILING IS STILL THERE
Several people at the conference dealt with the jobs adult females encounter in acquiring into administrative places in schools and colleges and when they do, the obstructions they encounter in doing their occupations successful. Their treatments brought place to me the world of my ain female parent & # 8217 ; s experience. As kids we witnessed our female parent struggling, summer after summer and during many school old ages in the eventides, with those classs required for an administrative licence. The province gave her that licence some twelve old ages ago, but she is still learning mathematics in high school. We used to badger her when we were turning up naming her & # 8220 ; chief ma & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; adjunct chief ma & # 8221 ; and the similar and feigning that she called us into her office for penalty. We do non make that any more because we know it won & # 8217 ; t be fun and games any more but it will be a barbarous gag if we did that. What made her disillusioned about the calling of an decision maker in her school system in which she served about a one-fourth of a century?
It has to make with what is known as a glass ceiling. Administrative places are unfastened to all qualified individuals. They are up at that place within everyone & # 8217 ; s position. All you have to make is measure up yourself with the appropriate instruction and accomplishments. The jurisprudence of the land makes every individual eligible for them. All employers proclaim in their policy statements that they are & # 8220 ; equal chance employers. & # 8221 ; But when adult females reach for them, the unseeable ceiling stops them. A barbarous annoyer so!
My female parent said she would non speak to me about her ain reluctance to prosecute an administrative calling, despite all the attempts she put in to measure up for it. She said I should speak with instructors or other forces in the school systems who had no personal engagement in order to acquire nonsubjective observations. So I interviewed more than 25 people from Overseers and Principals through Vice Principals, Department Heads, Counselors, Teachers and Teachers & # 8217 ; Assistants to Security, Cafeteria and Maintenance Personnel, in two different school systems. My findings were rather uncovering of the unseeable glass ceiling.
Let me get down with the lowest degree places in the school systems & # 8212 ; care workers, security forces and cafeteria workers. Strictly talking, they can non be called portion of the instruction system. Their occupations do non hold anything to make with the educational system, they could be in any other topographic point than the school, but the manner the caputs of their sections are chosen will demo how endemic gender favoritism is to the full school systems, from underside to exceed. In fact, it is ingrained in the civilization of the school systems as it is in the civilization of many other organisations in the public life.
My guiltless ears were offended hearing the narrative of a adult female security officer depict what was traveling on in the South Bend School Corporation at her degree of employment. She has much more senior status than most of the heads of security in the school system, but the main & # 8217 ; s place along with all the benefits go to the work forces who, in her opinion, were less qualified, experient and painstaking. She pointed out to her ain head, a pot-bellied adult male who sat by a cupboard and snacked all twenty-four hours, harmonizing to studies, which could non be far from the truth judging from his visual aspect. & # 8220 ; Merely work forces can manage the tough state of affairss ; he does all that sitting in that chair while I do the simple things like interrupting up battles, impounding guns and knives and seeking out drug thrusters, & # 8221 ; she stated.
Among maintenance workers there were merely really few adult females. The main janitor in one school, a just adult male who has a twosome of adult females in his staff, a rareness, said that adult females are intimidated by furnaces and electrical systems, so they don & # 8217 ; t subscribe up for janitorial occupations. But he besides added that & # 8220 ; non that they are welcome either ; I don & # 8217 ; t mind them, but the cats in other schools will engage a adult females merely if they can non even happen a dead body. & # 8221 ; I asked, & # 8220 ; can a adult female of all time become the main janitor? & # 8221 ; The reply was a field and clear & # 8220 ; never. & # 8221 ;
The cafeteria was a wholly different narrative. Practically all the workers in the cafeterias of all schools are adult females. I asked the caput of the nutrient service section in one high school, who I thought was a fair-minded lady, why it was that all cafeteria workers are adult females. She said work forces do non by and large apply ; cookery and functioning nutrient is a adult females & # 8217 ; s occupation, they think. She besides added, & # 8220 ; We don & # 8217 ; t want them anyhow, you can barely happen 1 who is non sloppy and dirty. & # 8221 ; But I observed, and she agreed, that there is no unfairness involved. There is no constitutional obstruction for work forces to be hired or promoted in nutrient service.
Leaving the support staff degree and acquiring to the bosom of the educational endeavor, we come to the teaching staff. Immediately, one notices that the simple schools are largely staffed by adult females instructors. However, the decision makers by and big are work forces. The South Bend School Corporation, for illustration, has about 25 simple schools. Of these, 20 of them have work forces principals while about 70 % of instructors are adult females. I asked one of the male principals why there is such a disparity between male/female ratios of instructors and decision makers in simple schools. He said that it is the & # 8220 ; mother thing, & # 8221 ; adult females are more suitable to learn small kids and they are attracted towards the simple age childs, that is every bit far as instruction is concerned. The disposal, nevertheless, is another affair. There you need work forces. They, harmonizing to him, are better organisers, martinets, and of class male parent figures. A adult female principal had a different position. For her it is the & # 8220 ; old male childs & # 8217 ; nine at work. They merely do non desire to give adult females exceed occupations even in simple schools, & # 8221 ; she said.
When you go up to the Middle School degree, the disparity worsens. Of the eight in-between schools I visited, six had male principals while the teaching staff was reasonably equally divided. From what I could surmise from the conversations with instructors and decision makers, there is no good ground for the disparate male/female ratio in the edifice disposal, except the go oning opposition against adult females.
A veteran instructor told me that in all his memory he could non believe of one female principal in any of the five South Bend public high schools. In the 1998-1999 school twelvemonth, nevertheless, there are three female principals, a bulk! But, they are comparatively new assignments, two of them merely a twelvemonth ago and the 3rd merely this twelvemonth, but she is merely an playing principal. A female overseer who is besides comparatively new made these assignments, though they were non really popular. As a consequence, one of the regular appointees has tended her surrender, the 2nd is on the brink of making so, and the playing principal & # 8217 ; s destiny is hanging in the balance.
One of the school staff related to me the response the playing principal received when she came to take charge of the school and for a few hebdomads thenceforth. To get down with, she was appointed at the last minute, as a last resort when none of the campaigners the school system offered the occupation to accepted it. When she came to the edifice for the first clip, really few module individuals greeted her. One of the two frailty principals, a male who had applied for the principal & # 8217 ; s occupation unsuccessfully, greeted her sitting on his chair and with his pess on his desk. He arrogated the principal & # 8217 ; s authorization to himself, naming module meetings, doing policy determinations, turn toing the school community through the public reference system and kicking to the corporate disposal about the playing principal. The section caputs, counsellors, and instructors besides started to put their ain regulations. Bing placed in such a tough state of affairs, a weak individual would hold been wholly broken, but the playing chief stood her land, asserted her authorization and established subject within a few hebdomads. It was a superhuman undertaking.
In high schools, between the instructors and edifice decision makers, stand the section caputs. My wonder peaked when I noticed that about all section caputs, other than place economic sciences and particular instruction, were work forces, in all five South Bend high schools. What I learned was that these were all appointees of work forces principals, hanging on to their occupations, exerting whatever small authorization they could claim over their fellow instructors. The civilization of male domination governed this low degree of disposal as good.
Coming to the top degree of disposal, the South Bend School Corporation ne’er had a adult female overseer in its full history until five old ages ago when the present overseer was appointed. She got the occupation by default when three outside finalists, all work forces, declined the offer. She had non been ranked among the finalists despite the fact that she had been a really successful principal in the corporation, with a national repute as an pedagogue. Bing a adult female and an Afro-american were two work stoppages against her. Her assignment divided the instructors and the community at big along racial lines. A drawn-out and acrimonious instructors strike farther divided the community. In malice of her achievements in conveying approximately financial subject and solvency to the corporation, she barley got re-appointed for two short old ages after the first three-year term. Attempts are mounting to let go of her even before the two old ages are up. Resistance against the overseer by the combined forces of antifeminist and anti-minority groups in the school system itself and the larger community have paralyzed her disposal. Lack of subject and moral within the
schools consequence in the failure of the procedure of instruction itself. It is no surprise, hence, that the South Bend pupils are among the lowest winners on the ISTEP. The sad narrative of South Bend schools is a authoritative illustration of how detrimental to the public good favoritism against adult females and minorities can be.
It is besides of import for us to look beyond the local scene to the national image to see what function is given to adult females and minorities in the disposal of educational establishments. Several recent surveies were able to unveil some concealed truths about adult females and minorities in the educational disposal. The 1990 survey by Patricia T. Whitfield entitled Status of Access of Women and Minorities to Administrative Positions in Idaho is a instance in point. This survey focused on the position of adult females and minorities in administrative places in Idaho public schools. Statistically Whitfield documented that among decision makers of Idaho public schools merely about 20 % were adult females and merely approximately 7 % minorities. She cites the & # 8220 ; old male child web, & # 8221 ; household duties, deficiency of wise mans or function theoretical accounts, a late entry into calling paths, and trouble in deriving credibleness as the grounds for this hapless representation of adult females and minorities. As for the possible redress for this state of affairs, Whitfield received different responses from the decision makers and members of the adult females and minority groups. While the decision makers indicated that change/progress would come through their attempts, the adult females & # 8217 ; s and minority groups felt that advancement will come merely through equal chance policies and statute law. I am certain that similar responses will be forthcoming from other comparable groups in all parts of the state. ( Patricia T. Whitfield, Status of Women Minorities toAdministrative Positions in Idaho. ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED 323907 ) .
It is besides of import to compare the position of adult females in administrative places in higher instruction with what we have seen in the state & # 8217 ; s school systems. Let me get down with a local adult females & # 8217 ; s college, Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s College of Notre Dame, Indiana. This is a college founded some 155 old ages ago entirely for adult females by adult females spiritual of the Holy Cross Congregation. All major administrative places were held by the Sisters of the Holy Cross up until 1967. This college was besides the sister establishment of the larger University of Notre Dame, across the route, founded about the same clip entirely for work forces by the Priests of the Holy Cross. In 1967, when the so president of Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s died and another well-qualified nun was non available to make full the function, the sisters appointed Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s first male president, a priest. In 1970, Notre Dame proposed a amalgamation with Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s. Fearing the entire soaking up of Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s into larger Notre Dame, the sisters withdrew from the amalgamation. However, they unwittingly entered into another unsafe state of affairs, the male domination of the school. This happened when they appointed the first layman president of the college, trusting that would convey Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s in melody with the modern age. For the following 29 old ages, the disposal of the college passed into about entirely male custodies. Merely in 1999 did they name a adult female president and a female administrative squad, after three decennaries of male domination.
While Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s College & # 8217 ; s associate with the Holy Cross Sisters made it easy for its board to return to its traditional disposal by adult females, what is go oning nationally in higher instruction is rather different. A 1982 survey by Kathryn M. Moore paperss the low position of adult females in administrative places in higher instruction. Moore studied the calling issues, educational concerns and the professional, educational and personal backgrounds of 2, 896 senior college decision makers from all parts of the United States. The focal point of her survey was the position of adult females and minorities in educational disposal. She discovered that adult females and minorities represented a flooring 20 and 8 per centum of the sample, severally. Even more disturbing was her find that adult females and minorities held merely low degree places such as registrar, librarian, and fiscal assistance manager. In contrast, work forces held places like President and Chief Financial Officer. Of the 653 deans in the study merely 90 ( 13.8 % ) were adult females. One-half of these adult females deans were in the Fieldss of nursing, place economic sciences, humanistic disciplines and scientific disciplines, and go oning instruction. As for minorities, merely 5.5 % of them were among the deans. These statistics tell the cruel hoax American society still plays on its female citizens despite decennaries of equal chance enforcement. ( Women and Minorities. Leaderships in Passage: A National Study of Higher Education Administrators by Kathryn M. Moore. University Park, PA. , Center for the Study of Higher Education, Pennsylvania State University, 1982. P.64. ) .
Leaving the wide, countrywide study, allow us now take a closer expression at one establishment of higher acquisition, University of New Hampshire, an establishment with a comparatively high repute. A 1993 survey ordered by the university president on the position of adult females showed that out of 16 chief decision makers ( president, frailty president, and deans ) of the university, merely one was a adult female and she was merely a impermanent assignment. At the following degree, the Academic Administration degree, 27.3 % were adult females. At the executive direction degree, adult females held merely 21.8 % of the places. But at the direction or supervisory degree ( support staff degree ) 60.8 % of the employees were adult females.
The narrative becomes even grimmer when we look at the compensation degree of employers at the University of New Hampshire. Of those employees doing $ 35,000-55,000, 54 % were adult females. Of those doing $ 55,000-66,000 merely 31 % were adult females. Of those doing above $ 65, 000 merely a meager 19 % were adult females. When different groupings were employed, the glaring and unblushing fact came out, that is out of all the employees doing less than $ 30,000, a looming 83.3 % were adult females!
The survey besides indicated that the state of affairs at the University of New Hampshire was reasonably typical of all universities in the state ; merely much worse in many other schools. ( University of New Hampshire President & # 8217 ; s Commission on the Status of Women, July 1993 ) .
The issues associating to the position of adult females were placed in a broader, national position by the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission in 1996. Rene Redwood, so Special Assistant to the Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, summarized the findings of this committee in a address she gave at the & # 8220 ; Working Women & # 8217 ; s Summit & # 8221 ; held by Women in Technology International ( WITI ) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in September 1996. The most revealing informations she included in her address was that in the top 1000 industrial and 500 service companies in the United States, 95 % of senior degree directors were work forces of which 95 % were white. Of the 5 % of those directors who were adult females, merely 5 % were minority adult females. This translated into a sum of 2,100 senior adult females executives out of the 42,000 top-level executives.
She besides pointed out the disparity in salary degrees between work forces and adult females on a national degree. While non-Hispanic white males with unmarried mans grades received an mean wage of $ 47, 181, the females with unmarried man & # 8217 ; s grades in the same cultural group received merely an norm of $ 31, 338. Of those with Masterss & # 8217 ; grades, non-Hispanic white males received an norm of $ 57, 371, but females in the same cultural group with maestro & # 8217 ; grades received merely an mean $ 38, 391. Reliable statistics about the salary degrees of other cultural groups are non available but it is safe to presume that they are appallingly disparate.
While statistics document the unfairness of the system, they do non propose solutions for the job. Solutions can be found merely if work forces and adult females of good will come together and seek them out. There are many organisations that address these issues on the local and national degree. There are besides Torahs on the book that could be brought to bear when establishments are insensitive to the issues of equality. However, in order to convey about cardinal alterations, we have to work at the roots of our civilization. This is where pedagogues have an advantage. It is their custodies that mold the following coevals. They can alter the whole mentality of society if they put their heads to it. Let us trust, hence, in a coevals or two, we can do the statistics look really different.
Notes ABOUT MY Beginning
1. For information about adult females in disposal in local schools, I interviewed 25 persons at assorted degrees of employment, from care staff and cafeteria workers to instructors, principals and Overseers of South Bend, Mishawaka, and Penn-Harris-Madison School Systems.
2. For information on local colleges and universities, I interviewed 12 professors and decision makers at Saint Mary & # 8217 ; s College and the University of Notre Dame.
3. For information on the position of adult females in educational disposal on the regional and national degree, I used the undermentioned beginnings:
a. Patricia T. Whitfield, Status of Access of Women and Minorities to Administrative Positions in Idaho. ERIC TITLE No. ED 323907.
b. Kathryn M. Moore, Women and Minorities. Leaderships in Passage: A National Study of Higher Education Administrators. ERIC TITLE No. ED 225459.
c. University of New Hampshire President & # 8217 ; s Commission on Status of Women. University of New Hampshire, 1993.
d. Rene Redwood, The Glass Ceiling: The Findingss and Recommendations of the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission. Washington, D.C. 1996.
WOMEN IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
THE GLASS CEILING IS STILL THERE
ANAND PULLAPILLY
JULY 30, 1999
