Women's Experiences of Educational Leadership in Public School Systems - A Feminist Life History Approach. (Paperback)

Scope and Method of Study. There is a need for research that provides an opportunity for female leaders to tell their stories as they function as educational leaders. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of females in the top administrative roles of public education and how they negotiate between being a female and a leader. I examined four women who have obtained leadership positions in several sizes of public schools and in various stages of their careers. They all held different leadership positions within public education. Life history methodology was used with a feminist theoretical framework to illuminate the issues of gender and the multiple identities they continuously live. Multiple data collection activities, such as interviews, observations, personal artifacts, and historical data strengthened the research study.Findings and Conclusions. The life experiences of the women played an important role in their becoming educational leaders. Each participant experienced internal and external difficulties within their leadership roles. Gender was found to be a factor for these educational leaders. This study sheds new light on gender issues in educational leadership. First, the participants' family relationships with their fathers and siblings seemed to have a connection to them becoming leaders, as well as the time period in which the women situated themselves, highlighting certain events that served as a catalyst for their becoming leaders. Secondly, my study emphasized the women's won agency through early leadership experiences and their using multiple resources to overcome difficulties by actively formulating their own identity. Third, multiplicity and contradictions in their identity demonstrates that women's work in leadership is complicated and an ongoing process, exemplifying that these women's identities are a work in progress.