headteacher-secondary

teachwire.net WOMEN IN CHARGE? Females are still woefully under-represented in senior leadership for education, says VictoriaCameron – but a groundswell is building for change… further exacerbated by the lack of diversity in leadership roles. That said, it’s important that we don’t treat ‘women in education’ as a homogenous group. These women account for a wide range of personal experiences between them, so it’s better to instead adopt an intersectional approach that foregrounds the complex and interwoven nature of social factors, such as class, race, disability, gender, and sexual orientation. These forms of social stratification all inform the female teaching experience in education, and should be taken into consideration when looking for structural weaknesses that can help break through those ceilings that inhibit women’s career progression. Post-recruitment, BAME women in education should be adequately supported with career growth opportunities. In 2015, the then National Union of Teachers published a letter calling for teachers to demographically reflect the communities they serve – a sentiment later echoed by Sameena Choudry, founder of Equitable Education and a national leader at #WomenEd. In her view, “At a time when the pupil classroom in recent years were women aged 30-39. Enter WomenEd – a global grassroots movement born to disrupt these statistics, and improve female representation within education. Duly intrigued, I first encountered the #WomenEd movement first-hand at one of its London ‘unconferences’ and spoke with female teachers and members of the #WomenEd leadership team. In the process, I gained valuable insight about the steps that need to be taken to create more effective, sustainable career pathways within the profession. Glass and concrete The limitations of the glass ceiling for women cuts across sectors, but for black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) women in education, the ceiling is more akin to concrete. Alongside the existing challenges many women face – including a lack of self-confidence in pursuing career progression, and a lack of available, geographically suitable roles – BAME women in education are often also exposed to racial bias that produces an overarching sense of isolation; something G lobally, teaching is a feminised workforce, yet there is a disproportionately small number of women in senior leadership positions. In the UK, 62% of teachers in secondary school are women but only 39% of heads are female. This imbalance is also evident at the global level, where the OECD reports that over two thirds of the education workforce are female, yet less than half of those in school leadership positions are women. What’s more, during a time in which there is a teacher recruitment and retention crisis, one in four teachers who quit the Why aren’t more 22