A case study of the experiences of women leaders in senior leadership positions in the education district offices

Author(s):  
Kishan N Bodalina ◽  
Raj Mestry

This research was inspired by two critical factors relating to women leaders in senior positions in education district offices. Firstly, women leaders are continually plagued with stereotyping, and secondly, women are repeatedly undermined by male colleagues. Although the South African Constitution and other related legislation prohibits any form of gender discrimination, inequalities and injustices against women still prevail. Women are subjected to a false notion that they lack the resilience and experience desired when faced with hard-hitting or threatening situations. The primary focus of this study was to explore the experiences of women leaders in senior positions in the Gauteng East Education District office. To underpin this study, intersectionality and feminist theories were selected. Using a qualitative case study, one of the main findings of this study revealed that women in senior leadership positions in education districts persistently struggled to balance their work and family life amidst rooted patriarchal systems and cultural traditions. These women primarily lacked the aspiration to apply for senior leadership positions, but through formal mentorship, dedication and resilience took up senior leadership positions in education district offices.

Author(s):  
Linda Ellington

An interesting inquiry is whether women leaders are desiring, dismissing, or being disqualified from senior leadership positions in the global K-20 educational academy. Why is there a leadership underrepresentation of those born female? It may be that women leaders have not been socialized in accordance with the male-centric leadership model; they are relatively outsiders who must forge new ways of leading. This chapter's author embarked on a small literature search of history to identify what is not new to us, but possibly forgotten – the experiences and lessons learned from women leaders who met challenges through their bold and effective leadership, as they forged paths for us. There is a feeling of belonging to the past, but not fully understanding it. There is a sense of having acquired a pressing but obscure responsibility, along with a peculiar female ancestry, for us to be the twenty-first century generation in a long line of uncommon women. The insights in this chapter are presented through a simple folktale, asking the question, Where is Walda?


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Li ◽  
R. de Souza ◽  
S. Esfandiari ◽  
J. Feine

In the last few decades, the number of women graduating from North American (NA) dental schools has increased significantly. Thus, we aimed to determine women’s representation in leadership positions in NA dental and specialty associations/organizations, dental education, and dental journals, as well as the proportion of men/women researcher members of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR). We contacted NA dental associations to provide us with the total number and the men/women distribution of their members. Men/women distributions in leadership positions were accessible from the internet, as were data on the sex of deans of NA dental schools. Data on the editors in chief of NA dental journals were gathered from their websites, and the AADR provided the number and sex of its researcher members. Collected data underwent descriptive statistics and binomial tests (α = 0.05). Our findings suggest that women are underrepresented in leadership positions within the major NA dental professional associations. While the median ratio of women leaders to women members in professional associations is 0.91 in Canada, it is only 0.67 in the United States. The same underrepresentation of women is evident in the leadership of the Canadian Dental Association and the American Dental Association. We found that women are underrepresented as deans and editors in chief for NA oral health journals. Only 16 of 77 NA dental school deans are women, while 3 of 38 dental journals have women editors in chief. The probability of finding these ratios by chance is low. However, the number of women dental researcher AADR members underwent an overall increase in the past decade, while the number of men declined. These results suggest that, despite the increase in women dentists, it will take time and effort to ensure that they move through the pipeline to senior leadership positions in the same manner as their male colleagues.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-172
Author(s):  
Shubhasheesh Bhattacharya ◽  
Sweta Mohapatra ◽  
Sonali Bhattacharya

The article examines the key factors that facilitate the advancement of women to leadership positions in the information technology and information technology enabled services (IT and ITES) sector in India. It adopted interview based exploratory case study method using multiple case studies and gathered empirical data using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The study identified critical individual and organizational factors which facilitate the advancement of women in leadership positions. The findings are of value to human resource and diversity practitioners to create gender-balanced and inclusive leadership in the organizations that would lead to attracting, retaining and developing women talent for leadership roles.


2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Barrett ◽  
Ken Moores

AbstractIn an earlier study (Moores & Barrett 2002) we found successful CEOs had learned leadership of family controlled businesses (FCBs) in a series of distinct learning phases. Because that study's sample did not include many women, our present study focuses on women in FCBs to better understand how they exercise leadership and entrepreneurship in the family firm context. Case study analysis of an international sample of women FCB leaders, using frameworks which avoid essentialist assumptions about women's and men's approach to leadership, suggests there are some characteristic ways women leaders learn FCB leadership and entrepreneurship roles. We have tentatively labelled them stumbling into the spotlight, building your own stage, directing the spotlight elsewhere, and coping with shadows. Some interviewees had failed to attain leadership; we labelled their journey becoming invisible. This paper uses Eisenhardt's (1989) framework to elaborate on the stumbling into the spotlight and coping with shadows journeys and what can be learned from them.


Author(s):  
Linda Ellington

An interesting inquiry is whether women leaders are desiring, dismissing, or being disqualified from senior leadership positions in the global K-20 educational academy. Why is there a leadership underrepresentation of those born female? It may be that women leaders have not been socialized in accordance with the male-centric leadership model; they are relatively outsiders who must forge new ways of leading. This chapter's author embarked on a small literature search of history to identify what is not new to us, but possibly forgotten – the experiences and lessons learned from women leaders who met challenges through their bold and effective leadership, as they forged paths for us. There is a feeling of belonging to the past, but not fully understanding it. There is a sense of having acquired a pressing but obscure responsibility, along with a peculiar female ancestry, for us to be the twenty-first century generation in a long line of uncommon women. The insights in this chapter are presented through a simple folktale, asking the question, Where is Walda?


2020 ◽  
pp. 147737082093186
Author(s):  
Marisa Silvestri ◽  
Stephen Tong

This article provides rich and unique insights into the experiences of women police leaders across seven European regions. Drawing on interview data, it presents accounts of women’s experiences in policing and identifies informal and formal barriers to their advancement in European police organizations. Women police leaders report high levels of gender discrimination, obstruction and prejudice over the course of their careers. We argue that there are a number of subjective and informal criteria of ‘acceptability’ that shape women’s experiences of promotion and that informal patronage is a strong basis from which strategic appointments are made within European police systems. The article makes sense of the ways in which informal aspects of career progression function alongside formal promotion criteria to preserve men as the ‘ideal’ candidates for police leadership positions, resulting in a preference for other men and the exclusion of women. The relevance of these findings is key to informing the future selection and development of police leaders in an increasingly complex police landscape.


2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Barrett ◽  
Ken Moores

AbstractIn an earlier study (Moores & Barrett 2002) we found successful CEOs had learned leadership of family controlled businesses (FCBs) in a series of distinct learning phases. Because that study's sample did not include many women, our present study focuses on women in FCBs to better understand how they exercise leadership and entrepreneurship in the family firm context. Case study analysis of an international sample of women FCB leaders, using frameworks which avoid essentialist assumptions about women's and men's approach to leadership, suggests there are some characteristic ways women leaders learn FCB leadership and entrepreneurship roles. We have tentatively labelled them stumbling into the spotlight, building your own stage, directing the spotlight elsewhere, and coping with shadows. Some interviewees had failed to attain leadership; we labelled their journey becoming invisible. This paper uses Eisenhardt's (1989) framework to elaborate on the stumbling into the spotlight and coping with shadows journeys and what can be learned from them.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Nóra Veszprémi

Abstract After the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the sanctioning of new national borders in 1920, the successor states faced the controversial task of reconceptualizing the idea of national territory. Images of historically significant landscapes played a crucial role in this process. Employing the concept of mental maps, this article explores how such images shaped the connections between place, memory, and landscape in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Hungarian revisionist publications demonstrate how Hungarian nationalists visualized the organic integrity of “Greater Hungary,” while also implicitly adapting historical memory to the new geopolitical situation. As a counterpoint, images of the Váh region produced in interwar Czechoslovakia reveal how an opposing political agenda gave rise to a different imagery, while drawing on shared cultural traditions from the imperial past. Finally, the case study of Dévény/Devín/Theben shows how the idea of being positioned “between East and West” lived on in overlapping but politically opposed mental maps in the interwar period. By examining the cracks and continuities in the picturesque landscape tradition after 1918, the article offers new insight into the similarities and differences of nation-building processes from the perspective of visual culture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
PETER ZAZZALI

How can indigeneity be understood through training actors in a colonial context? Do ‘Western’ acting schools misrepresent and exploit indigenous practices and cultural traditions towards reinforcing the settler state? Or does a given school's integration of such praxis and customs demonstrate inclusivity, equity and progressivism? At what point does incorporating indigeneity in actor training become a tokenistic appropriation of marginalized cultures? Drawn from fieldwork as a 2019 Fulbright scholar at Toi Whakaari, New Zealand's National Drama School, I intersect training with culture and society. Using the Acting Program as a case study, I deploy an ethnographic methodology to address the aforementioned questions by investigating Toi Whakaari's bicultural pedagogy while positioning it as a reflection of New Zealand's national identity. I especially explore the school's implementation of Tikanga Māori, the practices and beliefs of the country's indigenous peoples. I argue that while some questions remain, Toi Whakaari integrates Māori forms in a manner that is culturally responsible and pedagogically effective, thereby providing a model from which other drama schools can learn.


Author(s):  
Melissa Baughman

The purpose of this study was to explore the status and experiences of women in collegiate choral conducting positions. Out of all collegiate choral conductors ( N = 992) at institutions accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music in the United States, 68.65% ( n = 681) were men and 31.35% ( n = 311) were women at the time of this study; I invited the women collegiate choral conductors to serve as study participants. Ninety-six respondents completed an online survey, resulting in a response rate of 30.86%. I collected data through a researcher-designed survey. First, I asked respondents to provide demographic information and respond to Likert-type and open-ended prompts related to three domains: gaining entry into the profession, navigating the profession, and issues surrounding gender. I analyzed data through descriptive statistics and qualitative methods of assigning codes, combining codes into themes, and displaying the data. I addressed general discrepancies in the self-reported attitudes of respondents. Although women reported an overall attitude of satisfaction as choral conductors in their Likert-type responses, many respondents detailed several instances of gender discrimination and other challenges in their open-ended responses. Implications for the music profession, including specific strategies to help empower women in collegiate choral conducting settings, are discussed.


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