The Impact of Gender on Leadership Aspirations in Schools

Description

Schools seem to present a very unique situation as, e.g., leading such an organisation is more often a topic of educational sciences than organisational psychology. Similar to other organisations men frequently take over leading positions in school, whereas most of the teachers are actually female. Due to limited availability of demographic data of applicants, it is difficult to decide whether women are already underrepresented in the number of applicants for school principalship, or whether the selection procedure favours men over women. The present study aims to identify personal as well as situational factors which may impact male and female educators differently when deciding to apply for a leadership position in their organisation. Hundreds of Austrian teachers and principals from different schools participated in an online questionnaire measuring personal (e.g., job-related values, personality, leadership motivation) as well as situational aspects (e.g., school type, sex of present/last principal). The results reveal similarities between male and female educators, but also show that in schools certain aspects influence men and women differently when making the decision to take a step up the career ladder. This is, e.g., reflected in women’s stronger perception of the selection process being biased against them or men’s stronger interest in representing the school in public. It is necessary to keep in mind that certain incentives and disincentives may work differently for female and male teachers, when trying to make the job of a school leader more attractive in the future.

Period	11 Jul 2014
Event title	European Association of Social Psychology - General Meeting 2014
Event type	Conference
Location	NetherlandsShow on map