Women and Educational Management: a Trinidad and Tobago perspective

Abstract

The paper describes women teachers’ perceptions of factors which facilitated or militated against their involvement in educational management. In‐depth interviews were held with seven women, four Afro‐Trinidadians and three Indo‐Trinida‐dians. Women teachers tended not to have well‐defined career plans, to defer and modify their career aspirations due to domestic responsibilities and to prefer the professional technical aspect of teaching to the administrative managerial aspect. Women who were successful in administration tended to have been supported by sponsors or mentors, especially in male‐dominated environments. However, women did become career ambitious later in their careers and actively sought administrative posts for a variety of reasons, so that the existing imbalance between male and female administrators is being challenged.