Women secondary school principals: multicultural voices from the field

Abstract

Women, in general, are underrepresented at the secondary leadership level. Numbers of women in leadership become dismal when considering both gender and ethnicity. The lack of women’s voice in the literature on educational leadership, particularly those of minority women, grounded this qualitative research project that collected personal narratives of lived experience. The intent for this project was to illuminate differences and commonalities of women leaders from different ethnic backgrounds through their own voices and to listen for strategies used to overcome obstacles that have led to their current success as secondary principals. African‐American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic women leaders were interviewed and understood from a feminist post‐structural lens to create a vision of what the leadership experience is like at the secondary level.

Keywords:

• women in leadership
• multicultural women
• secondary principals