Making sense of the glass ceiling in schools: an exploration of women teachers’ discourses

Abstract

There is extensive evidence of a ‘glass ceiling’ for women across the labour market. Though schools have widely been described as ‘feminized’ work environments, the under‐representation of women at school management level is well established. Based on a study of women teachers’ careers and promotion in the English school sector (in early years, primary and secondary schools), this paper draws on a critical discourse analysis of 44 individual interviews conducted with women teachers to explore their views of the ‘glass ceiling’. Despite significant evidence of the barriers to management positions faced by women teachers, interpretative frameworks drawing on discourses of individualization and personal choice are most prominent among these to make sense of the low proportion of women in school management. However, the paper also identifies the existence of alternative discourses recognizing the existence of gender inequalities.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the following: Higher Education European Social Fund (HEESF), Secondary Heads’ Association (SHA) and London Metropolitan University for their financial support to the project; our colleagues Becky Francis, Merryn Hutchings and Alistair Ross at IPSE for providing very valuable advice and support throughout the project; Ian Barrett and Lindsay Melling at IPSE; Teresa Cairns, at University of Sussex, for her contribution to the fieldwork; and the many participants to the project, teachers, head teachers, governors and stakeholders, who we cannot name to preserve their anonymity. Finally, thank you to the two referees.

Notes

1. This is for example reflected in the Teacher Training Agency Corporate Plan (TTA, 2000), of which one key target was to increase by 20% the number of male entrants to initial teacher training. In comparison, there is at the moment no policy targeting specifically the low representation of women in school managerial roles.

2. Women receive on average between 94.1% and 99.4% of men’s pay depending on position and phase of education.