Heading for the Top — the career experiences of a group of women deputies in one LEA

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses upon the career attitudes and experiences of a group of women deputies in one LEA. It sets out to explore their construct of ‘career’ and asks, in particular, whether this matches that of the ‘career ambitious’ teacher sketched out in the research literature. The findings, based on in‐depth interviews, suggest that this is not the case. Few of the women deputies, for instance, claimed to have followed specific career plans or consciously participated in ‘career games’. A number of possible explanations are explored, and some interesting tensions noted. Does it perhaps hinge on the external circumstances that impact on women's careers? Is it an expression of women's allegiance to a value system which defines ‘career success’ in quite different ways? Is it a consequence of the nature of the role itself and the separate career track followed by senior women teachers in this authority? The biographical accounts of these deputies provide no easy answers, but rather serve to illustrate the complexity of women's career experiences.