ABSTRACT
In 1989, in her integrating study of women in educational administration, Charol Shakeshaft wrote: ‘Histories, case studies, and ethnographies almost always center on the male principal or superintendent. Consequently, we know little of the individual lives of the women who occupy these positions’ (p. 56). The quote above describes how one elementary principal entered her job. It represents both her personal story and the experiences of the many women who have entered and worked in the principalship. Individual cases allow us to see the complex interactions between women principals’ personal and professional lives and the social and cultural frameworks within which they work.
