ABSTRACT
In all Western countries women are a distinct minority in management and administrative positions in schools. They are most highly represented as teachers and managers in primary schools and their proportion decreases as one moves up the age-graded hierarchy of schools. In all cases, women's representation as managers is disproportionately lower than their representation as teachers. Three theoretical perspectives are discussed to explain this phenomenon: differences in socialization, the organizational constraints to women's mobility and gender-based career socialization. Two of the theories are criticized for their use of gender as explanatory rather than as problematic. Gender is an overlay for educational institutions; we must turn our attention to the subtle processes which influence gender segregation in the workplace.
