ABSTRACT
Male power works quietly and secretly as an institutional reality in secondary schools, as well as showing itself via more overt examples of male domination. Its power is in its secrecy and taken-for-grantedness. The majority of headteachers in secondary schools in England and Wales are male and men also dominate numerically and proportionally the senior management teams (SMTs) which form the policy-making bodies of those schools. A particular example, typical of many, is provided by the comprehensive school in Derby where one of the authors has worked. On the surface the head seems kindly and approachable but dig a little deeper at the point where his authority is challenged and the full weight of a system of male authority and strong leadership becomes rapidly apparent. This process is repeated throughout all the varying levels of school organization.
