ABSTRACT
While women constitute two-thirds of all teachers in the United States, there are few women in public school administration. In 1991, 5.6 percent of the approximately eleven thousand K-12 superintendents—the highest position at the level of the local school district—were women (Bell and Chase 1993). In 1989, 12 percent of secondary principals and 29 percent of elementary principals were women (Schuster and Foote 1990). This sex-stratified system in which women teach and men manage is particularly striking because teaching experience is a prerequisite for most administrative positions. Furthermore, the superintendency is white- as well as male-dominated. African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians constitute 3.4 percent of superintendents; of this small group, 12 percent are women (Jones and Montenegro 1990). The sex and racial/ethnic stratification of public-school administration is generated and maintained by differential access to opportunities for advancement, white men's control over gatekeeping positions, and by subtle and blatant forms of sex and racial/ethnic discrimination.
