The female superintendent: Leadership, motivation and career path choices

• Main Author: Lutz Weisse, Sue
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2009
• Subjects: Educational administration; Educational leadership; School administration; Womens studies
• ISBN: 1124513116; 9781124513119

This study was an exploration of the possible reasons for the disconnect between the number of females in the K-12 public school settings and the number of females holding the leadership position of superintendent. This study was an examination of transactional and transformational leadership behaviors, sources of work motivation, and career choices found in two groups of women holding superintendent licenses: practicing women superintendents, and women not currently in the role. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative measures to explore research variables, workplace motivation was assessed with the Motivation Sources Inventory (Barbuto, 1998), and leadership behaviors were measured with the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass, 2004). In order to understand the career choices made by study participants, phenomenological interviews were conducted to gain insight of their lived experiences in their professional roles. The study sample consisted of 21 license holders and seven superintendents and represented 16.7% of the overall population of women holding superintendent licensure in the Midwestern state where the study took place. Differences in work source motivation were not found between the two groups, and both groups of women displayed no difference in their use of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors. In line with social role theory (Eagly & Karau 2002), the participant interviews resulted in identifying attributes typically associated with women: collaborative, good listener, and nurturer. This study demonstrated that women who hold the license as superintendents, yet are not in that role, display the same leadership behaviors and motivations as practicing female superintendents.