In the United States, female teachers vastly outnumber male[1], and around 72%[2] of public-school principals are women. Yet that is where the parity stops: Superintendents, as of 2019, were more than 85% male.[3]
Once again, the Big Chair proves largely elusive.
At the college level, women have clawed their way to representing significant portions of college professors, yet there is still an imbalance in tenured and top-ranked positions.
India’s universities have about 27% female full professorships, much higher numbers for lower teaching positions[4], a paradigm that appears to be true across the global board.
More than half of Japan’s junior college instructors, for example, are women, but at the university level that is cut in half, to just under 25%. Just about half of all college instruction in the U.S. is done by women, but for full professorships, that number falls to about 39%.[5]
This – as appears to be the norm across disciplines – rolls upward to college presidents as well. Currently, less than a third are women, and those women generally serve shorter tenures.[6]
While women have made tremendous strides in education and academic administration, there clearly is room – a lot of room – for more.
References
[1] Education Week, Education Statistics: Facts About American Schools, Dec. 2019
[2] Ibid
[3] Bellweather, Ahead of the Heard, Where Are All the Female Superintendents?
[4] Catalyst, Women in Academia: Quick Take, Jan. 2020
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid