In an investigation into female leadership that was conducted at schools in Uganda, Liberia and the Ivory Coast, female school principal participants reported their leadership roles as problematic because of prevailing societal and cultural beliefs on gender disposition as held by the indigenous inhabitants (Oduro & Macbeth, 2003:148). Even learners and some fellow teachers reported to view female leaders in schools as being less competent than their male counterparts (Oduro & Macbeth, 2003:149). The Pan African Centre for Gender, Peace and Development carried out an investigation into challenges faced by women in their quest to gain equal opportunities to leadership positions.
Challenges which impede African women from climbing the leadership ladder related to issues of balancing the triple roles to be fulfilled at home, in the community and at work (Rademeyer, 2008:4). In Kenya, for example, women are considered to be a mother for all with related tending responsibilities, whereas in Liberia obligations to children and extended family caring responsibilities impact negatively on opportunities for women to pursue careers or to be promoted ultimately to executive leadership positions (Nguni, 2006:140). It is further indicated that in most African countries young girls in desolated rural areas attend school to a certain level and then drop out or leave school after seven years to assist with home and family tasks while boys are encouraged to complete extended levels of education (Rademeyer, 2008:4).
Awumbila (2006:95) points out that in most developing countries, even if a woman assumes a leadership position, she still needs men’s collaboration to support her actions and decisions or else the influential men will work towards her downfall. This relates to the fact that men are still considered the sole decision-makers in patriarchal
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developing societies and when women in these societies rise to leadership positions, this rise is encountered as uncomfortable.
This results in situations where women, even if they rise to leadership positions, their decisions are still determined by men with the female leader acting only as the ceremonial spokesperson of the specific setting (Oduro & Macbeath, 2003:109). Research by Nguni (2006:140) in north, central and west African countries confirmed the deep rootedness of patriarchy with male supremacy and dominance resonating across the social, economic, political and cultural systems of these countries, thus placing women school leaders in challenging and demanding positions.
For the purpose of this study, gender is viewed as the roles ascribed to men and women by society. In the same vein equality is viewed as the leveling of the playing field between the genders with regard to work performance in order to arrange for equal work and promotion opportunities for both men and women. Gender equality therefore plays a pivotal role in women emancipation and advancement in all organisations, including the school as an organisation. With consideration of the South African context and as was pointed out in paragraph 2.3.3, the constitution of South Africa which is the supreme law of the country provides for equality and non-discrimination on the basis of race, gender, social backgrounds and creed.
As stated in the constitution, the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on the grounds of race, gender or sex (RSA, 1996(a):7). What this implies is that legally the scenario in the South African education system where women are under-represented in leadership positions points to discrimination. Cheng and Shum (2001:23) and Bowen (2005:17) observe that women under-representation in managerial positions and the challenges they face can mainly be attributed to gender, with little evidence of competency inefficiency. They further assert that women school principals face tri-multidimensional challenges and all these are gender-related (Bowen, 2005:18; Cheng & Shum, 2001:25).
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The tri-multidimensional challenges which women are facing in the working environment and which are gender-related pertain to the following (Bowen, 2005; Cheng & Shum, 2001):
• Task accomplishment style • Interpersonal style
• Decision making style
With regard to task accomplishment, Bowen (2005:27) asserts that female school principals in South Africa face challenges which are gender related and which are not experienced by men in similar positions. In line with what was pointed out in paragraph 2.3.3, these challenges include criticism on their work performance by the community and fellow female educators with related constant antagonism from male aspiring educators. Such negative gender-related tendencies against women make many female educators with well-developed leadership abilities fear to delve into the male domain of school principalship. And for the ones with ambition, promotion to leadership positions is a challenge as they have to fight the gender struggle in the system (Coleman, 2006:91).
Interpersonal relationships are also a challenge encountered by females in leadership positions at schools. Interpersonal relationships, according to Kuye, Thornhill and Fourie (2002:58), have the ability to maintain and improve the employee’s feelings of self-worth and competence, to give feedback on specific actions and their respective effects, to ensure that employees use the appropriate consequences in order to manage their actions, to provide employees with clarity with regard to the requirements of their jobs, and to clarify the results and measurement criteria with regard to their tasks. Without interpersonal relationships there will not be a positive working environment prevailing in the work place. In paragraphs 2.3.2 and 2.3.3 it was pointed out that female school principals are encountering a problem as parents and teachers team up to create disharmony in schools and teachers become uncooperative which results in a dysfunctional school. This has been supported by Zama et al. (2008:94) who indicate that teachers tend to display negative attitudes towards female school leaders and even verbally abuse female school principals. Verbal abuse, uncooperative
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teachers, and parents teaming up with teachers against female leadership represent challenges that female school principals are facing in their quest for interpersonal relationship forming (Lumby et al., 2010:34).
There is still disparity between men and women with regard to decision-making. Women leaders still face challenges when they have to carry out their leadership activities in decision-making. In paragraph 2.3.2 it has been indicated that women are under-represented in key decision-making positions and this under-representation has been supported by Awumbila (2006:95) when pointing out that men are still considered as the sole decision-makers. Even when occupying leadership positions the female school principals’ decisions are not considered and this is supported by what has been pointed out in paragraph 2.3.3 with regard to teachers challenging the decisions of the female school principals.
It is evident from realities in South African school practices that there are more male deputy school principals than female deputy school principals. But literature indicates that in general global terms gender equity in leadership positions still has a long way to go before equality is achieved as women are still under-represented in leadership positions. Coleman (2002:3) discovered that in England for the period 1997-2001 the ratio of male deputy principals to female deputy principals was 60% to 40%. This was supported by Lumby et al. (2010:27) who indicated that in South Africa (Gauteng Province) the percentage of female principals was 37 and 46 for female deputy principals for the 2008 school year. In the Mpumalanga province the gender ratio for 2006 revealed that women made up 51% of the population and men 49% but the female deputy principals’ percentage was 42.2% (DoE, 2008). The statistics indicate that the Department of Basic Education needs to work towards achieving 50% representation of women in the school leadership post levels. The fact that those to be promoted to school principalship need to have management experience as deputy school principals implies and confirms the eventual male domination of school principal positions. What is also evident is that the heads of department (HOD) in schools are also predominantly male. Mndluli (2002:10), for example, points out that in Kwazulu-Natal there were 183 male HODs and 179 female HODs for the 2001 school year. Mndluli further indicates
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that in high schools in Kwazulu-Natal male HODs represented 67,4% and female HODs 32,6% of the total HOD population for 2001 (Mndluli, 2002:11).
Lumby et al. (2010:5) emphasize that in many countries males move faster up to the leadership positions. For the South African Department of Basic Education to close the gap that still exists between male and female leadership representation, there must be an equity plan that must be managed in order to achieve 50% gender equity. The few HODs who are female are to a large extent near retirement and many of them retire before they ascend to deputy school principalship (Mndluli, 2002). It is therefore evident that gender equity within the South African school context with regard to school principal appointments which are based on competencies only to do the task, without any form of gender bias, still needs to be achieved.
As was pointed out in paragraph 2.4.2 the fact that women continue to be under- represented in school principal positions is not peculiar to the South African context only but pertains to all developing countries. And as was stated in paragraph 2.5 that in general schools that are managed by female school principals perform on par with male managed schools, with the indication that female leadership in general represents a more caring leadership style, many socio-cultural stereotypes still regard women as less equal with regard to work performance than men. It remains a fact, as was pointed out in paragraphs 2.3.2 and 2.3.3, that many female school principals are still often engulfed in a barrage of challenges that militate against their effectiveness due to gender-related socio-cultural discriminatory prejudices.
In order to categorise the problems female school principals in South Africa face, Kruger (2007:85) determines the following four groups of challenges:
• Societal • Cultural
• Teacher-related • System-related
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With regard to the societal challenge, and as was evident from paragraphs 2.4.1, 2.4.2 and 2.4.3, many communities still view women as subservient to men. This is applicable to the South African context where in many instances men are still viewed as born leaders and women as good followers (Coleman, 2006:17). Given this scenario, the learners, educators and parents of such communities sub-consciously harbour salient perceptions which make the female school principals’ work difficult. Kruger (2007:88) observed that in South African communities female school principals are devalued, side stepped, not supported, ignored, patronized and silenced because of their gender. In such situations the female school principal’s work is compromised and is prone to constant criticism from fellow colleagues and aspiring prospective school principals who are not as competent as the female school principal to lead the school (Kruger, 2007:89; Mertz, 2005:98).
Culture is what makes a group of people different from other groups. It manifests through attributes like dress, song and dance, and also through perceptions and attitudes towards life and people. In some communities of South Africa where women are still perceived to be inferior to men, women are not easily accepted as school principals and when they are appointed to leadership positions, patriarchy may ensue (Reynolds, 2002:106). Patriarchy in such schools usually manifests through manipulation, the exercising of power over females, double standards and stereotyping of the female gender (Zama et al., 2008:94). Such challenges complicate the female school principal’s task to lead her school effectively.
Female school principals also face teacher-related challenges. As it is natural human phenomena to resist change due to unfamiliarity with the unknown, many teachers (both male and female) are resistant to change. For many decades there have been mainly male school principals in most South African schools and when a female school principal was appointed teachers would not support her (Lumby et al., 2010:25). Two cases are reported in the Mpumalanga Province where the appointed female school principals were not allowed into their schools to resume their duties after the male school principals had retired. In both cases teachers wanted the male deputy school principals to take over from the retiring school principals. The instigators (teachers of
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the respective schools) mobilised learners and parents to barricade the schools so that the female school principals would not enter (Smit, 2013:137-143). Thus, in many South African communities there are still elements of negativism towards women in school principal positions, diminishing women’s ideas, efforts, capabilities and leadership activities in the communities as trivial (Smit, 2013).
With regard to system-related challenges for female school principals, the selection and recruitment of school principals in South Africa has some hindrances that militate against opportunities for women to be considered for leadership roles. Since there are fewer female deputy school principals at district level that can apply for promotion to school principal positions, they have to exceptionally impress as being more competent than the male applicants who are convincingly in the majority (Kruger, 2007:449). The female applicants are in many instances seen as delving into a man’s domain and once selected they have to work harder than men in similar positions in order to justify their appointment (Kruger, 2007:449; Reynold, 2002:110).
It is thus clear the challenges female school principals still face in many societies are deeply rooted in societal perceptions of women’s disposition with regard to the related competencies. The implication is that female school principals have to face male prejudice based on cultural norms and values with regard to the positions of women in the social context (Coleman, 2006; Higgs, 2006; Kruger, 2007; Mndluli, 2002). Based on socio-cultural stereotypes, the premise is that men have better work performance competencies with regard to being a school leader. Such socio-cultural indoctrination impacts negatively on female school principals and demands a concerted collective effort of inducing a paradigm shift with regard to competent female school leadership for the betterment of society.
2.7 SOME STRATEGIES TO CURB THE CHALLENGES FEMALE SCHOOL