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Education, as discussed earlier, is understood to be feminised with the predominance of females as classroom teachers. Not only do women make up a great proportion of teachers

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but also there have been recent reports that the enrolment of women into higher education exceeds that of men (Morley, 2013; Badat, 2014). However, this greater number of women in education and the increase in the number of female students has not been translated to an increase in the number of women in senior leadership positions within education. The glass-ceiling has been used to explain why few women attain top leadership positions within education. In the previous section it was observed that a number of barriers including — organisational culture that promotes male dominance, male’s objection to working with females, balancing career, familial responsibilities, lack of mentors and lack of networking opportunities — have all acted as an invisible ceiling hindering women from attaining leadership positions.

Prior to examining some of the measures to promote female leadership in education, it is important to consider why it is crucial to have women in leadership positions. Dicketts (2014) suggests that every organisation needs a diverse senior team and therefore women will bring in different ideas, knowledge, experiences and skills that will be essential in moving the organisation forward. Looking at it from an educational perspective, as mentioned earlier in this study, having women in senior leadership positions such as head teachers and education directors will contribute to the breaking down of negative gender stereotypes in schools in relation to leadership. It is maintained that children will come to the understanding that women are just as capable of being leaders as men (Moreau, Osgood and Halsall, 2007; Koch, 2007). As a result, Dicketts (2004) suggests that women leaders need to take charge over their lives by stepping up to challenge these stereotypes as this will contribute to raising the aspirations for other women and young people aiming to

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have a career in a leadership role. However, in the previous chapter research indicated that structural and cultural barriers equally hinders women’s leadership. It can therefore be argued that changes are required not just from women, as Dickett suggests, but that structural and cultural changes are necessary as well.

This section will be focused on identifying measures aimed at overcoming obstacles to women’s leadership role, in other words, strategies for enhancing women’s effectiveness as leaders. The measures will include structural and cultural changes as well as changes at personal levels. Structural and cultural changes will be in the form of professional development through training in leadership, stress management strategies, mentoring and networking, and changes to the male-dominance culture. At a personal level, the strategies proposed are changes to individual values and attitudes. However, an additional strategy that cuts across structural and cultural domains is family support mechanisms at both structural and familial levels. The study will argue that lack of policies is not the principal challenge to women’s leadership but that actually implementing policies is the main concern and suggest that more attention is required at this stage. The study also argues that changes should initially be made at structural and cultural levels to facilitate changes at personal levels. Finally, this section will argue that rather than focusing on a particular area, changes should take place in all three areas; cultural, structural and individual levels all of which hinder women from assuming leadership position.

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One of the contributing factors to women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions as explored earlier in the previous section relates to women’s reluctance, and in some cases total refusal, to seek promotion. However, Parsaloi and Steyn (2013) argue that reluctance to apply for leadership positions could be associated to the fact that women lack leadership training. Arguably, training would boost confidence in female teachers and encourage them to seek leadership roles. There are several calls from international organisations and researchers for education authorities to design and implement both formal and informal training for female teachers on leadership (UNESCO, 2006; INEE, 2010; Ward and Eddy, 2013).Training and continuing professional development are noted to be extremely crucial for female educators. Vineall (2002) defines continuing professional development as “any activity that increases the skills, knowledge or understanding of teachers and their effectiveness in schools” (p. 28). In light of this, Moreau, Osgood and Halsall (2005) suggest that through continuing professional development including targeted training such as in leadership, assertiveness and public speaking, women will be better equipped to apply for leadership positions, thereby fostering their career development.

It is believed that because men have occupied leadership positions for so long, women would need targeted training in leadership in order to get rid of the conception that they lack the ability to lead. The eventual development and implementation of training on leadership for women would equip them with effective leadership skills. It is believed that these skills will enable women to increase their competencies as leaders, and would go a long way to ensure that women have the confidence they need to gain entrance into the masculinised world of leadership. Consequently, the study suggests that this would resolve

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the problem of imbalances in power within educational institutions (Litmanovitz, 2011) particularly in addressing gender imbalances in staff at senior levels (INEE, 2010).

Apart from developing training on leadership for women, several studies have indicated the necessity for governments to encourage adequate representation of women in leadership roles in education by means of designing policies that will promote the qualification of women to assume leadership positions. Examples of such policies include policies that will be geared towards the enrolment of women into higher institutions of learning, and policies that will provide financial assistance to women in higher institutions (Sherman, 2000; Aladejana and Aladejana, 2005; Ward and Eddy, 2013). However, one of the studies further points out that colleges and universities equally have a role to play in promoting female leadership development. Ward and Eddy (2013) suggest that leadership development programmes should be set up in colleges, and that discussions about gender, work, and family should be incorporated into the programme. In order to encourage even more greater access of women to leadership positions, Dicketts (2014) strongly suggests that universities should not only create leadership programmes for women, but should also encourage women with aspirations of becoming leaders to enrol in these programmes and to provide students with female professors that would act as mentors and role models. It can be observed that Sherman, (2000); Aladejana and Aladejana, (2005); and Ward and Eddy, (2013) were interested in strategies that will create awareness on leadership and offer females the opportunity to gain qualifications that would act as a spring board to be eligible for a leadership position. Dicketts was more concerned with practical strategies that will enable females to gain experience that would facilitate their leadership capacity.

109 Stress Management

Research reveals that teaching is among one of the most stressful professions. In responding to a questionnaire requiring teachers to rate their stress experience, a quarter of them indicated that teaching is an extremely stressful profession (Kyriacou, 2001). Similarly, according to a report by the National Union of Teachers (NUT, 2008), teaching was found to be the most stressful profession in the UK. Indeed, they reported that the level of stress experienced by teachers is twice that of all other professions. This claim is supported by a recent statement from the northwest regional secretary for the National Union of Teachers, Avis Gilmore, who revealed that “For many years teaching has been the profession with the second highest levels of work related stress after those working in health and social care," (Fitzgerald, 2014, pg.1). Previous literature revealed that teachers experience stress as a result of excessive workload and difficulties experienced in trying to balance both career and family responsibilities (MORI, 2003; Cinamon and Rich, 2005; Conley and Jenkins, 2011; Okonkwo, 2013).

According to a report by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, (UNDAW) (2010) family responsibilities constitute one of the major obstacles to women’s labour force participation. In view of this, Calabress (2001) emphasises on the necessity to redefine the role of female teachers by policy makers. Calabress suggests that role redefinition should consider two elements: firstly assessing the physical and emotional

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needs of female teachers; and secondly assessing the needs of the institution. The study cautions that by failing to meet these needs the school will continue to promote a culture of burnout and stress among female teachers, and that individuals suffering from these will be incapable of producing the desired results expected of their position. Similarly, Cinamon and Rich (2005) assert that for female teachers to maintain a balance between their career and family responsibilities, educational administrators need to create a suitable professional environment that will permit them to realise their goals in both areas. Just like Calabress, they warned that failure to create an appropriate working environment will result in teachers stress frustration. As a result, this may eventually lead to teachers opting for part- time work or at its worst quitting the profession. What can be drawn from the above analyses is that structural support in the form of creating a positive work environment is crucial for the effective functioning of female teachers, especially in promoting their movement up the career ladder.

Research has shown that career breaks associated with childbirth, caring for children, and part-time work are some of the major barriers to women’s career advancement since they are regarded as not having enough experience compared to men who worked full time, putting in many hours of work (Nguyen’s, 2012). However, Dicketts (2014) suggests that institutions should pay more emphasis on results and impact rather than dwelling on the number of hours worked. Nguyen further argues that the success of an organisation should be defined in terms of working smartly and effectively and the emphasis on the number of hours worked should become less of an issue. In support of Dicketts’ argument, it can be suggested that if institutions continue to associate the qualification for being in a leadership

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position to the number of hours worked, this puts women in an unfair situation; particularly because women have always been, and continue to be, largely responsible for childcare and other family responsibilities. This implies that it would probably be difficult, if not impossible for the majority of women to occupy senior positions in institutions if focus remains about the quantity rather than the quality of work realised.

Research has shown that female teachers bear undesirable consequences as a result of work-family conflicts. The consequences identified include occupational and non- occupational negative outcomes. Occupational consequences, among others include high job dissatisfaction, less commitment to organisation, low occupational well-being, an intent to quite the profession, lateness, inadequate performance in job roles, burnout, and high turnover. Non-occupational outcomes include; family dissatisfaction and distress, general psychological strain, increases in life dissatisfaction, marital dissatisfaction, depression, physical/somatic symptoms, and burnout (Smithers and Robinson, 2003; Cinamon and Rich, 2005; Conley and Jenkins, 2011; Palmer et al.’s, 2012; Okonkwo, 2013). Following the stress and burn out experienced by teachers, there has been the quest for institutions to establish a healthier work environment to promote a culture of work-life balance for its employees and female teachers in particular. According to Cinamon and Rich (2005) this may be realised by bringing to organisational managers’ understanding the effects of work-family conflict on women’s careers and wellbeing as well as identifying the advantages of implementing family-friendly policies. Examples of family-friendly policies may include flexible working aided by the use of technological development (using Google docs — a web-based application for creating documents where files can be accessed on any

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computer) (Dicketts, 2014); working on a term time contractual basis, especially increased opportunities for part-time work and job sharing between partners (Moreau, Osgood and Halsall, 2005). It is suggested that family-friendly policies can play a major role in permitting teachers to combine both work and family responsibilities and equally prevent teachers, especially women with young children, from interrupted career breaks (Moreau, Osgood and Halsall, 2005). In addition, Palmer et al (2012) suggests that the development and implementation of programmes and policies promoting work-life balance would result “to decrease occupational stress, increase job satisfaction and produce better occupational performance reflected in less time away from work, better performance while at work and lower turnover” (p. 1056).

What becomes clear from the analysis on strategies to reduce teacher stress and burnout is that academic organisations have a greater responsibility of developing and implementing several strategies to reduce work overload. Flexible working was suggested more often in literature as one of the strategies, but as noted earlier flexible working by opting to work part-time is detrimental to women’s career development because of the less number of hours put into work. It can be argued that part-time work could be advantageous for women with no career development prospects but unsuitable for those aspiring for a leadership position. It can be suggested therefore that in addition to flexible working opportunities, government and educational organisations should focus more on implementing other measures suggested, such as developing services on the use of information technology and providing affordable day care centres [to be discussed later] that would benefit all groups of women.

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The other area identified as a contributing factor to creating stress among teachers is workload. Literature revealed that many teachers identified workload as the main reason for wanting to quit the teaching profession. A majority of teachers, particularly female teachers, are faced with the difficulty of being unable to separate job roles from family roles to the extent that teaching work is extended to the home (Cinamon and Rich, 2005; Conley and Jenkins, 2011; Okonkwo, 2013). Faced with these challenges, female teachers are left with three options; reduce their working hours, quit the job or leave temporary till their care responsibilities lessens (Smithers and Robinson, 2003).

In order to prevent any of the above three options from taking place, it is suggested that schools should implement strategies to manage and reduce work overload. One of the strategies suggested is for schools to provide support staffs to carry out administrative tasks that are required of teachers (Vineall, 2002; Palmer et al, 2012). It should be noted that one of the elements identified as the reason for teachers’ job dissatisfaction was the amount of paper work involved in teaching. The same studies also revealed that female teachers were reluctant to seek promotion because of the amount of paper work associated with managerial and leadership positions (Smithers and Robinson, 2003; Woodward, 2003). It is believed that support teachers play a key role in reducing workload for teachers. As Palmer et al notes, the provision of support staff will assist to reduce the number of hours teachers have to put in, and in effect reduce the work load since support staff will carry out most of the clerical tasks initially completed by permanent staff. Likewise, according to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) as much as 20 per cent of teachers’ time could be covered by support staff. DfES’ guidelines outlined 25 tasks which were believed could

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be offered to support staff. In view of the government’s promise in 2002 to provide over 20,000 extra support staff in a period of four years, the DfES asserted that there was a great possibility that this would go a long way to reduce teachers’ workload. However, this was dependent on the fact that the support staff would be trained, managed and posted into schools (Vineall, 2002). They could also employ more teachers; invest in PGCE courses to train and sponsor schools to take up newly qualified teachers.

It would seem that DfES’s ‘projected’ vision is yet to be realised. As indicated previously, recent reports (Conley and Jenkins, 2011; Okonkwo, 2013) continue to reveal an increase in the workloads experienced by teachers. However, DfES did caution that significant results will only be achieved if support staff were trained, managed and deployed. It can be suggested that if these conditions are met, there is a possibility of achieving great results that would contribute to reducing teacher’s workload and consequently attracting more women to apply for leadership positions — particularly as increased paper work was identified as one of the barriers hindering women from seeking promotion.

An additional measure proposed as very important is implementing health-related strategies to manage and reduce stress — basically, to promote teacher’s health and general wellbeing. Most studies emphasised the role of counselling to achieve this objective. Seibt et al (2012) suggest that institutions should put in place programmes that would comprise of preventive and intervention mechanisms such as occupational medical examinations and psycho-therapeutic counselling for female teachers. This strategy aims to maintain a positive state of health. In addition, Calabress (2001) suggests that institutions

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should establish support networks in the form of individual/group counselling or in-house training for female teachers battling with stress. Similarly, Palmer et al (2012) suggests that teachers should be taught about strategies to control and reduce stress and burnout. Seibt et al and Calabress’ approach therefore sees external strategies, i.e. strategies to be developed by the government and schools, as crucial in tackling stress. Palmer et al, however, are more interested in recommending strategies that will enhance individual efforts to reduce stress.

One other measure identified that has long been operating to tackle stress through counselling was the establishment of a telephone ‘helpline’ jointly by the teacher unions, education authorities and the government. This ‘helpline’ known as ‘teacherline’, offers support by free telephone counselling to teachers struggling with stress related problems (Kyriacou, 2001; p. 32). Presently, this support agency is called the ‘Teacher Support Network’ (TSN). They operate a 24 hours service and are open seven days of the week. TSN strongly believe that no teacher should be left to deal with emotional stress on their own (TSN, 2015). However, it is quite shocking that even with TSN in place the level of stress faced by teachers is so far still high. It is, however, possible that teachers generally are not aware of the services available to assist them manage stress. If this is the case then institutions of learning have the duty to provide additional information and create more awareness on the services available for teachers in managing stress related problems.

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Child care and other family responsibilities were identified by previous literature as constituting a barrier to women’s leadership success either because of the difficulties involved in caring for family or because most employers are reluctant to offer women leadership opportunities for fear that they will be hindered by family demands. The literature on the experiences of female teachers did outline some of the difficulties that women face when trying to balance both work and family responsibilities. One of the studies mentioned that marriage and having young children limits women’s control over