Anne Johnson responding to Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders

Anne Johnson responding to  Sheryl Sandberg:  Why we have too few women leaders


Key points:

• Women make harder choices
• Women need to 
• Sit at the table
• Make our partners real partners
• Don't leave before they leave
• Women systematically underestimate their abilities 
• Women generally attribute their success to external factors
• Successful male leaders generally enjoy correlation between their like-ability and level of success
• Successful female leaders generally experience a correlation between not being liked and level of success

Assumptions Sheryl Sandberg makes

• Women's career and leadership paths are similar to men's (i.e. put your foot on the path and move forward)
• Women make harder choices 
• Women want or do aspire to higher levels of leadership

Such an interesting area.  Sally Reis has done some very interesting work in this area of women and their career/leadership pathways.  Her research indicates that men's pathways and trajectory of success are established in the earliest phase of their career.  Women experience interruptions in their career paths. They take time away to have families, care for parents/grandparents, and then return - but often to other careers, not the pathway they entered.  Men's highest level of achievement is attained early - women's highest levels of achievement attained in their 50's.  

Sally Reis speaks with young women and counsels them to:

• Finish college before entering serious relationships/marriage/child rearing
• Initiate and establish your career before having children 
• Do anticipate and prepare for your entry/exit into career pathways - not by stepping away from the table, but being fully conscious of the realities
• Recognize the demands of women's roles and the conflicts inherent in these roles
• Understand that unlike the commercial and common message sent that "women (or men) can have it all", we can't have it all - all the time.  One does sacrifice something in the pursuit of the highest levels of success.
• Consider thoughtfully whether children are going to be a part of your life.  Success makes demands . . . will you be able to meet the needs of children as you pursue your goals?  

So, how does all of this apply to leadership in education . . .

• Education is often the field viewed as acceptable or "easier" for women to manage if they are mothers.  This brings a mindset to the field, which impacts the organization.  If you view teacher or leadership in education as a mediation zone for your private goals as opposed to a career path, then it definitely causes one to have "left before they leave" - in fact, they simply didn't arrive in the first place.
• Might be one of the explanation for why elementary education is predominantly a female's career path
• Elicits the question of whether teaching is a career . . . or a job for the secondary wage earner
• Sacrifice on the leader's part may not only be viewed as undesirable, but a model that conflicts with their staff's desires for themselves, especially if the leader is female. 
• Educators (teachers and administrators) do need strong spousal support.  The most successful teachers in our school are those with supportive spouses.  We actually talk about this in the interview process and what the demands of employment in our school means to a family.  The two biggest reasons that we see attrition in our faculty/staff are:
• Unable to manage the demands of the job and/or family/other commitments
• Unable to meet expertise levels required

Anne