Women Leading School Systems Uncommon Roads to Fulfillment

Most published research on the superintendency has failed to examine the voices of female superintendents. Today, white males make up approximately 85% of superintendents, rendering female responses to the superintendency almost nonexistent. Women Leading School Systems, commissioned by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), provides a historical overview of women in top leadership positions. This study examines what drives some female educators to accept the challenge of becoming a superintendent and what drives others to remain in middle management. The authors also profile a number of women who spend their lives at the top of the school system. This comprehensive book is the only national study entirely dedicated to women's leadership.

C. Cryss Brunner is associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota and codirector of the UCEA Joint Program Center for the Study of the Superintendency.