The International Schools Review Forum

In your experience, do you notice a difference between male and female admin in terms of their management styles?

Yes, but only on the 'soft side'. Leaders tend to have two faces the 'soft' side where in men means being one of the guys and your leader tries to be your colleague, your team member or their 'hard' side where its cold, detached, and hyper professional.
The 'soft' side of women in leadership tends to be maternal or just one big family where we all get along for the common and greater good compared to their 'hard' side which tends to over compete with their perceptions of their male counterparts. They have to be colder, more detached, and even more professional so that they an be seen as "capable" compared to male leaders.

falconeer wrote:
> In your experience, do you notice a difference between male and female
> admin in terms of their management styles?

Not really.
Could be because of the sample size though.

I've found that in one-on-one situations the female leaders were better at interacting with staff, but where it comes to overall decision-making there's not a huge difference.
I know some female teachers that do strongly prefer to work for a female Head though, so whether or not you notice a difference between male and female admin in terms of their management styles may very well depend on your own gender.

I've found female principals to take things more to heart rather than just part of the job. Constructive criticism to a male principal would be a personal affront to a female one. I've heard often that female teachers are more likely to be martyrs to their job, and I find that even more so with the female principals I have worked with.

All else being equal Id rather work for a male leader, unless I can be part of the female leaders clique.

I've worked for three Heads of School that were excellent - one male and two females. None of the three ran the school through cliques, they'd listen and treat all faculty with respect. As a result there was a lot of solidarity between teachers - regardless of age, ethnicity, gender or nationality. If the HoS made a mistake, they'd own up to it. None of the 3 had time for blame culture. All three were very sharp, had a strong vision, and communicated it effectively. The students always came first, but they all knew that happy teachers are better teachers.
The women knew all the teachers and students' names, and were more approachable. The man was/is more distant, and more into the sport/athletics program. All three were honest, transparent and held their administrators and faculty to account for what they did.