THE majority of Scotland’s secondary school heads are men, despite the fact two-thirds of the country’s teachers are women.
The discrepancy was highlighted last week, when the Scottish Government published the latest summary statistics for schools in Scotland.
Of the 22,957 teachers in Scotland’s secondary schools, 63 per cent are female. However, only 43 per cent of the 330 headteachers are female. If there was parity, then Scotland would have an extra 72 female heads.
Jim Thewliss, from School Leaders Scotland, formerly the Headteachers’ Association of Scotland, said the gap was well known in Scotland’s schools, and that progress was slowly being made.
“We’ve been well aware of this for quite some time. We will support any moves towards more ladies becoming headteachers,” Thewliss said.
“We are making positive steps towards that as a profession and as a society. If you look at the figures five years go and 10 years, you would see we’ve moved towards that.”
He added: “I’d like to think that’s ability coming to the fore, and those with ability are starting to prove that they have it and that’s moving the gender balance towards very much an equity position.”
The situation in England is worse: 62 per cent of the classroom workforce are female, but only 36 per cent of head teachers.
Dr Karen Edge, an academic at the Institute of Education, had looked at the situation south of the Border, comparing it to schools in America and Canada.
The researcher previously told the Guardian that family often played a role in stopping women taking on senior roles in English schools, but not so much on the other side of the Atlantic.
“We’ve had several conversations with women in London who have waited to pursue a leadership post because they want to have children, but this hasn’t come up with participants in Toronto and it’s been mentioned much less by people in New York,” she said. “Women in England seem to be more worried about being a leader and a parent. They often don’t think the two are compatible.”
Edge believes this might be because schools abroad aren’t inspected to the degree they are in London.
“A couple of participants have actually said they’ve waited for their school to be Ofsted-ed before having children,” she added.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We recognise the importance of good leadership in our schools and are committed to supporting teachers who want to take the step to headship – with the focus on ensuring the right people to fill these roles have the opportunity to do so, irrespective of gender. To help support this, we have established the Scottish College for Educational Leadership and delivered and funded a new Qualification for Headship.”
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