Gender considerations in school management: masculine and feminine leadership styles

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Abstract
Little attention has been given to the application of gender concepts to schools as organizations and school leadership. The article explores the relationship between gender concepts and styles of management. After a description of traditional paradigms of gender behaviour expectations the article leads in to an exploration of management styles in both primary and secondary schools. It is suggested that primary schools are generally ‘feminine’ in culture and therefore require appropriate ‘feminine’ styles of management behaviour from heads. This presents a problem for male heads who try to follow ‘masculine’ paradigms of management behaviour. Secondary schools are seen as being predominantly ‘masculine’ or even ‘patriarchal’ in culture and the question is raised as to whether such a culture is appropriate to an organization that could be expected to be nurturing and characterized by needs that would be better attended to by a characteristically ‘feminine’ style of management. It is pointed out that individual heads whose personal style does not suit the conventional expectations of how a head should behave, based upon sexist perspectives will have a sense of personal incongruence as a school manager and leader and may experience considerable personal stress as a consequence.

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