In this article, the discourse of 12 women superintendents is examined with the expressed aim of determining if patterns in their talk about their superintendency experiences contain events or episodes of inequality. The study's examination is guided by an adaptation of Swindler's theory of "settled" and "unsettled" social periods. Qualitative inquiry and analysis methods are used to identify emerging themes or topics of talk. Five topics of talk emerge from the narrative data: power, silence, style, responsibility, and people. Each of these topics is examined for settled and unsettled properties and further analyzed using the lenses of Chase and Bell's identified strategies to discover how the women treat their experiences of inequality in their discourse.With a foundation laid by Patricia Schmuck, Flora Ida Ortiz, Charol Shakeshaft, and others, a previously neglected area of study-women in educational administration-began to take shape, and questions about the dearth of women in administration were asked. Even with this new foundation, however, research focused on women superintendents was and is as scarce and scattered as the women themselves. To be sure, after approximately 75 years of extant scholarship on the superintendency that relied primarily on White, male participants, it is only during the past 20 years that one finds research directed specifically to women superintendents (Tallerico, 1999, p. 29).Certainly, when women find themselves in the position of superintendent of schools, it is immediately apparent to them that of their colleagues the greatest number are men. In fact, during this 1999-2000 school year, approximately 13% of superintendents are women (Glass, Björk, & Brunner, 2000). Furthermore, it is shocking to see that when a line graph is constructed using the percentages of women in the superintendency from each year over the 76

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Despite widespread concern about the need to ensure that women succeed in superintendency positions, there is woefully little relevant literature. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of female superintendents focused on identifying their strategies for success. In broad strokes, the study draws on the insights of 12 women superintendents and 24 people who knew them. Interpretations are presented as they find expression in seven “strategies for success”.

This article focuses on power, its conception, and its enactment during decision making. Its purpose is to lay the groundwork for the intentional infusion into educational leadership preparation programs of classroom experiences that develop, encourage, and support leaders who attend to social justice issues while making decisions related to children. The article begins with a discussion of two modern conceptions of power and a mixed version of the two, followed by an exploration of the relationship between conceptions of power and the enactment of power in decision making. The second part of the article is in the form of a case that has been designed to draw attention to some of the difficulties administrators encounter when they try to understand and use power with others rather than over others. The case study is based on actual events that have occurred in public school settings. The final part of the article contains a self-reflective experience designed to facilitate the exploration of an individual's conceptualization of the term power.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate differences and/or similarities between women's and men's career mobility toward the superintendency in terms of career pathways and movement patterns, with specific attention to women's career pathways as they correspond with their aspiration to the superintendency.Design/methodology/approachIn this study of upper level educational administrators in the USA, typical career pathways were identified for four targeted groups of the study: men superintendents; women superintendents; women central office administrators who aspire to the superintendency; and women central office administrators who do not aspire to the superintendency. Four pathways for each group were drawn by analyzing data related to survey respondents' professional experiences. In the analysis, descriptive methods including frequencies and percentages were used in drawing pathways.FindingsOne of the major findings from confirmed that career pathways for women in educational administration are different than those of men who typically become superintendents. While many men administrators had worked in line‐role positions and moved vertically up to the superintendency, women generally traveled to the superintendency through staff roles and their career mobility patterns were more often horizontal. In addition, significant differences were found between the career patterns of aspiring and non‐aspiring women central office administrators. The results of the study raise the question of whether particular career pathways actually create higher quality superintendents.Originality/valueThe study includes data from women central office administrators (aspiring and non‐aspiring), a large and recent data set that has been missing from most studies of career mobility. The inclusion of this data set allows one to identify: differences between women who do and who do not aspire; differences between seated women superintendents and aspiring and non‐aspiring central office administrators; and the potential added value that women bring to the role of superintendent of schools.