There is barely room to stand, let alone sit, at the first September gathering of the leaders of the Noah Wallace School Parent Teacher Association. The crowd of 30 or so people spills out of the living room into the dining room, where a punch bowl surrounded by sumptuous treats sits ready for the after-meeting social hour. It is an earnest and expectant group, eager for another school year. Somehow, though, something seems to be missing from the picture. Just two dads are tucked into the back of the living room.
Women wield the power here as they do in parent-teacher groups across Connecticut and the country.
But it's women who rule in the parent-teacher organizations. A random e-mail query of PTAs nationwide failed to turn up a PTA board with more than a handful of men. Most said attracting more men was a goal and a frustration. An increasing number of dads are pitching in at school events, but they just aren't very visible at PTA meetings. Noah Wallace students getting dozens of computers and printers in the past few years.