The Barriers Hindering Female Teachers from Becoming School Principals (Sample from Mersin Province-Turkey)
Author: Inandi, Yusuf
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Barriers,Females,Principals,Women Administrators,Gender Differences,Equal Opportunities (Jobs),Teacher Promotion,Sex Stereotypes,Social Structure,Family Work Relationship,Working Hours,Age Differences,Elementary Schools,Teacher Attitudes,Administrator Attitudes,Public Schools,Marital Status,Gender Discrimination,Career Development,Sex Role,Foreign Countries,Elementary School Teachers

Problem Statement: Despite many positive developments, in practice it is still not possible for women to be equal to men in the twenty-first century. One of the fields in which inequality between men and women continues to exist is education. In educational institutions, women are not given the same opportunities as men to be promoted to higher ranks and senior positions which include school principals. In many research studies, the barriers preventing women from career advancement have been found to be the existence of a glass ceiling; stereotypes about the sexes; obstacles resulting from societal structure; barriers resulting from family and women's point of view towards administration; barriers resulting from education, working hours, age and marital status; and career obstacles resulting from school organization and environment. This paper examines the barriers preventing female teachers working in elementary schools from becoming school principals. Purpose of Study: The aim of the research is to determine the barriers preventing female teachers working in elementary schools from becoming school principals by analyzing the views of teachers and school principals who work in public elementary schools. Methods: A general scanning model is used in this descriptive research study. It was decided to use the simple random sampling approach, and 30 school principals and 202 teachers in the Mersin Province were randomly selected to constitute the sample for the research study. The researcher collected the data for the research by implementing a rating scale. By means of SPSS 11, the views of school principals and teachers about the career barriers preventing female teachers working in elementary schools from becoming school principals were determined. Findings and Results: According to the findings, the position variable and the sex variable cause meaningful differences between the points of view of the participants. There are meaningful differences between the points of view of the participants about the dimensions of working hours, age, and marital status in terms of the variable of education level. Furthermore, there were meaningful differences between the points of view of the participants about societal sex stereotypes. Conclusions and Recommendations: It can be concluded that the glass ceiling produced by society to discriminate against women continues to exist. The men in today's societies prioritize women's duties as motherhood, and being a housewife and a spouse. In contrast, the activities of career development are perceived as being men's work. It should be considered that female teachers, along with other individuals who constitute an organization, have an important responsibility to help female teachers to overcome the barriers to career development.