Gender Inequality in School Leadership

Recently released data confirms there has been no progress in the percentage of female superintendents leading the 500 largest school districts nationwide; but in Texas, most school principals and assistant principals are female, and that number continues to grow.

Superintendents

The ILO Group reports that although approximately 76 percent of teachers are women, less than one-third of large districts are led by women at the superintendent level. In July 2023, 152 (30.4 percent) of the 500 largest districts employed women superintendents, and 348 (69.9 percent) districts employed men superintendents. The number remained unchanged as of July 2024.

Other notable findings from the study include:

• White men lead the largest percentage (44 percent) of the nation’s 500 largest school districts.
• Of the 152 women superintendents, 113 (74.3 percent) earned doctoral degrees. Of the 348 men superintendents, 240 (68.9 percent) earned doctoral degrees.
• Doctoral degree attainment for white male superintendents was the lowest percentage (64 percent) for any subset of gender and race.
• Greater female representation on school boards correlates with increased women in superintendent roles.

Seventy-four Texas school districts are represented in the nation’s 500 largest school districts. Among the 74, 37.8 percent of those districts are led by women superintendents. However, when looking at all 1,018 superintendents in Texas, the percentage of women superintendents drops to 28.3 percent.

Campus Leadership

The Texas Principal Workflow Report from the Texas Education Leadership Lab (T.E.L.L.) clarifies the status and trends of the principal workforce in Texas over the past 12 years. The report finds the proportion of female principals and assistant principals in Texas has increased from 60 to 67 percent over the past 10 years. This outpaces the national trend which has increased only 4 percent (52 percent to 56 percent female). Of the female principals in Texas, close to half are people of color.

While most elementary school principals are historically female, the majority of high school principals are male. However, Texas has increased the number of female high school principals by 10 percentage points over the course of the study. In comparison, the national growth has been only half as quick.

Additional points of interest include:

• The proportion of both Black and Hispanic principals and assistant principals has increased by 5 percentage points each. Nationally, the proportion of Hispanic leaders increased by only 1.8 percentage points, and there was a 0.5 percentage point decrease in the number of Black school leaders in the same timeframe.
• Racial and ethnic diversity of school leaders has increased 8 percentage points since 2011, and those changes are most prevalent in suburban schools.
• As more women achieve principalship, it is anticipated that more women will ascend to superintendency.

Further Reading

The full superintendent analysis, including a spreadsheet of the data collected, can be found on the ILO Group website.

More information on the principal trends in Texas can be found in the Texas Principal Workforce Report from T.E.L.L.