[Download] "To Climb Or Not to Climb: The Probing of Self-Imposed Barriers That Delay Or Deny Career Aspirations to be an Administrator in a Public School System (Report)" by Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: To Climb Or Not to Climb: The Probing of Self-Imposed Barriers That Delay Or Deny Career Aspirations to be an Administrator in a Public School System (Report)
- Author : Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 339 KB
Description
Introduction According to the YWCA (2007) Women's Leadership Initiative, "A career ladder can be climbed in heels." This study examined one aspect of climbing that career ladder: self-imposed barriers of the journey to rise to an administrative position in public school systems. Barriers, glass ceilings, and broken ladders are all terms associated with obstacles women have encountered while trying to attain top management positions, and have been researched and studied extensively over the last thirty years. In the early 1990s, aspiring women viewed the barriers to the superintendency as external blockage. Derrington and Sharratt (2009a) reported on a study conducted in 1993 surveying women in Washington State who aspired to hold or already held a superintendent position. These researchers further reported that the women in their study perceived the barriers as "institutionalized and rooted in societal practices, such as gender-role stereotyping and sex discrimination" (Derrington and Sharratt, 2009a). Fourteen years later (2007), administering the same survey, Derrington and Sharratt found women still encountered barriers to attaining the superintendency but now the top barrier was reported as self-imposed. The respondents in this 2007 study defined self-imposed barriers as "the failure to attain the superintendency or the decision to avoid it because of family responsibilities" (Derrington and Sharratt, 2009b). As Derrington and Sharratt point out, "recognizing a barrier ... is the first step toward overcoming it" (2009a). To climb or not to climb seems to be the question women are now addressing. Aspiring women are recognizing that they have a choice when to climb the career ladder and "the climb" depends on how much and how fast they want to advance. Hence, are there glass ceilings and broken ladders, or have women moved to winding roads with more control over their choices, and/or inviting pauses on the climb up the ladder?