By STACEY BODGER
Women teach most of New Zealand's primary school classes but the chances of finding one behind a principal's desk are less than half.
Although women make up 79 per cent of primary school teachers, only 36 per cent of principals are women.
The figures were released yesterday in a report, The Status of Women, which studied how women's positions in the primary teaching sector had changed since 1990.
It was presented at the New Zealand Educational Institute's annual conference.
The report said that while women were still under-represented in the top positions, the tide was turning.
The number of women primary school teachers had grown 6 percentage points since 1992, while the number promoted to principal had increased 9 percentage points.
Where women did hold the top job, it was more likely to be in smaller schools.
Principals contacted yesterday agreed that female teachers tended to see management positions as being above a "glass ceiling."
Roween Higgie, principal of Bayfield Primary in Herne Bay, Auckland, did not realise she could handle the position until she became the deputy principal of a large school.
It was not part of the career path for most of the women teachers of her generation. "But now that I see how attainable it is, I think more women should embark on teaching careers with their sights set on management."
Ponsonby Primary principal Anne Malcom agrees that many women teachers seem to have shied away from applying for principals' positions because of self-doubt. Other reasons were geographic mobility, as winning the jobs often meant shifting cities, and family priorities.
Anne Malcom is researching the topic for her masters degree in educational administration. Her initial findings show that in Auckland, women are starting to become more evenly represented as principals.
In 1996, 11 out of 12 schools in central Auckland had male principals, but now women head seven of them.
All of the women were aged between 40 and 50 and had undertaken extra training, usually in administration. "Women in the past decade seem to have overcome the worry of, 'I already run a family, do I really want to run a school?'," Anne Malcom said.
Judy Eagles, principal of Maungatapere School near Whangarei, applied for 20 principals' jobs before winning one. She said conservative communities and boards of trustees still favoured male principals.
No room for clockwatchers
School glass ceiling going
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