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Love her or hate her, agree that the electoral college works or argue it is an anachronism defying the popular vote, this much is true: Hillary Clinton came closer to shattering the nation’s ultimate glass ceiling than anyone in history.
Even if you believe she was absolutely the wrong woman to break through, you have to be a caveman to believe a woman should never be president.
Woman have been leading other nations for decades: Angela Merkel in Germany, Margaret Thatcher in England, Golda Meir in Israel, Indira Ghandi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, to name a (very) few.
Independent of her policies and past, Clinton’s failure brings new focus to America’s “glass ceilings” in general. For whatever reasons, we still have more men than women in top power positions in almost every field.
Consider public schools. Recently, Education Week detailed a lack of women in the top spot of the nation’s school districts. The data was distilled in one stark paragraph:
Women make up 76 percent of teachers, 52 percent of principals, and 78 percent of central-office administrators, according to federal data and the results of a recent national survey. Yet they account for less than a quarter of all superintendents. …”
The pattern holds true locally. According to state data, in 2015-16 Luzerne County public schools had 2,276 female “professional personnel” — 72 percent of the total. Similarly, 74 percent of classroom teachers were women.
How many of the county’s 11 school districts had a female superintendent? One, though Northwest Area presents an unusual case: Elizabeth Ellis was hired as “director of district operations,” while Lake-Lehman School District Superintendent James McGovern was tabbed as Northwest Area’s “Superintendent of Record.”
Even counting Ellis, the women are in charge in a scant 18 percent of county districts.
And it doesn’t get any better if you extend the search. The Hazleton Area Career Center principal is a woman, but both of the county’s multi-district career and technical centers have men in charge. The Luzerne Intermediate Unit has a male executive director, and Bear Creek Community Charter School’s CEO is a man.
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, of course. If men are truly the best qualified applicants, they should be hired. And as Ed Week notes, part of the problem may be that, in many cases, women simply don’t apply.
But when the overwhelming majority of teachers are women, this particular glass ceiling becomes particularly suspect.
Local school boards and districts should re-evaluate how they approach filling the top job. Do they make it clear they are eager for a diverse pool of applicants (which includes minorities as well as women)? Do they mentor women employees interested in leadership roles? Do they harbor unrealized bias?
The goal is not, de facto, to appoint more female superintendents; it is to make sure we are not missing out on what they could bring to the job.