Women Leading and Owning Schools in Bangladesh: Opportunities in Public, Informal, and Private Education

In this article I describe the extent to which Bangladeshi women have taken advantage of the increased opportunities both to lead and manage educational institutions and to own them. I use data from government and informal sector educational institutions and interviews with female private school owners collected during fieldwork in Bangladesh. I discuss the factors that may militate against women taking advantage of developing opportunities particularly in the formal and private education sectors in Bangladesh. Adopting a critical feminist perspective and an awareness of sociological research relating cultural differences to educational leadership, I conclude by recommending methods of ensuring progress towards gender equity in educational leadership in the public and private education in Bangladesh. The underrepresentation of women in educational leadership and management , from school to national level, continues to be a feature of education systems worldwide. This is particularly the case in the countries of South Asia, where teaching has been overwhelmingly male-dominated (Haq & Haq, 1998). Many governments have acknowledged the need for gender equity supported by conscious policy making and implementation to induct women into managerial positions in education, but few have translated intent into action. Women in South Asian countries have limited representation as principals or assistant principals of schools and colleges, or hold positions in the higher levels of educational policymaking. This is the case in the formal public education sector in Bangladesh. However, changes in the delivery of education within Bangladesh have the potential to provide many new opportunities for women to become involved in leading and managing schools and other educational facilities. The Government of Bangladesh (1990) acknowledged the difficulty of meeting universal education goals given the limited nature of existing educational facilities and the financial resources available. As a result, the Government, in conjunction with the Bangladesh National Commission of UNESCO (BNCU), has authorized a number of developments in the field About the Author Jill Sperandio is an Assistant Professor in the educational leadership program at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her research interest focuses on leadership for women and girls, both in the states and in developing countries around the world. of non-formal education that reach out to deprived groups within the school-aged population (Ministry of Education, 2005-2006). In addition, the expansion of the private education sector has been rapid and includes schools and universities; some licensed by the government but many remaining unlicensed (Ahmed & Ahmed, 2002). These developments …