Gender representation and social justice: Ideology, methodology and smoke-screens

A number of researchers have provided an overview of the progress of research focusing on gender and educational leadership/management in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Bjork, 2000; Blackmore, 2006; Shakeshaft, 1993, 1999; Tallerico & Blount, 2004; Zheng, 1999). Shakeshaft (1999 p. 522) casts descriptive studies of representation generally ‘documenting the absence of women’ as an early phase of research, followed by studies which focused on other aspects of women in leadership roles, driven by a developing range of phenomenological and radical perspectives. Representation of men and women in leadership roles has persisted as a key focus throughout this period. During their history, studies of representation have been attacked from a number of theoretical viewpoints, for example as inappropriately essentialising women (Butler, 2004), or as embedding a ‘zero sum game’ (Marshall, 1993, p. 4) which pits various under-represented/disadvantaged groups against each other, or as putatively redundant in the light of advances in gender equality (Lumby with Coleman, 2007). All three perspectives are highly contested. This article reviews the purpose, nature and methodological challenges of studies of gender representation in educational leadership/management and charts one international effort to make progress. It offers comment and critique on an attempt to map data on women’s representation in educational management across Commonwealth countries. It also explores the significance of the difficulties encountered and possible links to ideological and power flows. It aims to illuminate one small corner of the game of resistance to sexual divisions in education labour.