table Educational Practices. The Tools form
the foundation for assessing equity journeys
and implementing an action plan for shifting
school district leaders from inequitable prac-
tices to equitable practices. In this article we
emphasize the tools of Overcoming Barriers,
Guiding Principles, and Essential Elements.
The individual and institutional barriers
that women face can be categorized as:
• Being unaware of the school or district’s
need to adapt to having women leaders at
all levels.
• Denying the existence of sexism and
gender inequities as systemic oppression.
• Denying the existence of systemic privi-
lege and entitlement that favors male leaders.
• Resisting change that aids in attracting,
recruiting, and mentoring women in leader-
ship positions.
Gathering narrative data
We hosted a small Women in Educational
Leadership Retreat to help us identify the
barriers that hindered, as well as the sup-
ports that assisted women leaders on their
career journeys. We had hoped to gather 10
to 15 women on a Saturday morning for cof-
fee and brunch to respond to our two ques-
tions. Much to our surprise and appreciation,
almost 30 women joined us. Many of the
women told us the invitation and the ques-
tions intrigued them because no one had ever
asked about barriers or supports to their ca-
reer goals. We found these women to be or-
dinary, everyday women educational leaders
doing their jobs. We had planned an agenda
that included an opening strategy called, “Go
‘round”. We would simply “go around” the
room and each guest would respond to the
following prompts:
Who are you? What do you do and where?
What inspired/intrigued you to be here today?
We had allowed 25 minutes for this strat-
egy, including time for the three of us to
respond to the prompts. We could not stop
the responses. An hour and a half later, each
woman had spoken and had told amazing
stories about why she was inspired to attend.
They told stories of struggles, inspiration,
heartbreak, and motivation. The women
needed and wanted to tell their stories. And,
they wanted to hear each other’s stories.
Today’s context and barriers
Many of the retreat interviewees’ stories
revealed incidents that occurred 20 to 30
years ago; yet, other women told similar
experiences occurring within the past 10
years, five years, and even one year ago. As
many male leaders contend the glass ceiling
had been shattered and the playing field has
been leveled, women continue to find the
contrary. In addition to the glass ceiling, the
retreat participants identified key pipeline
barrier themes including marginalization,
lack of mentoring and sponsorship, stereo-
typing, and discrimination. Cultures of
women were well represented in the forum.
Women of color and women of the LGBTQ
community clearly identified existing barri-
ers that the white, heterosexual woman did
not encounter nor see. Historical construc-
tions of gender and race became evident as
women expressed their journeys navigating
multiple cultural boundaries in addition to
gender barriers.
Numerous examples cited by the partici-
pants directly aligned to the barriers identi-
fied in the Culturally Proficient Framework:
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