Women Leadership in Education

‼️ Last year, a report from Lean In and McKinsey & Company suggested women are pulling back from leadership. I work with women leaders every day, and the idea of an ambition gap just doesn’t reflect what I’m seeing or hearing, especially from women in education. So we looked at the data. And this year’s Women Leading Ed Insight Survey makes one thing acutely clear: there is no ambition gap. Women in education are rising, growing their leadership and skillsets while navigating systems that weren’t built with them in mind. We heard from 200+ women leaders across 40 states, collectively serving over 17 million students, and what they shared was remarkably consistent. Here are my takeaways: ➡️ Ambition is not the issue 87% of women leaders want to advance, and 68% have taken on larger roles in the past two years, even as the job has gotten harder. ➡️ Access to adequate, high-quality training is still significantly limited Many women are actively trying to build skills in areas like finance, governance, and negotiation, but too often, the access just isn’t there. ➡️ AI adoption is accelerating, but support and guidance haven’t kept pace AI use has more than doubled in the past year, yet nearly two-thirds of women say they don’t have what they need to use it well. ➡️ The job is becoming unsustainable 92% of women report stress as a serious issue. We’re asking more and more of leaders without building roles that can be sustained. If we want more women in leadership, we can’t keep asking women to push through broken systems. We have to fix the systems themselves by expanding access to training, strengthening pathways into leadership, and being more intentional about how we approach challenges like AI. I hope you’ll take a moment to read the full report and share it with your networks. I’d love to hear what stood out to you, and how it’s showing up in your own work.

#Leaders matter. They can provide #vision for a group and ensure that everyone understands and pulls toward the same shared #goal. Or, as can be the case for women leaders, through their very #presence, they can compel other women to “see” themselves as being capable, thereby enhancing their #performance. In an incredibly impressive randomized controlled trial, economists Loretti Isabella Dobrescu @Alberto Motta Akshay Shanker test whether #leadergender matters for #followerperformance. They do this in the context of large economics courses, in which they randomly assign groups of students to have either men or women leaders (who are other students in the course. the leaders themselves are also randomly chosen, so whatever differences in outcomes should not be due to differences in leader capability). Notably, they also randomize whether the groups are aware that their leader is a man or woman. They summarize their findings this way: “[F]emale students achieved 0.26 and 0.22 SD higher overall course #grades when the gender of the leader was revealed to be female relative to not disclosing that the leader was female and disclosing the leader was male, respectively. These treatment effects … suggest that female leadership has a considerable value in the education production function of female students.” In other words, when women are aware that there is a woman in charge, they perform better, even in a historically male-dominated field and class. Why? What appears to be happening is that knowing a woman is in charge leads women students to put in more effort (in this case, attempting more practice questions) and thereby reap the benefits. What these findings suggest is that if we want more women to be attracted to and to excel in spaces that are typically men-dominated, it truly is important that they be exposed to #womenleaders. It’s not enough to just increase the number of women entering into men-dominated spaces; we also need there to be more women leaders in those spaces if we want to increase the likelihood that those junior women succeed. Loretti Dobrescu, Alberto Motta, Akshay Shanker (2024) The Power of Knowing a Woman Is in Charge: Lessons from a Randomized Experiment. Management Science

📣 New UNESCO GEM Report out today: “Women Lead for Learning” A powerful and timely reminder that while women make up the majority of the global teaching workforce, they are still locked out of far too many leadership roles across education. The 2025 Gender Report, just released by GEM Report UNESCO, unpacks this contradiction with depth, rigour and urgency. Here are just a few of the key findings: ✅ In sub-Saharan Africa, only 16% of primary school principals are women — despite most teachers being female ✅ Globally, women hold only 30% of leadership roles in higher education ✅ In several countries, including across Asia and the Middle East, female university leadership remains rare ✅ Just 27% of education ministers globally are women And yet when women do lead in education, the results are measurable: ✨ Primary schools in Benin, Madagascar, Senegal and Togo led by women showed learning gains equivalent to an extra year of schooling ✨ In Cambodia, Myanmar and the Lao PDR, female-led schools achieved 4–6 months’ additional learning ✨ Women leaders were more likely to foster inclusive, child-centred, and collaborative schools Structural barriers remain: ⚠️ Only 11% of countries promote gender parity in school leader selection ⚠️ Lack of mentorship, training, and network access continues to block women’s progression The report sets out three priority actions: 🔹 Raise awareness – challenge stereotypes, address bias, and promote role models 🔹 Create an enabling policy environment – from education sector plans to hiring practices 🔹 Train aspiring and incoming female leaders – through equal access to development, mentoring and peer support Plenty here for policymakers, funders and system leaders to reflect on — and act on. Link to #2025GenderReport in comments ⬇️ #education #gender #leadership #sdg4 #genderequality #transformingeducation #WomenLeadForLearning #2025GenderReport #LeadforLearning #SheLeads #UNGEI #GlobalPartnership #UNWomen #GirlsEducation #GEMReport #UNESCO

Just out: excellent academic review on female #leadership Synthesizes 247 empirical studies on female leadership and shows that women remain underrepresented in leadership roles largely due to enduring stereotypes that associate leadership with male, agentic qualities. Women often receive higher effectiveness ratings from others, though they underrate themselves, and objective performance advantages are small and inconsistent. Traits such as confidence, resilience, and achievement motivation support women’s emergence, while biases around agency and communion continue to shape perceptions. Behavioral differences between male and female leaders are smaller than stereotypes suggest, but women face penalties for behaving “too agentically” and doubts about fit when behaving “too communally,” making blended styles—clear, competent, and relational—most effective. Unsurprisingly, contextual factors matter: work–family pressures, male-dominated cultures, and limited networks hinder advancement, whereas exposure to other female leaders, supportive cultures, and role models help. Overall, the evidence points to slow progress, persistent bias, and the importance of context rather than inherent gender differences Open access: https://lnkd.in/d95qxtzh #women #talent #gender #bias #diversity

It’s here—The Bold Blueprint for Women in Advancement Yesterday a reporter asked me what motivated me to launch a national research study on women in advancement leadership. Here’s what I told her: It just doesn’t need to be this hard to be a woman leader in advancement. I dedicated my career to this profession I love and I’ve seen the unnecessary challenges women face getting to and serving in the chief executive role. I’ve lived them myself. Now as a strategic advisor to vice presidents of advancement across the country, I see what’s possible when women are supported. And now we have the data to back it up. The BOLD Blueprint for Women in Advancement is here. This first-of-its-kind study reveals the unique opportunities and challenges women advancement executives face and shares practical next steps to recruit, retain, and support them. Here are a few highlights of what we learned: 🟦 Women hold fewer than 35% of the most senior advancement executive roles at the top 100 US universities. 🟦 Over 70% of women advancement executives reported receiving no formal onboarding support during their transition into the role. 🟦 Women executives who reported structural challenges (policies, systems, or organizational cultures not designed to support their success) were significantly more likely to report feeling overwhelmed and lower levels of confidence in their roles. Access the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eviUkWke After you review the report, I'd love to hear what resonates most with you. At Hocking Leadership, we're committed to helping more women step into—and thrive in—chief advancement executive roles. Our profession, our universities, and our world are better for it.

Knowledge is power.  Yet they generously share it. A quarter billion kids aren’t in school. Most live where teachers are missing, not lazy. These women? They build the tools to change that. 📌 Priya Lakhani, OBE Builds AI that learns how every student learns. Merges neuroscience with tech to personalize learning. Her tools lighten teacher load, deepen student focus. From UK schools to refugee camps, her reach rewires access. 📌 Cynthia Breazeal, PhD Taught robots to read faces before we read code. Builds AI that listens, learns, and emotionally connects. Her tools bring AI literacy to classrooms worldwide. She’s turning tech fluency into everyday human power. 📌 Julia Freeland Fisher Redraws learning as a web of real-world connections. Links students to mentors, careers, and social capital. Her research reframes education as network-building. Equity grows when opportunity isn’t left to chance. 📌 Kristina Ishmael Designs tech policy that centers equity, not just access. Bridges classrooms and government with inclusive strategy. Shapes how AI meets public schools and real students. She makes sure no learner is left behind by design. 📌 Kathryn Parsons, MBE Cracks open code so anyone can speak tech. Trains workforces in AI, data, and digital thinking. Her mission: no one left behind in the tech shift. She’s building fluency, not just skills. 📌 Auditi Chakravarty Funds bold ideas to fix learning at its roots. Backs research that lifts Black and Latino students. Centers equity in every dollar and decision. Her work turns data into justice for classrooms. 📌 Rebecca Winthrop, PhD Designs learning for kids displaced by crisis. Builds tools that work in war zones and beyond. Advises leaders on making education truly global. She brings school where the world forgot it. 📌 Srishti Bakshi Walks across India to teach digital skills to women. Builds grassroots programs that train and empower. Blends tech, safety, and soft skills for resilience. Her classroom starts where the Wi-Fi ends. 📌 Christine Fox, M.S. Designs learning that adapts to every kind of mind. Champions tools that meet students where they are. Makes classrooms work for all bodies and brains. Her vision: access isn't optional—it's built in. 📌 Jomayra Herrera Funds the future of learning, one startup at a time. Backs tools that scale access and close gaps. Brings capital to where equity meets innovation. She invests in what school could be. 📌 Safeena Husain Mobilizes villages to bring girls back to school. Uses tech and data to track every learner’s path. Her model funds outcomes, not promises. She makes education a community mission. 📌 Kakenya Ntaiya, PhD Built a school where girls become leaders. Blends STEM, rights, and resilience in every lesson. Fights child marriage with education and hope. She’s rewriting futures from the chalkboard up. Schools may fail. Systems may stall. They? They build futures. How would the future look if all kids had the right to learn?

Not all leadership is loud. Some of it quietly transforms institutions. For nearly two decades, Prof. Zakia Ather Siddiqi has been doing exactly that at Aligarh Public School. No spotlight. No personal gain. Just consistent, impact-driven work. When she became associated with APS in 2006, the school’s academic results were at 40–50% pass rates. Today? A consistent 90–95% success rate, with multiple years of 100% results and distinctions. That’s not improvement. That’s transformation. But the story doesn’t stop at academics. ✔ Introduced Commerce stream and expanded academic opportunities ✔ Maintained affordable fee structure for accessibility ✔ Supported students with ₹17 lakh freeship assistance ✔ Strengthened systems with structured salaries & transparency ✔ Upgraded infrastructure with classrooms, labs, and safety systems ✔ Built financial stability — growing corpus from ₹1 crore to ₹10 crore And through all of this… She served in an honorary capacity — without using institutional resources for personal benefit. Let that sink in. In an era where leadership is often measured by visibility, Prof. Siddiqi’s journey reminds us: 👉 Real leadership is measured by outcomes 👉 Real impact is built over time 👉 Real credibility doesn’t need noise Recognized with multiple national awards and respected across institutions, she stands as a rare example of integrity-led transformation in education. Not chasing position. But creating progress. #leadership #education #impact #womenempowerment #institutionbuilding #india #linkedinindia

As part of our work we support the FCDO's International Women and Girls strategy. We’ve produced a new report 'Widening Participation: Evaluating gender equity and equality in English-language teacher education'. The research team examined curriculum design, ICT policies, teaching materials and classroom practices across four African countries (Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa). The findings are revealing: female trainees often constitute the majority, yet structural and institutional barriers limit their advancement into leadership roles. Subtle biases in textbooks and classroom interactions also perpetuate inequality. The report provides evidence-based recommendations for more gender-responsive teacher training. 🔗 https://bit.ly/3KjHBys #BritishCouncil #InternationalGenderEquality

Have you noticed how some women pause at the edge of leadership, even when the competence is obvious? It is not a confidence problem as much as it is a context problem; the path often comes with extra questions, higher standards, and the quiet pressure to be perfect before you are allowed to be visible. Sometimes the barrier is internal. You second-guess your voice, wait for the “right time,” and edit your ambition so that you do not appear to be asking for too much. Sometimes the barrier is external. You get interrupted, overlooked for stretch roles, assessed more harshly for the same errors, or expected to carry excellence and emotional labour at the same time. One way forward is to stop playing the game of ambiguity. Do not just say you want growth, define the next role, the scope, and the value you will deliver, then ask directly for the opportunity or the pathway to it. Another is to make your work easy to sponsor. Create a simple “receipts” habit: track outcomes, capture stakeholder feedback, and share short updates that link your efforts to measurable results, so your impact travels even when you are not in the room. Also, do not build networks only for friendship, build them for access to information. Find two people ahead of you and ask one specific question: what is rewarded here, what is ignored, and what mistake should I avoid, then adjust your strategy with that intelligence. Choose your battles with wisdom, but do not disappear. If a pattern keeps repeating, name it calmly, propose an alternative, and volunteer to pilot the better way; that is how you gain authority without conflict. If you have access, use it intentionally. Step up, take space, and pull someone else closer to the table, because the glass ceiling cracks fastest when prepared women move with clarity and stay. Every week, we will explore the barriers women face and how leadership can transform them into opportunities. Leadership is about service, courage, and opening doors. #WomenInLeadership #WomenWhoLead #LeadershipDevelopment