The Double Bind for Women: Exploring the Gendered Nature of Turnaround Leadership in a Principal Preparation Program

Abstract

In this study of nine participants in a turnaround principal preparation program, Jennie Miles Weiner and Laura J. Burton explore how gender role identity shaped participants' views of effective principal leadership and their place within it. The authors find that although female and male participants initially framed effective leadership similarly, their conceptualizations of themselves as leaders, the feedback they felt they received regarding their skills, and their access to employment were sharply divided based on gender and had real implications for how women viewed their leadership capabilities and potential success as school leaders.