Date of Award

Summer 1998

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership

First Advisor

Fran Holman

Abstract

The major purposes of this study were to identify the personal and professional characteristics of women superintendents and to identify women superintendents' perception of barriers and successful strategies.

The survey instrument, Questionnaire on Perceptions of Barriers and Strategies Impacting on Women Securing the Superintendency, was sent to 360 women superintendents with a response rate of 60%. Frequency distributions showed that the average respondent was married between the ages of 50 and 59, was white, holds a doctoral degree, works in district with 1,000 to 2,999 students and has been in her current position for 1 to 4 years.

Frequency distributions and t-tests were used to analyze the perceptions of barriers and strategies. Frequency distribution results on barriers showed that nine of the twenty-one barriers are perceived by the respondents as major barriers. Frequency distribution results showed that eighteen of the twenty-one strategies are perceived by women in this study to be highly successful. T-tests showed that women superintendents with a doctorate perceive two of the barriers as more of a major barrier and two of the strategies as more successful than women without a doctorate. T-tests showed that women employed in a metro status of 9,999 or below perceive two of the barriers as more of a major barrier and one of the strategies as more successful than women in a metro status of 10,000 or above. T-tests showed that women employed in a metro status of 10,000 or above perceive two of the strategies as more highly successful than women in a metro status of 9,999 or below. T-tests also showed that women superintendents 49 or below perceive one of the barriers as more of a major barrier and one of the strategies as more successful than women 50 or above.

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