How Do You Break Through That? Is That a Female Thing?

Superintendent 3’s career has been characterized by achievement and innovation, both personally and professionally. Having grown up in “poor, rural” America, the superintendent has spent her life working towards a bright future for both herself, her family, and the students of the districts she has served. Throughout her storytelling, the superintendent highlighted how an emphasis on innovation and adaptability of leadership style have led to her and her districts’ accolades. Even with such notable achievements, her narrative strategy was marked by a sense of continually needing to prove herself as a female leader.

Do Something Better Than Anyone Else Can Do It.

Being innovative in the various districts she has served has led superintendent 3 to significant personal and career achievements. She explained that specific innovation work in a district was “great training ground” for the superintendency because of the current necessity to recruit and retain student enrollment in public schools. She explained how in this work she was particularly successful in leading the district and herself to marked growth and achievement:

And so we grew [specialty schools] there…in just a few years…. I didn’t realize that public schools would become so competitive, and marketing [specialty] schools was what I did for all those years. So I was involved with the US Department of Education.

I did a lot of webinars for them, toolboxes for them on how to create these schools.

I was, um, involved with a national group called [X], and so that kind of…

I felt like every year I was learning something that was leading me to a bigger purpose.

This training ground in school innovation and competition led her to the superintendency. With her experience, she notes she has been able to mimic such success in the district she now leads. She explained how uncommon and impactful this type of innovation in the district is:

101

we were able to put in [specialty school themes] K-12….

I won a national election to become [specific leadership position] of [national organization].

So we do theme-based schools…

because we have to compete with home school, charter, and other public schools. We are the only district in the area gaining students.

We are gaining over 5% this year, which is kind of turning that big ship around with all of our innovation.

So I got really excited about that. I did an interview this morning with [specific town]—[specific town] radio—about equity in public education.

And the Board here, I had taught many of their children. So they knew me as a teacher.

But I had proven that I could go away, become a leader, and bring all this stuff back to the district.

So they, um, put their confidence in me as their superintendent… Someone gave me the advice early on:

“Make yourself indispensable to the district, do something better than anyone else can do it, and do things that are very unique,”

And those things really guided me.

I was the only one who could bring in 30 million dollars worth of grants, but I wasn’t bringing in grants to bring in grants,

I was bringing in grants to create the vision, to make it happen. Well, 80% of the innovations we do are paid for by someone else, because we go out to the business,

we sell them on our [specific program,] they pay for our [specific program.] We sell them on our [specific program,] they pay for the [specific program.] So…I think…

the training I have with competition, and we call it collaborative competition,

where we want every child in the community and the county to have a great education….

But how are we different?

And how are we different than the charters and the homeschools? And so we’ve brought homeschoolers in.

We’ve brought 14 families in in the last year.

Which is huge because most folks are having a hard time for the homeschoolers to come back.

But we can say we can get you to [a field trip] as one of our experiences… that opens people’s eyes.

The superintendent’s ability to bring innovation to her districts has led to identifiable growth in student enrollment and fiscal resources. Additionally, these innovations led her to personal

102

success, including involvement with prestigious national organizations, successful elections to national educational organizations’ boards, and features in publications. Throughout her narrative about such innovation, she explains how these helped propel her into the

superintendency: as she describes herself, it provided the necessary “proof” that she was a leader. It showed the community that her ability to innovate could lead to success for the district. The superintendent employed her work with innovation and its correlating successes as the

foundation for her ability to lead.

To Get Students to Win, You May Absolutely Have to Act Like a Man.

In addition to the superintendent’s emphasis on her ability to achieve success through innovation, she highlighted her adaptability as vital to her district’s success. Throughout her narration, it was clear the superintendent was keenly aware of the impact of her behavior and how she needed to adapt her behavior based on her audience.

While considering her relationships with colleagues, the superintendent contextualized her leadership adaptability in relation to women and men. She explained the differences in competition and also how that competition changed between serving as a central office staff member to superintendent:

I’ve always gotten along better with males than I have females.

So because in most of the situations where I’ve been the female and it’s been other females,

there’s been more competition.

So if we’re all directors and we’re all females, it wasn’t as easy as if there were some males. Because the males…I don’t know…

don’t feel as threatened by you.

Which means you can take advantage of that. (Laughs.)

So….I’ve always worked well with males. Now. Have I met condescending males? Absolutely.

103

So I think that’s different and unique that they don’t seem to have as much drama all the time, the males.

And I like that.

So, as I’ve gotten into the superintendency,

I’ve been intentional about making friends who are females who are superintendents to encourage them.

And so probably the ones that I’m closest with as superintendents are female. ‘Cause we don’t need to compete against each other.

They’re at their district; I’m at my district… and we need to learn and grow from each other.

Every once in awhile you’ll walk into a meeting with a bunch of males on the Board of Directors,

and you’re the only female and they won’t look at you or take your opinion. That does happen.

But I think that’s a lot better than it used to be. So I don’t have any problem working with males. If they’re condescending and rude,

they’re often condescending and rude to the other males. They’re just…you know.

In describing her relationships working with women and men as a central office administrator, she highlights that she found women to be more competitive with one another in their work. The superintendent notes that when she worked with men at the central office administrator level, she was able to “take advantage of” the fact that the men were not scared of a woman’s abilities. This highlights both the men’s perceptions of women’s inability to lead or to be noted as leaders and likewise demonstrates the superintendent’s savvy maneuvering of her work environment. In noting that the men were not threatened by her, she was able to capitalize on the opportunities to demonstrate her strong leadership. She does acknowledge in her description, however, that there still remain times when men will not value her presence or opinion. Interestingly, once she moved into the superintendency, she notes that her fellow female superintendents were the collaborative colleagues while the men were suddenly competitive with the women, as if women’s attainment of the superintendency became a threat of the men’s power. Accordingly,

104

the superintendent notes as a female superintendent her collaboration then became primarily with women, working together to help each of their districts to be successful.

Throughout her narrative, the superintendent explained how her ability to “size up the group” and “negotiate” has provided her tremendous success. She explained she learned about her awareness of how interpersonal skills and stereotypes of gender were related based on a memorable interaction with her former superintendent:

So….you just size up the group and you just…

because I used to think that to argue with a male was a bad thing. And I can remember again,

[my former superintendent] arguing with me vehemently… And later after the meeting I thought,

“Oh my gosh!” And he would say,

“That was great! I’m so glad you spoke up!” But it felt like he was mad at me!

You know, I thought…

All those arguments with my dad growing up trained me to actually get the negotiation through which I find males do more than females.

If I’m arguing with a female it’s usually a personal deal. It’s not a…to try to get my point across.

I feel like it’s…like you’re attacking me. You know….so I never argue with females.

The superintendent explains how she learned how to adapt her negotiation tactics for or with men colleagues versus women colleagues. She learned from her former male superintendent that there was value placed by men on the ability to argue and negotiate, that arguing with men was seen as a strength and even, perhaps, as enjoyable. In her description of learning this lesson from her former superintendent, she explains that after that initial argument, she felt uncomfortable. She acknowledged that her reaction—“Oh my gosh!”—was that her boss was mad with her, as if she had done something wrong. It was in this incident she began to understand how to negotiate with powerful men through argument. Though she learned such value, she likewise admitted it did not translate to an ability to argue with women, which felt more like a personal attack rather

105

than a discussion about their work. It demonstrates her ability to adapt her behavior for success as a female leader.

The superintendent also explained that her work with publically elected officials required a similar intelligence in leadership adaptability. In understanding her audience, she leverages her adaptability to form relationships and ultimately benefit the students in her district. She explains how she works so well with politicians:

The biggest surprise for me is how well I work with the [locally elected politicians].

So it goes back to the reason I’m on the [national organization] board. So I go into them, they’re all older white males. Republican.

So I go in…I listen.

I know…I tell them that I’m a [specific kind of] daughter. That immediately helps.

Then I explain that some of the things we’re doing as a nation are hurting children and it’s not what I would have wanted to do in my Baptist faith.

And you kind of layout their conservative viewpoint and then you kind of spin it to…

here’s some things that we need to be doing for children.

So you move them more towards a moderate conversation to where we don’t get into politics.

We get into what is good for children. I listen to them.

I spend time with the [politicians]. I bring them to the schools.

I bond with them on things in which we are alike.

The superintendent’s keen awareness of her audience allows her to work well with the locally elected politicians. She works to understand how she can relate to the politicians, even if they have opposing political views. Identifying similarities that exist between them, she leverages these commonalities and grounds their conversation in ensuring that all of their actions are for the benefit of students. In her narration of working with the politicians, she explains that her faith is used as an entry point for working collaboratively. Interestingly, she specifically identifies herself as a daughter. To the researcher, the term daughter may conjure a sense of compliance,

106

loyalty in this illustration and to the politicians. Considering the counternarrative, if the superintendent had been a male in this scenario, it is interesting to consider if the male would have to build relationships with locally elected politicians around an image of being a son. It is not possible to know if the relationships success is built on their common faith or a combination of the faith and also the politicians’ acceptance of a female leader who identifies herself as youthful, innocent, and compliant. This analysis does not suggest that the superintendent acts in a way she should not; rather, it suggests that male politicians may be threatened by female superintendents unless they portray themselves in such unthreatened, subservient ways.

In learning this adaptability of leadership style, the superintendent explained how navigating varied approaches based on the audience is done ultimately for the best interest of students. She explained this process:

So…I think I take a lot of time when I meet with a group to size up the group before I get involved.

So, the first year of superintendency you don’t say much of anything even though I’m very outspoken.

You just listen and you pay attention and then I try to find who is like-minded…. And so, to do that, you hide yourself a lot of times until you trust them.

And then you find out what that group would listen to. Because the most important thing is for students to win.

And so, if you’re trained to get students to win, you may absolutely have to act like a male.

And if you have to act like a male, which means you’re aggressive, you’re dominant, you want to say how you feel…

what you find is other males like that.

You know, from males but not necessarily females, right?....

So I think that’s what you know will actually get the children winning in the end even though it may not be your nature.

In her description of doing what is best for students, two interesting points arise. First, the superintendent acknowledges that when she first became a superintendent, she had to “hide” herself. She explains this tactic is used to ensure she can get a sense for who is trustworthy and also to understand what others will “listen to.” Ultimately, she acknowledges she, for a time

107

period, strips herself of who she is in order to adapt. Second, the superintendent acknowledges that once she brings herself to the table, she adapts her behavior to “act like a man.” In doing so, she acts in “aggressive” and “dominant” ways, which other men in the arena appreciate. These characteristics on hiding herself, reading the group, and acting in stereotypical male ways allows her to help students “win.” Surely male superintendents do not have to hide themselves or act is stereotypical female ways to achieve success in the superintendency.

You Almost Have to Prove That You Have The Same Skills As Everybody Else. Even in the midst of significant innovation and notable achievements, the

superintendent’s narrative strategy was marked by a sense of continually having to prove herself yet still not being good enough. The superintendent explained this mindset comes from her formation as a young child:

Plus, innately growing up in rural [specific state] just in my… no one having gone to college before me…

I think I’ve always tried to prove myself.

So if you come in with this attitude that you’re going to prove yourself all the way through school…

And then you graduate top of your class, get a full scholarship,

you still don’t feel like you’ve landed. You still feel like you’re proving yourself. I remember when I got my [doctorate] thinking, “Nobody can take this from me….I’ve earned this.”

So there is an innate thing that a female from a rural, high-poverty area… that you almost have to prove that you have the same skills as everybody else. The superintendent’s ambition is derived foundationally from her upbringing in rural [state]. In such a setting, with no one in her family having gone to college before her, she felt a need to achieve. Even in achieving high marks and getting a full scholarship to college, she still felt inadequate. She describes the success of achieving her doctorate as an accolade that could not be taken from her, as if it is a prized possession that finally achieved something worthy enough to

108

put her on par with others from non-rural communities. She acknowledges that specifically being female from a poor, rural area gives her a feeling of needing to prove that she has the same skills as everyone else in leadership.

Surely this upbringing gives her the drive to continually seek achievement, as the superintendent likewise highlighted examples of still not feeling good enough even in the midst of notable achievement and district gains. While she notes she works exceptionally well with local politicians, something many of the study participants acknowledged as a difficulty in the superintendency, she also wonders how her relationship building with them may not be as successful as she hopes:

So it didn’t matter about my gender.

What mattered to them was that I could relate to them.

If you always go back to the children and show them how it connects to the children.

But then you think…are they giving me as much facilities support as some of the other districts?

And should I fight more for that?

I mean, does it help that they work well with me? Or you know…where’s that?

I’m only [specific number of] years in…

In document Ashburn_unc_0153D_18261.pdf (Page 113-123)