An examination of attitudes toward women as managers in public schools

This research explored the attitudes of 191 male and female United States public school superintendents toward women as managers in public schools.

The purpose of the study was to see if women were viewed favorably as managers, to see if the sex of the respondent (superintendent) affected attitude scores and to explore the relationship between the demographic variables of the study and the attitude scores.

The demographic variables included size and population composition of the school district, the number of years the respondent had been a superintendent, the age and educational attainment of the superintendent, and his/her attitude toward women's rights.

The instrument used was the Women as Managers Scale which contains three subscales. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data and to investigate interaction effects.

The data analysis revealed that both sexes viewed women as managers favorably, but the female superintendents had consistently and significantly more favorable attitude scores. Respondents from rural school districts had less favorable attitude scores on one subscale of the instrument. The superintendents with more than ten years experience had less favorable attitude scores than did those with fewer years on all three subscales of the WAMS. The respondents with a Doctorate degree had more favorable attitude scores than those with lesser degrees on one subscale of the instrument. Those who had a liberal attitude toward women's rights had more favorable attitude scores on two subscales of the instrument. No interaction effects were obtained.