By Manos Antoninis, Director, Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO
Yes, it is easy to pontificate about the need for better gender balance in education leadership from where I sit, as a male education director. Think what you will. Having just spent a significant amount of time analysing the relationship between gender and leadership, however, what I can tell you is that the gender imbalance at the top in education makes no sense.
The first thing to realize is that women form the backbone of the teaching profession around the world. It is, as many say, a ‘feminized profession’. The sluggish progress in women’s leadership in education, therefore, is particularly puzzling. It is also troubling looking at this from the perspective of the school: the very institution that is meant to shape future generations.
Not all teachers can go on to become leaders. But experience as a teacher is a prerequisite for taking up a leadership position in a school. It also helps in politics. Think of the mistakes ministers of education make without that grounding when interacting with teacher unions. And yet the logic ends there.
Female representation dwindles dramatically as leadership stakes rise. In francophone Africa, only one in six principals are women. The drop continues into secondary education: across 70 countries, there is a gap of 20 percentage points separating the share of female teachers from the share of female principals. And in higher education institutions, women hold less than one third of leadership roles globally, a share that plummets to below one tenth in some Arab and Asian countries.
This situation mirrors the broader political landscape. Despite increasing awareness of gender gaps, women still fight for equitable representation in parliaments and executive positions. We carried out a mapping of education ministers to assess the gaps. It showed that only 27% of education and higher education ministers were women between 2010 and 2023. All education ministers were male until 2014 in France, Mauritius and Myanmar, for instance; the first female education minister in Ukraine was only appointed in 2016.
The fact that female education ministers, when they do break through, have a tenure that is longer by four months relative to their male counterparts – a finding in our report, Women lead for learning – suggests not a lack of capability, but perhaps a greater resilience needed to succeed; a resilience that goes unnoticed when selection procedures for new positions come around.
If women lead longer, should they not also be leading more?
No matter whether you think there are gender-specific ways of leading and what might explain them, different approaches do exist and, when women lead schools, that plays out.
The glass ceiling in education leadership, much like the barriers women face in the political and corporate spheres, is not just a matter of numbers. It’s about the loss of these diverse perspectives, the stifling of innovative approaches, and the perpetuation of a system that doesn’t fully reflect the very students it serves. Just as movements advocate for greater female representation in government to ensure policies are more inclusive and representative, we must champion women in education leadership to cultivate learning environments where every child can thrive.
We called our report Women lead for learning because we also saw the benefits for learning outcomes that can come from having women leaders, particularly in low-income countries, where they are the most absent. Schools with female leaders in several African and Asian countries demonstrate significantly improved learning outcomes for students, sometimes equivalent to months of additional schooling. This echoes the broader societal benefits seen when women hold political power, influencing policy decisions that lead to tangible improvements in education, health and social welfare.
What is less obvious than the fact that more women should be climbing the leadership ladder, is how to do that. Since gender inequality is systemic, solutions need to be systemic too.
Our research recommended that countries find out where the rungs are broken on the leadership ladder in order to see where gender barriers have settled in. Multiple countries across all continents have drawn attention to the issue by setting targets for women in school leadership positions and parliaments, but this will remain token unless it is accompanied by other measures.
Unconscious bias is a pest precisely because it is invisible. Training is needed for all making decisions affecting education leaders to recognise that true strength in leadership comes in multiple shapes and sizes.
Mentorship is also needed for incoming women leaders to help them deal with specific problems they encounter on appointment.
Just as the political landscape slowly evolves towards greater inclusivity, our education systems must urgently follow suit. By combining evidence, targeted policies, and cultural change, we can transform education systems so that every capable leader—regardless of gender—has both the opportunity and the support to drive excellence for all learners. The future of learning, and the future of a more equitable society, depends on it.
