The Women's Leadership Network aims to develop a strong, dynamic and influential network of women leaders, to ensure equality of opportunity throughout the FE system.

Latest research on women principals in England - women still under-represented at the top

WLN has now researched the number of women principals in post. We found that 36 per centof college principals are women. Some progress has been made since the late 1990s when women comprised 25 per centof principals in England.

But this percentage falls short of what we would expect if we consider that the percentage of women in the FE workforce is 63 per cent, the percentage of teachers in FE is 59% and the percentage of women managers in colleges is 60 per cent. And we know that, in spite of the increases in BME principals, black and minority ethnic women continue to be under-represented at this level.

When we look at the regions in England, we see some significant differences, for example in two regions less than 25 per cent of principals are women.

To quote “Sex and Power 2008”, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission document, it seems that in some areas “things are changing for women at the top at a snail’s pace”.

There is plenty of evidence to show that women principals are successful. For example, 50 per cent of the general FE colleges in England judged Outstanding by Ofsted are led by women and 46 per cent of the principals leading the 26 member colleges of the 157 Group are women.

So there’s a business case for diversifying leadership in colleges and a clear message here to governing bodies and their chairs: women across the country have an outstanding track record in running successful colleges, carrying out mergers and achieving high grades in inspections.

For more details, please Paula Hallam 01865 551 001.

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