Women's Leadership Network - press releases
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Women's Leadership Network reports still too few female principals
According to research recently carried out by the Women’s Leadership Network (WLN), only 36 per cent of principals at the 361 further education colleges in England are women.
This shows some progress since the late 1990s, when women accounted for 25 per cent of college principals in England. By 2006, that had barely risen to 28 per cent, according to the Gender-related factors in career progression report published by WLN and the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) in 2007.
Thalia Marriott, who retired from her role as principal of West Thames College and now coordinates the WLN, said, "Some progress has been made in the last decade, but the percentage of women holding the top post in colleges still falls far short of what we would expect. Women constitute 63 per cent of the FE and skills workforce, and 60 per cent of the managers in colleges are women, so it is clear that women are still under-represented at the top.
"Our research revealed some startling differences between types of college and regions. While 40 per cent of general FE colleges have female principals, only 26 per cent of sixth-form colleges are led by women. The north-west region has the highest percentage, with female principals at 45 per cent of its 56 colleges. The Yorkshire and Humberside and Greater London regions have 39 and 40 per cent respectively. At the other end of the scale, there are female principals at only 21 per cent of colleges in the east Midlands, and the north-east does not fare much better, with 24 per cent."
Sally Dicketts, WLN chair and principal of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, said, "Although there are fewer women in the post of principal, they are just as likely to be leading the colleges with the highest income. Forty-one per cent of the principals at colleges receiving more than £23 million a year from the Learning and Skills Council are women. Fifty 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.
"There is clearly a business case for diversifying leadership in colleges, and our annual conference on 10 June 2009 will look at how we can encourage more women to aim higher in further education."
Notes
- The desk research was undertaken during January and February 2009.
- Gender-related factors in career progression was published by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) and the Women’s Leadership Network (WLN) in May 2007.
- WLN's second annual conference will be held at the Novotel Hotel in Euston Road, London, on Wednesday 10 June 2009.
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Read about our research on women principals |
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