TITLE Women and Leadership: A Study of Issues in Independent Schools.

As of May 1997, 28.8 percent of the heads of schools in the National Association of Independent Schools were female. The number grew.8 percent during the previous year and has grown at a rate of 1 percent a year for the past 10 years. This document reports the findings of a research project that explored reasons for the dearth of women heads of independent schools. The paper identifies differences in the ways in which male and female administrators and heads of NAIS schools view the job and their career-development strategies that led toward the headship. The paper identifies the barriers perceived by both men and women and offers advice from female heads of schools for overcoming those barriers. Data were obtained through a survey of male and female heads and administrators of NAIS schools, which elicited an overall response rate of 53 percent (n=106). Followup interviews were conducted by telephone with 11 survey respondents and in person with 27 respondents. Both men and women heads attributed th