Men also reported being sent to difficult schools but the pressure for them to succeed was not as great because they did not say, as did their female counterparts, that if they failed others of their gender group would be penalized. As Madeline put it: "If a man failed that was one thing but if a woman failed or had trouble she knew that others would probably judge it not only as a mark against her but as against all women."

Also, while men in both groups admitted that being a man was an advantage both as classroom teachers and in their quest for a principalship, women reported consistently that being a woman was a drawback in both roles. Stephen recalled: "I was the only man in the school and as such I was the delight of the kids. It was really to my advantage."

Linda said: "There was one woman who felt that by being associated with the other women on staff she was really hurting her chances for promotion so she spent most of her time associating with the men. She did not want to be grouped in with the other women." Brenda remarked: "I thought that I was God's gift to them but they didn't view it that way and they certainly didn't view a woman principal that way. The male parents and the female teachers in that school did not approve of me, so I had a hard time there." Madeline remembered: "There were only three women on that principal's course and that was the first time that I began to understand how a Black person must feel. You would catch them looking at you in a funny way. It was a strong feeling that I was trespassing where I had no right to be."

IMPLICATIONS

The clarification of these five common elements in women's experiences suggests at least three ways in which we need to revise our views of women's roles in schools if we are to foster equity rather than perpetuate a division of labour based on gender.

First, we must clearly recognize how women's early experiences as daughters and as students differ from those of men. We must acknowledge how these differences affect their perceptions of things like mobility, economic need, family responsibility, work commitment and promotion in order to overcome practices of promotion that favour one gender over the other. We must also be careful not to equate differences with deficiencies.

Gender equity cannot be achieved by making women into male images of the successful employee. If our efforts to alter socialization patterns are guided by the principle of equality as sameness, we may easily accept the general experience of males as the norm and encourage women to assimilate. The entry of a relatively few women into school administration under such conditions will only serve to perpetuate the existing order by affirming certain qualities and behaviour as most appropriate for those positions.