From Lady Teacher to Professional

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing interest in gender in educational management. In the late 1990s, such interest has gone beyond the issue of the under-representation of women in senior positions. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the professional identity and leadership styles of women headteachers by taking us back to the latter decades of the 19th century when the first secondary schools for girls were established. In doing so it explores a number of issues using a case-study approach of the careers of three headmistresses of girls' secondary schools in Birmingham where, within seven years, from 1876 to 1883, two girls' high schools and a grammar school were opened.