Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

That females remain underrepresented in the field of leadership is a well-documented phenomenon. This paper argues that part of the reason lies in educational settings. The Chinese educational settings are examined based on evidence of various sources (including literature in the past 15 years, author’s personal experience and so forth), and it turns out that the protective approach teachers adopt towards girls, the reserved and unworldly female images exhibited by textbooks, as well as the improper view of leadership girls tend to develop through classroom-based leadership experiences, combine to damage girls’ leadership potential. The aforementioned mechanisms are usually unintentional and hard to detect, which means part of the solution lies in the promoted awareness of teachers and educational leaders. If girls are to become future leaders just as boys do, they should not be treated any differently in schools, and it should be recognized that any gender-based differential treatment, even if apparently harmless or displayed as privileges, may end up blocking girls’ access into future leadership careers. Meanwhile, it is important to note that the above issue is not merely about equal treatment for both genders; rather it is broadly linked to what our construction of leadership is. In an ultimately sense, the educational setting is expected not only to produce equal number of “great women” and “great men,” but also, partly through its explorations of how to cultivate the female version of ‘great man’, contributes to the update and advancement of the leadership concept and practice as a whole.