Out of Women's Experience: Creating Relational Leadership.

Out of Women's Experience: Creating Relational Leadership Helen B. Regan and Gwen H. Brooks Corwin Press, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California 91320 1995 116 pages

Do female school leaders administer and direct programs differently than their male counterparts? Are these women effecting change in schools? Are there skills that men and women can learn from one another's administrative styles? A resounding yes is the answer to each of these questions according to Regan and Brooks in their new book Out of Women's Experiences: Creating Relational Leadership. They write based on 20 years of experience as administrators and colleagues in the Northeast Coalition of Educational Leaders (NECEL).

The introductory chapter describes present day schools as "deeply flawed institutions for all groups" (p. 2) and sets the context for refining leadership strategies in order to begin to improve schooling. This chapter carefully defines the terms Regan and Brooks use throughout the text and sets these terms and their thoughts into the broader context of schooling. Relational leadership, which is what the authors refer to as the feminist attributes of leadership (p. 2) has five components: collaboration, caring, courage, intuition, and vision.

The transition from a male dominated world of educational administration to a field more inclusive of women is the context of the second chapter. The culture of the past 20 years and its evolution to the present is described using women's experiences to enhance the reader's understanding. The authors describe McIntosh's (1983) broken pyramid metaphor of our culture where whole parts of our society (women and minorities, primarily) are denied access to the top levels of the pyramid, the positions of power. This hierarchical concept denies the values of those below the fault line of the pyramid and makes those in the lower portion invisible members of the society. As women moved into educational leadership positions, and as their attributes were more recognized, a new metaphor was needed. Regan and Brooks propose using the double helix image to demonstrate a more equal and connected relationship in which the best of female and male attributes of leadership can be recognized, honored, shared, and displayed by a good leader--regardless of gender.

Relational leadership's five attributes are carefully defined in the third chapter, which is laced with examples of women's leadership experiences. Collaboration is the ability to work in a group and be inclusive of each person's contributions. Caring is described as having an "affinity for the world and the people in it" (p. 27). Courage relates to the ability to take risks. Intuition is a balance of "experience and abstraction" (p. 33), or use of the head and the heart. Vision is the ability to formulate and express new ideas, usually in collaboration with others. As seen by this last statement, these five attributes are closely connected to one another. They are also built on a strong foundation of a firmly held, personal belief system. Chapter 4 presents very concrete examples of female educational administrators displaying these traits.

The process and context of writing this book is described in the fifth chapter. The authors describe "relational knowing" as a process of coming to know and understand women's experiences in leadership. The knowledge was accomplished through gathering a narrative of the experiences over twenty years, through a series of seminars for the governing board of NECEL, and at a special gathering entitled "The Conversers Conference." These activities were a "journey" for all the women involved resulting in the book's articulation of what they had come to know--the concept of relational leadership.

Chapter 6 places this work in the context of other research and writing about women's roles in society. It describes the plight of the "loss" of earlier works by and about women. The authors cite the work of Dale Spender and the central thesis that, "We don't know about them [writings about women's work] because they have been systematically rendered invisible and/or discredited by the workings of a patriarchal society" (p. 84). The loss of the Regan and Brooks work is a concern of this reviewer for some of the same reasons.

The concluding chapter is the authors' attempt at resolving this concern and tries to ensure change and a movement toward the relational leadership style for all educational administrators. They believe that with a critical mass of women now in these roles, along with majors changes in pedagogy (e.g., whole language, cooperative learning, interdisciplinary teaching), the movement will not be lost. Ultimately, all involved will have much more choice in their educational pursuits and will be more empowered in their learning journey.

The book will be especially helpful to administrators trying to articulate their experiences. It would also be helpful to gifted adolescent women trying to understand their potential role as future leaders, be they educational leaders or leaders in some other context. The authors place many disclaimers on the generalizability of their findings, but this reviewer believes their discussion can inform leaders in many contexts.

Reviewed by Carol M. Story, Professor of Education, Coordinator of Master's Program in Gifted Education, Johnson State College, Vermont and a Contributing Editor of the Roeper Review.