Superintendent slot still lacks females.

The number of women superintendents has doubled in the last decade, but the amount is still well below the number of women in the education field.

About 13 percent of superintendents are women, up flora 6.6 percent in 1992, according to the American Association of School Administrators. But more than 80 percent of teaching and central office staff positions are held by women.

Women educators say they are not surprised by the statistics. There are still a number of hurdles women face, many of which are personal, they say.

"One of the barriers may be that the job is so demanding," says Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall. "If you are a younger woman with responsibilities for raising children or responsibilities associated with being a wife, you really have to think whether you have to risk neglect your family to devote the hours to the job."

Women also must be willing to move to gain a superintendent's spot and their spouses may not be able to switch jobs, they say. More than half of women who obtained a superintendent spot had to leave their district to get it, according to the National Study of Women Superintendents and Central Office Administrators Early Findings by AASA.

Twenty percent of the women surveyed by AASA say they have delayed pursuing a superintendent spot while raising their children and about one-fifth put up with commuter marriages to become superintendents.

Educators say while there are still barriers--including outright discrimination--women are having an easier time than in the past obtaining the top spot. As schools face more pressure to perform well on standardized tests and meet the challenges of the No Child Left Behind act, school boards are increasingly looking to candidates with strong backgrounds in curriculum and instruction. Women hold most curriculum specialist positions on central office staffs.

Also, more women have moved up the ranks to principals, another traditional stepping stone to the superintendency. About half the women seeking superintendent spots were able to obtain it in less than a year from when they were certified and started looking, according to the AASA report.

Shirley Carraway, superintendent for the 6,500-student Orange County Public Schools in North Carolina, says her previous experience as a curriculum specialist helped her application. "Different boards look for different things. I think this board was looking for someone with a strong curriculum background. And I wanted to go to a position where the emphasis was on teaching and learning," says Carraway, 50, who became superintendent in June.

Paula Harlan, superintendent of the 257-student Selmaville Grade School District 10 in Illinois, says smaller school systems offer great opportunities for women who want leadership roles. "When I was starting to interview, I had a law professor who said I'd have to interview many more times to get one because I was female and the boards wouldn't take a gamble on a woman. But this was my first interview, and I got the job," she says.

More than half of women who are superintendents oversee schools districts with fewer than 3,000 students, and one quarter oversee districts with less than 900 students.

A Woman's Touch

Women Superintendents          18%

Women of Color                  7

Hispanic                        1

Married                        75

Raising children               59
Held teacher/principal/
central office positions       50

Appointed superintendent
from outside district          55

Salary of $75K-$100K           34

Source: AASA