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School leadership quality is among the biggest factors ensuring high-quality student learning worldwide. Women school leaders develop greater interactivity with children, helping them achieve greater engagement with learning and better results. Developing women school leaders is therefore key to improving school education in India and across the world.

The proportion of women teachers in developing countries, including India, has risen significantly in recent years. However, their participation in school leadership is comparatively low due to ingrained negative perceptions as well as several sociocultural barriers.

Women in School Leadership aims to document vividly the initiative by women, especially in developing countries, to achieve parity in school leadership. It analyses and interprets qualitative primary data collected from detailed case studies of women school heads, and secondary data from Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE), the Indian national database for school information, as per a multi-disciplinary approach. The book validates the current level of progress and suggests ways to improve the situation further through policy measures and by reducing barriers to women’s school leadership development. Success in this endeavour is expected to lead to gender equality, scope for fair access and the promotion of the merit principle in education, competition and employment opportunities in schools.

Contents: Preface. I. School Leadership of Women in Developing Countries: Perspectives and Practices: 1. The third billion in development discourse. 2. Factors influencing women’s school leadership in developing countries. 3. School leadership of women in India. 4. Swirl of structure–agency interaction: a threat. 5. Overview of the book. 6. Structure–agency interaction and human development. II. Career and Human Development: 7. Structure–agency interaction and human development. 8. Life-course approach and human development. 9. Ecology of human development. 10. The ‘whole’ and the ‘whole’ relationship for human development. 11. Agency of women school leader and human development. 12. Power, authority and power differentials central argument and its relationship to research question. 13. Methodological approach for the study. III. Participation of Women in School Leadership Positions in India: Opportunities and Outcomes: 14. Representation of women in school leadership. 15. Positions in developing countries. 16. Equal opportunities and outcomes influencing the participation. 17. Examining opportunities for school leadership positions in education system. 18. Representation of women in school leadership. 19. Positions across different school categories. 20. Other factors influencing the representation of women in school leadership positions. 21. Conclusions. 22. Ladder of school leadership of women. 23. Emergent property of school leadership of women: process and outcomes. 24. Narratives. 25. Agency of women. IV. Determinants of School Leadership of Successful Women in India: 26. Conceptual framework for structure–agency interaction: threefold matrices. 27. Studying a fivefold structure-agency interaction. 28. Tracing the path of school leadership of women. V. Legitimization of School Leadership of Women: 29. Legitimacy of school leadership of women in India: constructing a conceptual model. 30. Legitimization process of women school leaders. 31. A continuum of interaction for legitimacy between leadership-focus behaviour and gender perspective. VI. Theorizing School Leadership of Women in the Indian Context: 32. Looking through the lens of social ontology. 33. An overview of the process of theorization of school leadership of women in the Indian context. 34. Path-wise exposition to theorization of school leadership of women in the Indian context. 35. Quest for success. 36. Defining school leadership for women in the Indian context. 37. Policy implications. References. Index.