New research from the Center for the Transformation of Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles, examines the gender representation of administrators at public K-12 schools in California. The analysis reveals a steady increase in the share of women who are leading schools throughout the state.
In the 2019-2020 academic year, women held 63.97 percent and men held 36.03 percent of California school administrator positions. By the 2023-2024 school year, women’s representation rose to 66.86 percent, while men’s fell to 33.14 percent, resulting in a 33.71 percentage point gap favoring women. While the gender gap favoring women is high for both administrators and teachers in California, it is significantly smaller among administrators. There are nearly 10 percent more male administrators than male teachers in California schools.
Notably, the state-wide data regarding California school administrators is not broken down by specific administrative roles. However, the report authors highlight national patterns that show women are more likely to serve as principals than superintendents. In 2022, women held just 30 percent of superintendent positions in the United States. Even at the principal level, women are particularly concentrated in elementary schools, compared to middle and high schools.
Furthermore, the authors also call out prior research that shows male teachers are 12 percent more likely to leave their schools when they work under female principals compared to male principals. Thus, as more women step into top administrative roles in California schools, there could be a reduction in the state’s male teacher workforce.
Based on the limited data available among specific school administrative roles in California, the authors call for statewide metrics that would enable the state to set meaningful goals for administrator diversity, retention, and advancement across principal, assistant principal, and superintendent positions.
“As California pushes to build an educator workforce that reflects the diversity of its communities, the state should prioritize more comprehensive, disaggregated data systems and targeted research on administrator preparation, recruitment, and career mobility,” the authors write. “Strengthening administrator data collection would provide critical insight into leadership pathways, retention, and the persistent racial and gender disparities that exist across administrative levels, including in the aftermath of COVID-19.”