ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608190100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: BILL BASKERVILL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Idanna Aaron had been a school superintendent for 11 years when she interviewed for her job as superintendent in Bristol and a School Board member asked her why she didn't have children.
``I probably have never been more offended. I considered the question irrelevant,'' Aaron said.
Her response to the board member: ``If I become superintendent, my advice to you will be don't ever ask this question again'' to anyone applying for a job with the school system.
Gender-related questions are but one of the barriers that confront women who want to become superintendents. Even though women dominate the field as teachers, they seldom ascend to the top jobs in public education.
Only 16 of Virginia's 135 public school superintendents are women.
``The roots to the superintendency and the methods by which superintendents are chosen have really suited men,'' said Margaret Grogan, an assistant professor of education at the University of Virginia. ``It's not anything intentional. I think the field itself would love more women in the position.''
Grogan has researched the advancement obstacles female educators face and is the author of a new book, ``Voices of Women Aspiring to the Superintendency.''
She said school boards unconsciously seek qualities normally associated with men because so few women have served as superintendents.
``Traditionally, school boards have looked at the business aspect, management of resources aspect, construction of facilities aspect,'' Grogan said. ``Women have not offered the traditional kinds of experiences.''
Many school boards wonder whether women are tough enough for the demanding job, she said. ``It stems from stereotypes that women are not able to handle political conflict and political games that sometimes have to be played. Men's toughness is generally assumed. Men don't have to prove it.''
Few women are willing to risk disintegration of their personal lives for the job, Grogan wrote in her book.
``Men don't have to risk it, because a man's personal life generally matches better with the professional. It's not too difficult to get the support he needs,'' she said.
Dorothea Shannon, former superintendent in Charlottesville and Greensville County, agreed the job places peculiar pressures on women. "They are torn between their professional life and remaining in the home environment ... the typical stereotype of 40 years ago.''
Like Aaron, Shannon experienced gender-related grilling.
One school board member asked whether she had the ability to close schools during a snowstorm.
And during a public forum before she took one of the jobs, someone in the audience asked why she didn't have children. ``I have many children - the children I serve in the school system,'' she responded.
Shannon, now director of the Governor's School for International Studies and Government in Richmond, said once she got the jobs, she enjoyed them and may seek another superintendency.
West Point Superintendent Jane Massey-Wilson, who has a strong educational background in business and finance, said she didn't experience inappropriate questioning during her interview. But people have said to her since she got the job that ``we really need a businessman to come in and manage the business end of the school system.''
She said one reason there are so few female superintendents is that women often are not encouraged to go into school administration. ``Men have been in leadership roles and women in more subservient roles,'' she said.
``Women weren't traditionally seen as managers,'' said Sue Fisher Burgess, superintendent in Spotsylvania County. ``I think that women were not thought to possess the same management skills, probably would not have a working knowledge of finance and personnel matters. The female's role was seen more as a classroom teacher. You can equate that to the traditional father's role and mother's role.''
A new trend seems to be taking hold in which more superintendents will be women, she said.
Andy Stamp, assistant executive director of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, said the group fully supports women becoming superintendents. He said the organization will hold workshops this fall for aspiring women superintendents.
Dawn Goldstine, superintendent in Northampton County for the past seven years, said on-the-job training is the best route to the superintendency. But there's a catch. Men are reluctant to hire women as their top assistants because some people might perceive the relationship as something more than professional, she said.
``Men are very nervous about the comfort level of their wives if their job partner is a woman, especially ... in small school systems.''
Goldstine, a former assistant superintendent on New York's Long Island, said she unsuccessfully applied for a superintendency there.
``I had a lovely interview, and I felt good about it,'' she said. But the next day she was called by the retiring superintendent, who told her she was the runner-up.
She said she later was told that the community wasn't ready for a woman superintendent.
Enchanted by the Eastern Shore, she applied for the Northampton job when her predecessor retired.
For the interview, ``I dressed the proper way in a power blue suit with a fluffy bow blouse but feminine around my face. I wore a cameo on my suit jacket, which would indicate you valued history. I wore low heels so I would not look frivolous.
``I did not want them to see legs ... did not want them to see me in any other way but at the table as a partner. I pulled the chair up to the table so they could only see the top of me and hear my message.''
She said she was stunned when she got the job.
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Aaron.by CNB