ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608190101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
When Deanna Gordon applied for the school superintendent's job in Roanoke County, she was never asked if she was tough enough to handle it. Nor was she asked any other gender-related questions.
Gordon had been the county's assistant superintendent for four years and had served as acting superintendent for several weeks at one point when former Superintendent Bayes Wilson was ill. She had worked for the school system for 33 years when she applied for the top job.
"That's one of the advantages of coming from inside a system," she said. "The School Board members had the chance to form their own opinion on whether I could handle the job."
Gordon said she has talked with other female superintendents about gender bias they encountered in applying for their jobs, but said, "I didn't experience any of that."
Gordon said she wasn't sure she would get the superintendent's post when Wilson retired two years ago, because she was competing with nearly 40 applicants. But she said she never worried that she might not get it because of her gender.
The five-member School Board included two women with business backgrounds, so Gordon said she was certain she would be treated fairly.
While she agrees that women sometimes face obstacles in trying to become a superintendent, she believes female superintendents are scarce because fewer women apply for the jobs.
According to Gordon, some women don't want to make the time commitment that is required to be a superintendent, and others don't always have the flexibility of relocating easily if they're married.
Gordon, 57, didn't have to deal with the relocation issue because she became superintendent of the school system where she has worked her entire career. She never wanted to be superintendent in another locality, and she never applied elsewhere.
Gordon said she spends 60 to 70 hours a week on her job, mostly in a structured environment and away from home. She said she spent almost as many hours on her job when she was a teacher and administrator, but she did part of her work at home.
Besides relocating, some women are not willing to accept the disruption in their personal lives that is necessary to be a superintendent, Gordon said.
Indeed, she believes that is a bigger obstacle than gender for women who would like to get the top job in education.
"Having the time to maintain a family and other relationships while doing the job is tough - not only for women, but men," she said.
Gordon said the long hours are no problem for her, however, because she enjoys her work and her husband often goes with her to school activities and meetings at night.
While some school boards think men can do a better job of overseeing school finances, managing employees and dealing with political conflict, Gordon thinks women can handle these aspects of a superintendent's job just as well.
"I don't think that men and women have different inherent styles of management," said Gordon, who has a doctorate in educational administration from Virginia Tech. "Women can be just as knowledgeable in management and construction as men."
She suspects that some people wondered whether she could handle the management and political aspects of the job.
"I think there are people who waited to see how I handled a situation - not because I was a woman, but whether I had the savvy for it," she said.
Gordon thinks she might have benefited from the environment in the Roanoke Valley where women have been accepted in some top jobs. She mentioned Victoria Bond, former director of the Roanoke Symphony.
The Roanoke Valley had another female superintendent two decades ago. Dorothy Gibboney had the top job in the Roanoke school system for nearly three years in the late 1960s before she retired.
Gordon believes the number of female superintendents will increase gradually as more women aspire to the role. But the increase will be smaller and slower than some people would prefer, because the number of female high school principals, a traditional steppingstone to the top job, is relatively small, she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Gordonby CNB