Women School Principals: Career Stories

This study determined the career process of women school principals based on their life stories. The career stories were chronologically analyzed in three stages: the pre-administration stage, the transition to administration stage and the administration stage. This research used a narrative methodology. The study group, which included 14 female school principals and vice principals employed in public schools in a Black Sea Region city during the 2023–2024 academic year, was chosen using the snowball sampling method. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview form and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results of the pre-administration stage revealed that having leadership qualities, negative experiences as a teacher and top-down request are the reasons why they became principals. The support from their family, partners, and colleagues was effective to become a principal. The results of the transition stage were exposure to negative comments, workload, work-life balance, and long working hours and showed that each participant was appointed under different policies. The results of the administration stage indicated that the participants encountered difficulties such as gender-based discrimination, prejudice, mobbing, work-life balance, role conflict, and health problems, and they used strategies such as getting help from school principals, solving problems on their own to overcome.