How Dominant Conceptualizations of Leadership and Identity Have Shaped the Research on Women in Educational Administration Over Time: A Descriptive Review

Women, particularly women of color, are underrepresented in virtually all educational administration positions in the United States. Simultaneously, dominant discourses persist upholding masculinity and Whiteness in educational administration and highly ranked and influential journals, thus limiting who has access to, and can thrive in, leadership. With nearly 40 years since the last review on women and other minoritized identities in educational administration, this descriptive review traced the research on women in educational administration in the United States in dominant journals from 1 year before the review by Yeakey et al. review until 2023 and yielded 89 studies. Key findings from the reviewed corpus include (a) small, slightly growing scholarship on women in educational administration, (b) disrupted use of critical frameworks and limited challenges to dominant discourses in administration, (c) few studies including other marginalized and/or minoritized identities or extending past the gender binary with the exception of increased scholarship on African American/Black women leadership, and (d) the persistence of discriminatory systems, creating barriers for women, especially women of color, in leadership.