Re-Constructing the Leadership Model of Social Justice for African-American Women in Education

Abstract

The mainstream epistemology about women in educational leadership roles has been constructed,canonized, and theorized from a white hegemonic female perspective. The early literature about women asleaders include The Managerial Woman (Henning & Jardim, 1977); Men and Women of the Corporation(Kanter, 1977); Paths to Power (Josefowitz, 1980); The Androgynous Manager (Sargent, 1981); Women andMen as Leaders (Heller, 1982); In a Different Voice (Gilligan, 1982); and Feminine Leadership (Loden,1985). This literature suggests that women lead from a different frame of reference due to their socializationprocess. Because of male dominated managerial customs that exist in the workplace, in some instances, theyexperience obstacles to leadership. Recent mainstream white female scholars like Shakeshaft (1989) andBensimon (1989) suggest that the feminist perspective is not recognized in the leadership literature.Shakeshaft posits that women's leadership experiences are generalized into one category and that theleadership discussion appears androcentric in nature. Bensimon (1989) suggests that the prevailingleadership theories do not take into account that "women experience the social world differently than mendo and that this translates into a particular epistemology and a particular ethic.it translates into a differentexperience of leadership.gender must be taken into consideration" (Bensimon, 1989, p. 146).