Opinion
School & District Management Opinion

What ‘Barbie’ Teaches Us About School Leadership

3 lessons from the hit movie for closing the ‘dream gap’
By Shayla Ewing — August 15, 2023 4 min read
Stylized photo illustration of Barbie dolls with superimposed symbols of graduation and success.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

I walked out of the film “Barbie” thinking about, among other things, my high school— just like Barbie’s Dreamland, it was led by women. My principal was a woman, along with the entirety of the district office. A woman led my school assemblies. A woman evaluated my teachers. A woman signed my diploma. In the classroom, gender didn’t dictate the subjects my teachers loved; I had female math and science teachers and even male English and theater teachers.

As a young woman myself, I decided to be like them, so I graduated from high school, wearing pink, and went to college to become someone important—a teacher. Once I entered my teacher education program, I realized what an outlier my high school was. I was shocked that, as Ken would say in “Barbie,” schools were doing patriarchy very well.

My education classes were primarily—sometimes only—women, but at every practicum school, I was greeted by a male principal. I skated through my courses without a whisper that educational leadership degrees, where women could excel, even existed. And, like the world of “Barbie,” I realized that the world of teaching is pink, too—a pink-collar job.

About This Series

In this biweekly column, principals and other authorities on school leadership—including researchers, education professors, district administrators, and assistant principals—offer timely and timeless advice for their peers.

Barbie, in the movie and the box, represents limitless dreams for young girls: astronauts, chefs, doctors, and, yes, even teachers. Barbie’s never-ending professions and interests aren’t just fun; they are purposeful. Mattel, the owner of Barbie, identifies a “dream gap,” where girls as young as 5 begin to develop self-limiting beliefs and think they’re not as smart and capable as boys.”

Unfortunately, not all schools come with a leader Barbie; many come with just Ken. In public schools today, staffs of mostly female teachers are led by a staff of disproportionately male leadership. Seventy-seven percent of public school teachers are women, while only 56 percent of public school principals are female. There is even less pink in America’s district offices; only 28 percent of superintendents are women.

Helping young girls visit more Barbielands than Kendoms starts at schools. At stake is not just the career advancement of teachers but the leadership landscape for all professions. A lack of women in education leadership creates deep dream gaps for future female leaders.

Generations of young people have missed the opportunity to see the world in pink: women leaders … leading. In a 2016 survey by the Rockefeller Foundation, 1 in 4 Americans found it more likely that humans would colonize Mars than that women would lead half of Fortune 500 companies within their lifetimes.

What if we dreamed big to close the dream gap? The solution is simple, obvious, and known. For young girls to dream about being leaders, they need to grow up in institutions that value women leaders. However, the journey to creating future female leaders is nuanced and extends beyond the hiring process. Leadership opportunities at the state and district level must open to close the dream gap. Here are a few ways we can get started:

1. Uproot hiring biases. When filling new positions, every person on the hiring team should be aware of their biases and assumptions of female leaders. Incorrect beliefs about women leaders are still commonly held. Women candidates are often discarded like a Weird Barbie. Hiring committees may believe that mothers will not be able to handle the workload, that women of comparable ages to male counterparts are too young to lead, or that women are too emotional in their leadership. These myths must be identified and debunked to ensure an equitable hiring process.

2. Provide mentorship support. Once women are given opportunities to lead, they also must be given support in their leadership. Many women may not have grown up with female leadership role models and are less likely to know other women in similar leadership roles. To my knowledge, Mattel hasn’t made a School Superintendent Barbie (but they totally should). Creating a network of support for women to problem-solve unique issues not experienced by male leaders is important for long-term retention.

3. Create authentic leadership opportunities. Traditional school structures have limited leadership opportunities. As a result, there are fewer opportunities for students to see women leaders. Additionally, educators shouldn’t have to leave the classroom to be a leader in schools. President Barbie isn’t the only leader in Barbieland. Teachers are leaders and should be treated as such. Current leaders should steward their power to others in the building, particularly by understanding the strengths of their staff and providing opportunities to use those strengths.

While Barbies may just be a toy, the dreams they provide young people aren’t just play. As the old adage goes, “If you can see it, you can believe it.” And Barbie allows girls to see and believe that they are capable of their dreams. Schools are packed with passionate professionals who work tirelessly to make kids’ dreams come true. So, let’s give young girls something big to dream about.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the August 23, 2023 edition of Education Week as What ‘Barbie’ Can Teach Us About School Leadership

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Classroom Technology Webinar
How to Leverage Virtual Learning: Preparing Students for the Future
Hear from an expert panel how best to leverage virtual learning in your district to achieve your goals.
Content provided by Class
English-Language Learners Webinar AI and English Learners: What Teachers Need to Know
Explore the role of AI in multilingual education and its potential limitations.
Education Webinar The K-12 Leader: Data and Insights Every Marketer Needs to Know
Which topics are capturing the attention of district and school leaders? Discover how to align your content with the topics your target audience cares about most. 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Explainer What Does a School Principal Do? An Explainer
Learn about the principal workforce, what makes principals effective, and how schools can retain the best leaders.
Image of staffing.
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock/Getty
School & District Management Running for a School Board Seat? This Is the Most Powerful Endorsement You Can Get
New research shows that this endorsement in school board races is more influential than any other, with virtually no downside.
5 min read
People in privacy booths vote in the midterm election at an early voting polling site at Frank McCourt High School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City on Nov. 1, 2022.
People in privacy booths vote in the midterm election at an early voting polling site at Frank McCourt High School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City on Nov. 1, 2022.
Ted Shaffrey/AP
School & District Management High Pace of Superintendent Turnover Continues, Data Show
About one in five large districts lost a superintendent last year, researchers found.
2 min read
Image of exit doors.
pavel_balanenko/iStock/Getty
School & District Management Finding the Source of PCB Contamination in Schools Just Got Easier
Researchers say they have found a promising method to determine where in school buildings the PCB contamination is greatest.
7 min read
Image of a brick wall and glass blocks.
iStock/Getty