I was interested to read Emma Burstall’s report “Women still lag on headships” (TES, May 24). I was a delegate at the Amsterdam international conference to which she refers, where I presented a paper on “Women and educational management in Wales”.
The figure quoted of 22 per cent female heads of secondary schools in England and Wales misrepresents the position of women teachers in the Principality.
In Wales, 50.6 per cent of full-time secondary teachers are women; 8.8 per cent of them are headteachers. There is a higher proportion of female secondary headteachers in Turkey than there is in Wales.
A conference will be held next September at the University of Wales, Swansea, on women and educational leadership in Wales. One of its aims will be to identify ways in which this large gender imbalance in Welsh education management can be redressed.
Hilary Lloyd Yewlett Lecturer in education University of Wales, Swansea
