The worst thing women can do is a Maggie - pretend to be a man. Management is perceived to be a dirty word because of how men have practised it. Women have contributed an enormous amount. They have changed the way of working. Not that women are softer or can’t make tough decisions: they just do it in a different way.”

So said one of the women I interviewed as part of a research project to find out how 10 successful female secondary head teachers viewed their leadership.

The overwhelming impression was of confident leaders skilled in analysing the particular peculiarities of their school. There was a sense of enjoyment in the task, no matter how daunting. These women seemed to be relishing leadership.

In responding to the question “How have you arrived at the way you lead?”, the women asserted their confidence in choosing their own style and were markedly positive about the qualities they felt women brought to the job. “Men get confused because of the male ego: they don’t know what’s going on. They get blocked by scoring points. As a woman I am more in tune with what the real agenda is.”

The headteachers all emphasised their commitment to children, teaching and learning. Their insistence on this was memorable. “I’m passionate about the rights of children to learn. There is a need for the country to do its best for the children and make more demands on them in terms of achievement.”

The sense of caring about staff came across strongly too. “I’m concerned for people’s happiness. I worry about low morale when the weather is bad in February.”

One of the main tasks for all the interviewees was the management of change, the key elements being the interaction between their leadership style, their vision, and the context of their school. “I lead by example. I have a clear view of where I want to go and I persuade staff to go there with me. I have a framework plus incentives. I support people who are going my way, not those who aren’t.”

More than half the women felt their school needed some kind of interventionist approach right from the start. Typically they described their assertiveness in the face of opposition or resistance from staff in order to do the best for the pupils.

“It was a very hard job at this school, it needed a lot of change. I have been fairly unpopular at certain points. It has shown me that I have a lot of inner strength. I created enormous antagonism. People didn’t like their cages being rattled. They were complacent.”

These heads also stressed their willingness to deal with staff who were not pulling their weight. “I don’t enjoy telling teachers off - confronting them - but it has to be done. You can’t get away with being kind and supportive if others suffer. You must be tougher on staff who are not doing their job properly. In the past this was not so crucial.”

Two women who inherited situations where relationships between staff and senior managers were very strained on their arrival, were interventionist in style but not overtly confrontational.

Their strengths seemed to lie in being able to judge the situation accurately, discerning the power dynamics and grasping the detail of how to proceed step by step.

“Staff say: ‘This is blindingly obvious, why doesn’t she do it?’ But I say: ‘Why push when you might lose the battle?’ I’m persistent. I come back to it later when I will win.”

Both women emphasised their aims; to democratise the power structures within a framework of accountability, to remove the isolation of the individual and to empower all within the organisation at the expense of the few who held unofficial sway.

In both their situations there is a gender theme. It was a few powerful men in both instances who dominated the staff meetings. “After a year and a half I observed three successive staff meetings and noted down who spoke most. Then I published the list. It led to lots of discussion. ” “The power base here is the staff meeting, but it doesn’t deliver. Things are discussed, but there are no minutes, no action plans, and then when nothing happens, staff can blame it on senior management.

“There is so much tension: people looking at the floor the whole time. It is only men who speak.

“In the past there have been bloody situations. It was controlled by these few powerful men who had no management positions and weren’t accountable. There are people who will not speak at briefing in case they are scoffed at by these powerful people.”

Both women used the tactic of undermining or exposing the male domination of formal meetings to start reforming the culture. They also took pains to support existing women’s networks within their school and one head spoke privately to all staff in order to be sure that her perceptions of the needs of the school were accurate.

In all these moves there is a thread of overturning a web of public rituals which profess to be democratic but are, in fact, controlled by a few men. Instead, the aim is to give all a voice, including those perceived to have less power, namely women.

Both women used speakers and consultants from outside the school to support their direction. Both women used time to their advantage. “If you leave some things they go away or change form. You can dive in and deal with something and you’re dealing with the wrong thing.”

Attitudes concerning the use of power changed over the years for one of the oldest women in the sample. “This is my 15th year of headship. When I first came to this school it was inert. I was interventionist, directive, determined and persistent. The challenge now is in understanding how to lead people to a high-quality level of performance without being directive.”

This was a challenge expressed by all the women, some leaning more towards central control, others leaning more towards subsidiarity. “I lead from the front. It is wrong to pretend that a school is a democratic organisation. Staff should make decisions about what they are responsible for. I am uncomfortable with the whole idea of leadership. I don’t think I’m a great original thinker but I’m good at motivating other people. “Something that gives me the most pleasure is fuelling the furnace for other people. All you’ve got to do is hold the reins and let them do the galloping.”

But in many ways these selective quotations do not show the complexity and adaptability conveyed in the way each woman talked about her leadership.

This is hinted at by one. “I have a consultative style, but in my last school I discovered that if you gave staff an order they would do it. I found that liberating and funny. I learnt you can deploy different ways of working - choose the way that does the best for the school.”

* Katie Rush is a deputy head at John Ferneley High School, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire