Balancing Family How Women Are Successful at Home and Work

Women leaders in education struggle to balance work and family life.

Historically, this struggle has stemmed from attempts to manage societal expectations of balancing work and family. In managing these expectations, women leaders face many challenges, which have made it difficult to maintain home responsibilities and deal with increasing demands at work. For women, these dual responsibilities sometimes make it seem impossible to find the balance they seek in their lives. Although they have made great strides in the past century, women fill only 18% of the superintendencies in this country—even though they dominate in numbers within the classroom. There are women successfully finding balance; however, what is not clearly known are the support systems and strategies that assist with this success in both the family and work domains.

The purpose of this book was to identify support systems and strategies that allow women in leadership positions—specifically the superintendency—to maintain balance in work and life.