and skill. By this time, interest and research regarding the superintendent's role in the education system, began to come to the forefront. The superintendent was viewed as a statesman, with the notion of superintendent as male, prevailing (Grogan, p. 121).
The U.S. public school superintendency is a gender-stratified executive position, and is stated to be the most gender-stratified executive position in the country. Men are 40 times more likely than women, to be in top leadership roles in schools. In 1992, the percentage of superintendents that were women totaled 6.6%, which represented little change from 6.7%, which occurred 40 years prior. This percent is particularly noteworthy since around three fourths of the educational workforce is female (Skrla, Reyes, & Scheurich, 2000, pp. 44-45). During the years 1999-2000, around 13% of superintendents were women (Brunner, 2000, p. 76).
In exploring the literature on school superintendents, the information seemed to focus on how school superintendents and school administrators needed to satisfy everyone else, including all their major constituencies of students, teachers, staff, and community members. Research shows that it is a high-risk job, with large cities having difficulty filling the position, and tenures of school superintendents often being short, fraught with controversy, and the source of legal battles and civil settlements.
The current situation regarding school superintendent satisfaction is well-illustrated, by a report in U.S. News and World Report (Wildavsky, 2000) which indicated that big cities are having an incredibly difficult time finding qualified candidates who are willing to fill their positions. There are so many problems and stresses associated with the job that a labor shortage has been created at the top level. For example, one school superintendent, Daniel Domenech, lasted one day as chancellor of the New York City public schools before Rudo...