Reproducing, Resisting, Challenging, and Changing: Intersectionality and Narratives of Women School Principals in Turkey

Abstract

This dissertation explores the experiences of female school leaders in Turkey within the framework of Intersectional Feminist Theory and Bourdieu’s Theory of capital using a narrative approach and focusing on the continuum of their past, present, and future. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with fifteen women school principals from three different regions of Turkey (West, Central, and Southeast Anatolia) and demographic information form, document analysis, and fieldnotes. Age, marital status, socioeconomic status, ethnic background, political background, religious background, and social background emerged as the seven primary identity markers intersecting with gender. The study revealed that participants come from low, lower-middle, and middle socioeconomic backgrounds, with most of them from lower-middle backgrounds. Their economic and cultural capital played a significant role in their educational path and choosing teaching as a career. Despite familial and institutional support they received, household and institutional barriers hindered their leadership paths and experiences. In addition, two other significant discourses emerged, which I categorized as “being in between support or a barrier.” These discourses were significant in terms of depicting the construction of gender norms and roles and how participants hover between praise and blame for being a woman, and how they start to “act like a man,” or their hard work is praised by “seeing them as a man but not a woman.” The study also revealed that the intersection of gender with religious and political background played a significant role in participants’ leadership experiences. Besides, the old-boys’ club emerged as an important discourse regardless of time and place. In addition to its common association, the old-boys’ club is mainly expressed in relation to women’s sexuality in men’s eyes in the Turkish context. Last but not least, the participants’ narratives showed that they had complex and contradictory thoughts regarding gender roles. Regardless of their backgrounds, they can propound conflicting and complicated ideas regarding gender norms and reproduce gender stereotypes. On the other hand, they resist, challenge, and are eager to change hegemonic gender norms in society.