Through candid interviews with more than 200 women educational leaders, Jennie Weiner and Monica Higgins pinpoint implicit and explicit means of repression and highlight the resources that these leaders have marshaled to punch through systemic barriers.

“Weiner and Higgins hit it out of the park by spotlighting a seldom recognized or acknowledged facet of education leadership: gender discrimination and gendered racism. Framing the issues with theory, real-life cases, and thought-provoking questions, this book is a practical must-read for education leaders and their board members, who will be compelled to act.” —Fran Rabinowitz, executive director, Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents“Weiner and Higgins capture authentically, graphically, and transparently the myriad impediments that historically—and regrettably, continually—plague, challenge, and beset women seeking leadership roles within America’s public educational systems. In their riveting case studies, the authors both chronicle these challenges and illuminate ways to rethink the ‘glass cliff” debacle, refute the personal tax often demanded, and reset the narrative depicting women’s leadership capabilities. This book is a must-read for current and aspiring women leaders and all system-level leaders, including school board members, superintendents, and their male counterparts at every level of the system.” —Deborah Jewell-Sherman, Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Practice in Educational Leadership, Harvard Graduate School of Education“This book provides excellent insights into ways to disrupt gendered discrimination and gendered racism in educational leadership. Women leaders and women who aspire to leadership need to read it to strengthen their own agency and to learn how to be activists for gender and racial equity.” —Margaret Grogan, professor emerita of educational leadership and policy, Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University