---

This book examines the lives of women heads of schools in Kenya; their experiences of becoming and being school leaders. It explores how women headteachers´´ personal and professional gendered experiences impact upon their practices. The study drew upon Western research and concomitant methods on gender issues in education and a critical realist perspective. It established that women headteachers are inadequately prepared to take up leadership positions; they have to cope with conflicting demands arising from their roles as school leaders, wives, mothers and sometimes as sole breadwinners in the family; they favour an eclectic approach to leadership; make use of religion and spirituality that draw on gender perspectives; are confronted by various manifestations of patriarchy as well as ethnicity in their lives as women and leaders; and, though they can use their influence and power to improve the quality of opportunity for girls and women, they are largely encumbered by a lack of awareness of how to do so or even how their lives are gendered. No doubt school leadership in Kenya is shaped by certain contextual factors, some of which relate to Kenya and some to being a woman.

---

Jane F. A. Rarieya, EdD: Studied Gender and Educational Management at Keele University, UK. Associate Professor and Head of Teaching Programmes at the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational development, Eastern Africa.

---