LETTER: Schools and churches dominated by men

11:37 AM, Feb. 22, 2013  |  Comments
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Rutherford County Schools held staff development sessions at Siegel High and Siegel Middle School this summer. Educators and administrators from all over the county, and even some guests, gathered to learn innovative teaching strategies and information from world-renowned authors, presenters, trainers and specialists in various areas of education. Also, some local experts were on hand to share ideas. In this two-day period, I attended some eight sessions and learned a lot of great things and was rather inspired to return to the classroom at the beginning of the year.

As I sat in each session, I noticed some things because they were quite obvious and some that were not so obvious. One thing I noticed is there are a whole lot more female teachers than male. That's just like it is in church; more women than men parishioners. Then I thought, wait a minute, but there are a whole lot more male administrators than female. That's just like at church too. I've never really paid it a lot of attention before. Maybe, it's because I was planning to get my administrative certification and wondered what my chance of getting an administrative position in Rutherford County would be, being female.

So, I called the central office and found out that out of 103 administrators, 48 are female and 55 are male. Now, if you just look at that number it looks pretty even. But when you consider that those 55 males are chosen from a much smaller percentage it presents a different story. See, there are only 611 male teachers, but there are 2,188 female teachers. In other words, there are more than three times as many female teachers, but less than one-third female administrators. It's probably just as bad or worse at church. I belong to a local church association here in Murfreesboro, and there are 10 churches in the association but only four of them have female ministers and none of them have female pastors. It's a rule of the association I think.

Anyhow, the two places that are at the very root built upon freedom and equality (even if separate), and are seen as the images of liberation, don't seem to be very liberating to women. It would be a sad state at the church if all of the women stopped paying their tithes and offerings or stopped working in the church. It would be devastating at the schools if all of the female teachers stopped teaching.

Well, my husband told me that any small chance I had to get an administrative position in Rutherford County before would certainly be gone if I wrote this letter. I told him that, just like with all other things in education (K-12 and higher ed), it's all about who you know and I happen to be the child of THE KING. So, in the words of the Miami Mass Choir, "What God has for me, it is for me"!

"I have freed many slaves, and would have freed thousands more if they only knew they were slaves." - Harriet Tubman

Rev. Dr. Barbara Howard

Concord Circle


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