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Dive Brief:

• Women hold one third of superintendent positions, the highest level recorded in recent years — but equal representation is still about three decades away, according to research from ILO Group, which releases an annual analysis of superintendent positions in the nation's 500 largest school districts.

• Women are more likely to hold doctoral degrees and to serve as deputies or interim superintendents before being selected to lead. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to rise to the superintendency as external hires and to have previously served as superintendents or assistant superintendents.

• The South continues to lag in female leadership compared to other areas of the nation, with the percentage of women leaders stagnating in the Southeast and declining in the Southwest.

Dive Insight:

A separate report released earlier this year by Women Leading Ed, a national network for women in education leadership, also came to a similar conclusion: Out of the nation's largest school districts, women lead about 30%. Women Leading Ed and ILO Group, an education strategy and policy firm, are both founded by Julia Rafal-Baer, an education advisor and researcher.

In the past few years, ILO Group found that female representation in the superintendency was slowly inching upward. 

And just like last year, it did so despite turnover remaining high. The 2025 report shows that 23% of districts experienced at least one leadership change in the last year — an increase from 20% the year before and also elevated compared to pre-pandemic averages of 14% to 16%.

“The role of superintendent is one of the most influential in public education and yet data show that districts and states continue to face destabilizing turnover,” said Rafal-Baer, in a Sept. 15 statement. “This year’s findings make clear that the leadership churn we once considered temporary is now the new normal, and it is straining districts at the very moment students need steady, effective leadership the most."

ILO Group suggested in 2024 that majority female school boards were more likely than majority male boards to choose female superintendents, hinting that “more diverse leadership at the board level may be a potential path in driving broader change in leadership representation,” the report said.

According to the Woman Leading Ed report released earlier this year, gender bias can leave its mark on women leaders in a variety of ways, including: 

• Taking a toll on physical and mental health.
• Hindering career pathways and compensation.
• Making greater career sacrifices compared to male colleagues.
• Being passed up for advancement opportunities.
• Having expertise and authority being questioned routinely, and more frequently than male colleagues. 
• Leading to high burnout.

In that survey, released in February, only 4 in 10 respondents reported good or very good physical health in the last year, and the ratings were even lower for mental health.