Women's participation in school governing bodies.

Abstract

The study explores the experiences of women with the view of explaining why the participation of women in School Governing Bodies is marginal. Using primarily indepth interviews with women school governors, the study argues that while the respondents were committed and active participants within their respective SGBs, myriad of factors that thwart women’s experiences of democracy in school governing bodies: cultural attitudes, social structure, political structure, discrimination, personalities, work commitments, ill-health and spatial/geographic situatedness. For some women, the experiences are so undesirable that they bow out of the school governing bodies and they have no hope of ever participating again.