Women in Learning Leadership: Ethiopia
Advancing gender-responsive education using evidence
Highlights
In Ethiopia, women make up 41 per cent of primary school teachers but lead only 7 per cent of schools. This gap persists even though female and male teachers have similar qualifications and reach senior teaching ranks at comparable rates, showing that performance differences do not explain the imbalance. Because school leadership can shape learning environments, teacher motivation and student well-being, understanding why women are so rarely appointed as principals matters for improving education outcomes for all children, and particularly for girls.
This report, produced through the Women in Learning Leadership initiative, examines the policies and practices that shape who becomes a school leader in Ethiopia, and compares schools led by women with those led by men. It finds that schools led by women tend to be smaller, better resourced and have more women teachers. Once these differences are accounted for, women- and men-led schools perform similarly on promotion and dropout rates. Schools with more women teachers, however, show modestly better outcomes for both girls and boys. The analysis also identifies barriers to women’s advancement, including long service requirements before becoming eligible for principal positions, limited access to leadership training beforehand, informal recruitment practices and the generally low attractiveness of the role given heavy workloads and modest pay.
The report offers policy recommendations for the Ministry of Education and regional authorities to strengthen women’s pathways into school leadership. These include making principal positions more attractive through better pay and training and support, building stronger pipelines for women through mentoring, improving transparency in recruitment and promotion and continuing to address barriers to girls’ education so that more women can eventually enter and lead in the teaching profession.
