NAIS Research: Summary of Findings from Womxn’s Leadership Alliance

Executive Summary

Findings from "Womxn’s Leadership Alliance: An Informal Co-Mentoring Network and Its Potential Impact on Second-Generation Gender Bias in Independent School Leadership," by Sarah Dominique Colmaire, University of California, Los Angeles.

This dissertation by Sarah Dominique Colmaire of University of California, Los Angeles, explores informal co-mentoring groups for female mid-level leaders at independent schools and how these groups impact second-generation gender bias.

Colmaire focused on the Womxn’s Leadership Alliance, an informal group founded for women who had mid-level administrative roles in independent schools. She explored this group’s impact on second-generation gender bias, the subtle forms of bias and discrimination in the workplace that particularly affect women. She relied on qualitative research methods such as interviews, document and recruitment practice analysis, and observations. The research yielded four key themes and parallel findings. These themes include the non-linear career trajectories that many participants experienced; the professional development that participants gained through building relationships; the confidence, support, and self-efficacy that participants gained; and the intersectionality of identities of participants.

A summary of the findings in the researchers' report follows. The summary was prepared by Brenna Foley, NAIS research analyst.

To read the entire study, visit
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/86n600cm.  

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