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Fourth Estate, Winter 32 (4)

Reflections on ESOL Leadership:
Where We Have Been, Where We
Are, And Where We Are Going

TexTESOL IV
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Editor, Alex Monceaux
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Copyright © 2016 TexTESOL IV

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MISSION
The Fourth Estate supports TexTESOL IV mission by promote scholarship; sharing information through publi-
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fessional growth of those working within those interest areas.

Publication Information
ISSN (Print) 2379-5379 – ISSN (Online) 2378-4822

Call for Papers

Spring 2017 Vol 33 (1): Building Reading Fluency & Writing Proficiency
Submissions Due March 5th, 2017

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- Reading & Writing skills development

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Fourth Estate, Winter 2016 Vol 32 (4)

GLASS CEILINGS? STICKY FLOORS? WOMEN IN TESOL LEADERSHIP

Robert J. Dickey, Keimyung University, S. Korea, Past President, Korea TESOL, 2001-2002

Teaser: Are women well-represented in leadership of our professional communities? Even in women-dominant professions? Perhaps no groups
of professionals are more aware of “voices” and “diversity” than ESOL educators. The two leading global organizations of TESOL profession-
als celebrated their 50th anniversaries this year, so it is a time of reflection and repurposing. As this special issue of the Fourth Estate focuses on
leadership, we take a look at how the role of women as leadership in our professional organizations has evolved. Both international and local
TESOL associations are be scrutinized for their diversity and balance.

Where do we find TESOL Leaders?
Clearly there are many places where leadership takes
place. Among peers at work, within employment hierar-
chies, in academia, in professional societies, and across the
communities of practice. Supervisors, teaching profes-
sors, distinguished scholars, elected officers, and beyond.
For now, let’s examine our professional societies, the
ESOL Teacher Associations.
TESOL International and IATEFL (International As-
sociation of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language)
are large, international, nonprofit professional societies
with membership largely comprised of classroom teachers
of English to speakers of other languages (ESOL).
TESOL International, based in Alexandria Virginia (sub-
urb of Washington D.C.) has more than 13,000 members,
and is affiliated with more than 100 independent associa-
tions with more than 47,000 members in total. 40 of those
affiliates are located in the United States. IATEFL, based
in Faversham Kent (distant suburb of London) has more
than 4,000 members, with more than 120 associate inter-
national ESOL organizations. In contrast, local affiliates
of these organizations may have less than 100 members,
are more limited geographically, and may face very diverse
environments in terms of membership and leadership.
This study considers the history of women in leader-
ship in ESOL teacher associations, to perhaps impact fu-
ture steps in empowering women leader in the wider edu-
cation field.
WOMEN LEADERS IN ESOL TEACHER ASSO-
CIATIONS
Issues of women in TESOL have been arising only in
the past very few years, although wider societal concerns
for gender balance and diversity have been on the upswing
for well-over 50 years. “The Fair List” (http://thefair-
list.org/) began work in 2015 with an aim to encourage
gender balance among speakers at UK events in the field
of ESOL. The “Women in TESOL” series of conferences
& conference strands began in 2016. The entire domain
of gender issues remains very sensitive, with terminology
still somewhat in flux as the term “gender” often refers to
matters beyond “sex at birth” – for example, Rao, Stuart,
and Kelleher (1999) suggest gender refers to “the socially
constructed roles, status, expectations, and relationships
of women and men” (p. xi). On the other hand, the term
“sex” is still viewed as a term best left to private matters
rather than simple indication of “male/female.”
This article is based on preliminary findings from a his-
torical trends study still in progress, which examines the
history of presidents of numerous ESOL teacher associa-
tions/societies (TAs) across the globe. While we must rec-
ognize that presidents are generally only one element of
the leadership team in most TAs -- working alongside Sec-
retary, Treasurer, Vice-President, Editor, and other roles -
- they are the most visible, the “face of the organization,”
and in many cases, historical records of the leadership of
TAs are very incomplete. Part of this project, then, has
been creation of complete histories of presidents for var-
ious TAs. I’m pleased to note that TexasTESOLiv has
successfully reconstructed their history of presidents (and
it is now on their website at http://textesoliv.org/about-
us/who-we-are/). Very few TAs had compiled a complete
history of their presidents prior February 2016 when this
project began. Some are still working at it. Others have
concluded they can never rebuild their history.
In many nonprofit organizations, the beginnings can
be a little fuzzy, even where records exist. Most organiza-
tions have a starting point prior to filing legal documents
of recognition with government, and work done prior to
“spin-off” from an earlier organization may be less clear-
cut. Here we use data as only indicative, rather than con-
clusive
An assumption in this study is that the leadership
should be representative of the membership. A number
of sub-themes might be tested – representative in terms
of education, gender, age, experience, etc. Yet we recog-
nize that we expect our leaders to be more experienced
(and older?) than many members, who may be rather new
to the profession, and perhaps more educated than many
members as well (the PhD president while most members
hold an MA or teaching certificate).
Specifically, this historical trends study looks to see
if women are elected as president in rough proportion to
their number of women within the TAs. For that matter,
if TAs should be representative of all professionals, not
just their members, does this suggest that TA presidents
should reflect wider ESOL teacher demographics? One
challenge is that we really don’t know how many members
in most ESOL teacher societies are women: the data is not
compiled. Historically, the data isn’t available except in
rare cases where some former leader has retained an old

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Dickey, R.
datafile. Obtaining data for licensed ESOL teachers
within states is another challenge, some states have the
data and will share (perhaps for a fee), in other states there
is no statewide compilation. Beyond the K-12 classroom,
there is no information available on ESOL teachers in
non-licensed settings (colleges, private language schools).
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
TESOL International was founded in 1966 by 102
Charter Members, 48% of whom were women (TESOL
Charter Members, no date), although early meetings of the
new group began from the April 1963 annual conference
of NAFSA (The History of TESOL International Association,
no date). Using 48% women as a starting point, how rep-
resentative were the presidents? In 1970 TESOL elected
their first woman president (following four men). They
did not reach gender parity (equal number of men and
women presidents) until 1999. As of 2015, 56% of the
presidents have been women. The gender breakdown for
TESOL International members is not available.
The story is worse at IATEFL, where the first 26
years of presidents (originally titled “Chairman”) were all
men. At present their history shows only 26.5% of presi-
dent years with women in office, although four of the past
6 presidents (including the current) are women. IATEFL
does not collect gender information on its members.
Figure 1
DOMESTIC (US) GROUPS
Twenty of the current 42 domestic affiliates of TESOL
International are included in the dataset with nearly com-
plete presidential histories. (One of these organizations,
Arizona TESOL, actually pre-dates TESOL International,
another has resuscitated after a more than 30 year hiatus!
Others, such as Kansas TESOL, have since merged into
other groups, and is not included here). The brief sum-
maries below are meant only to depict some representa-
tive groups, there is no “typical,” but it is hoped that these
summaries assist in understanding the history of women
in leadership in the TESOL field. All figures listed were
provided by that particular group, except that statistics on
32
licensed teachers comes via correspondence with the rel-
evant state educational authority.
• Sunshine State TESOL (Florida) was created
through merger of various local groups in Flor-
ida, since merger in 1975, the first three presi-
dents were women, and 75.6% of all presidents
have been women. Approximately 84.5% of the
approximately 500 current members are women,
whereas 89.8% of licensed ESOL teachers in
Florida are.
• Massachusetts TSOL (the only US-based TESOL
International Affiliate to NOT include an “E” in
TESOL) was founded in 1975: at least three of
their first four presidents were men (information
on the third president is missing). While 79% of
their presidents have been women, 90% of their
current membership, and 87.5% of all licensed
ESOL teachers in Massachusetts, are women.
• Georgia TESOL was founded in 1981, their first
three presidents, and 12 of the first 13, were
women; 80% of their presidents have been
women. More than 87% of their current 450
members are women, while 90% of licensed
teachers in Georgia are women.
• TexTESOLiv was founded in 1978, and the
founding president, a male served two years, then
three years later served another year. Roughly
75% of the presidents of the organization have
been female for the approximately 250 current
members, approximately 87% female.
• TexTESOLv was founded in 1979: five of the
first six presidents were male, 59.5% of presi-
dents have been female for the approximately 350
members.
• In Colorado TESOL the founding president was
female (1977) but the next five were male. 61.5%
of presidents have been female for a group where
73% of the 800 current members are women.
• Minnesota TESOL (MinnieTESOL) was
founded in 1976: their first 13 presidents were all
women, and 36 or their 40 presidents have been
women (90%), where approximately 87% of all
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Fourth Estate, Winter 2016 Vol 32 (4)

licensed ESOL teachers in the State of Minnesota participate as volunteers at various levels of their local,
are women. There are approximately 1,100 mem- state-level, and national/international associations.
bers in MinnieTESOL.
Author Bio:
DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION Rob Dickey is a past president of Korea TESOL, past
Figure 1 displays the data for all USA-based ESOL Chair of the TESOL International Program Administra-
Teacher Associations currently in the dataset. A total of tion Interest Section, a professor of public administra-
20 TAs are included (excluding TESOL International). tion, and a longtime teacher and researcher in the field of
The percentage of female presidents ranges from 47% to teaching English as well as a former nonprofit organiza-
100%. Most years since 1986 appear to be in the 70-85% tions executive.
range, while according to most data provided by TAs
seem to suggest current membership is 85~89% female, References
and state authorities suggest that slightly higher figures re- Rao, A., Stuart, R., & Kelleher, D. (1999). Gender at work:
flect the number of women licensed teachers of ESOL. Organizational change for equality. W. Hartford, CN: Ku-
Based on the currently available data, we must surmise marian Press.
that women are currently somewhat under-represented as TESOL Charter Members. (n.d.).
leaders in TESOL, at least within most ESOL teacher as- https://www.tesol.org/about-tesol/association-gov-
sociations. The fact that fewer women were included in ernance/tesol's-history/tesol-charter-members
presidential roles in the years prior to the 1980s is perhaps The History of TESOL International Association. (n.d.).
not surprising, although an examination of membership https://www.tesol.org/about-tesol/association-gov-
registries from that time would be needed to confirm ernance/tesol's-history
whether they were under-represented as presidents. While
there are far more women in leadership now than in the
1970s, things have not improved substantially since 1986.
A peak of 100% women in 1996 was off-set by a declines
in 1993 and 2001. Another peak of 93% in 2004 has
dropped back to the norm of roughly 75%.
Size and age of the TA do not seem to be a factor in
terms of the participation of women as presidents.
It would seem that there is no “glass ceiling” for
women leaders in ESOL Teacher Associations, nor is
there a “sticky floor” that binds them to the lowest levels
of service. Numerous studies documenting the limited ac-
cess of women to executive positions in educational ad-
ministration, such as for school principals, seem to not
apply within these TAs.
Factors that may impact the number of women serving
as presidents may include work/life balance, particular so-
cial expectations that women juggle household manage-
ment issues alongside work and any other professional in-
volvements. The limits of the data do not allow us to con-
sider whether the type of employment (professor, lecturer,
K-12 instructor, etc) is a factor, though we might antici-
pate that some jobs are more conducive to leadership in-
volvement in professional organizations.
We continue to seek data from other ESOL TAs in
North America and beyond; additional studies concerning
journal editors, faculty at major MATESOL and similar
programs, and teachers in accredited post-secondary
ESOL programs will be begun shortly.
Other senior leadership roles are no less important
to professional organizations, and studies might explore
these as well. However, the lack of available data and in-
consistent committee designs makes exploration of full
executive leadership in organizations (Secretary, Treas-
urer, Vice President, etc) extremely problematic.
All of us in the field of TESOL strongly encourage
all teachers to join their professional organizations and
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