The Rise in Female Representation Amongst Riverdale's Faculty
Anticipating March, a month dedicated to honoring women’s history, I wondered how women are represented on Riverdale’s faculty.
Originally called the Riverdale School for Boys, Riverdale opened in 1907 with an all-male student body. In 1924, founder Frank Hackett started the Neighborhood School for boys and girls in grades one through three, and in 1933, he opened the Riverdale Girls School. Today, Riverdale’s Upper and Lower Schools boast a combined student body of over 1000 students, with an equal ratio of girls to boys. Assistant Head of School Operations Dr. Kelley Nicholson-Flynn shared that the expansion of the school’s faculty has played a large role in increasing gender representation at Riverdale.
The female faculty members of Riverdale help create a community filled with intellect, happiness, and acceptance. Whether participating in administrative meetings or teaching in classrooms, our female faculty fill our community with energy and positivity. However, while gender representation has improved in our community, female teachers and administrators still face challenges.
Female representation in our faculty is essential because equality is the core of a functioning democracy. Ms. Dominique Voso, an Upper School math and computer science teacher, shared, “If we want everyone to feel comfortable in contributing to our community, then our community needs to be made for everyone.” When asked why it is important to take gender into consideration while making administrative decisions, Dr. Nicholson-Flynn said, “Surrounding Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, equity assumes that men, women and other folks that are non-binary can succeed in any role. It's important to take into account any gender in order to see equality.”
Through my research on gender representation, I found that women often feel that they lack confidence, mentorship, and the ability to trust their own voices and advocate for themselves. As female faculty, Ms. Voso and Dr. Nicholson-Flynn have both felt the need to advocate for themselves in spaces dominated by men. Ms. Voso remembered a mostly male engineering class at her college where she had to constantly fight classmates’ gender-based assumptions, such as participating in hands-on work: “I remember being in engineering classes that were filled with male students, and feeling that my peers assumed that I, as a female, did not want to be operating the tools or doing the hands on work”. Similarly, Dr. Nicholson-Flynn shared that she often finds herself in administrative meetings where she is the only woman. During these meetings, she has had to explicitly publicize her opinion because of instances where she was drowned out by other male voices in the room.
The balanced roster of leadership roles at Riverdale is quite rare in high schools around the world and contributes deeply to our sense of community. While there is still work to be done in erasing gender biases and increasing the representation of all genders. Riverdale has evolved to a point where male and female administrators are equal in numbers, but equal opportunity and contribution has yet to be fully achieved. As the female faculty members shared, they still face challenges as female members in Riverdale’s faculty, but have seen some of their goals for female representation achieved. All genders in our faculty share equity in number, contribution, and opportunity. Now, all we are missing is equality in position levels, specifically that we have solely had men serve as the head of school. So, how about we consider a qualified woman for Riverdale’s next head of school?
