Gatekeeping in educational administration hiring decisions: A resume audit study

Abstract

This dissertation examines gatekeeping in educational administration hiring decisions. I conducted a resume audit study with educational administrators from Kansas to understand gender biases in hiring decisions for administrative roles. This study found evidence of gatekeeping that favored men from subjective evaluation of candidate hireability based on resume name when controlling for resume contents. These findings suggest gatekeeping is occurring in educational administration hiring decisions which contributes to sex stratification for valued executive-level careers in education.