In the classroom, a majority of the teachers are female. The further you go on the education scale, the less prominent women become and more men you begin to see. Brunswick County’s Board of Education, has a variety of experienced educators making decisions on behalf of the school system, but equal gender representation is still on the back burner. Doctor Deanne Meadows, the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, is one of the few women making the decisions on our school system’s behalf.

When asked about her feelings toward being one of the leading women in our school system, Dr. Meadows said, “I’m proud that I’ve been able to accomplish what I have through my career. Working closely with other women, who are also strong leaders, has helped me to build my own leadership capacity and my knowledge and skills about education.”

Women in education, throughout the years, have been controversial. Gender roles have been used to justify why women can’t do certain tasks in the educational field.

Dr. Meadows says, “There are a lot of women in education, you know, a lot of our schools have mostly females in there schools. Women in the leadership roles, principals, central office staff, superintendents, that’s the area that there is some women but not as many, usually. I think it’s important for girls to see women in those leadership roles.”

Dr. Meadows wants all young girls to strive for higher opportunities, “My advice is that you always want to learn from every opportunity that you have[…] You want to be reflective and think about how can you improve based on those experiences, so that you can always move up a little bit farther or learn something from that opportunity. Everyday needs to be about a learning opportunity.”