Alison Fleming said that men in some schools could gain the upper hand in staff rooms by being 'flirtatious²' with admiring colleagues.

 

Speaking yesterday at a gender³ issues conference, she even jokingly compared the situation to erotic novel, E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey.

 

She was speaking in general about schools nationally, and there is no suggestion that such behaviour takes place in her own school.

 

The event, held at Newton Preparatory School in Battersea, examined the issue of a disproportionately low number of women obtaining senior leadership roles in education.

 

Mrs Fleming, head mistress at the school, also said men sometimes had an advantage in teaching because governors felt they needed more male role models.

 

She said: 'Men's pathway into leadership, in my view, is - because people have got this slightly warped⁴ idea that we need good male role models - actually it seems to me that they've only got to be half way decent often before they shoot up the promotion⁵ ladder and find themselves running schools at aged⁶ 30.

 

'They don't always know a lot about education actually.

 

'When appointing heads, governors often... they like the idea of appointing a guy with a nice wife.

 

'There's a sense - certainly in the independent sector⁷ - in which that makes a good package.'

 

And she also suggested that men could succeed in the female-dominated sector by using their charms on their colleagues.

 

She said: 'Sometimes men in leadership can use what I would describe as their erotic capital. A male head master will sometimes - it will sometimes become a bit flirtatious.'

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