What you probably already know: Blowback was swift last year after Leanin.org and McKinsey, in their annual Women in the Workplace study, found that women lacked ambition and were less likely than men to want a promotion. Many called it flawed and downright insulting. Now, the 2026 Women Lead Ed Insight Survey finds that a striking 87% of female education leaders want to advance their careers, while 68% have taken on expanded leadership responsibilities the past two years. The survey of more than 200 high-ranking state and district leaders (representing systems that collectively serve 17.4 million students across 40 states) directly challenges that previous “ambition gap” report.
Why it matters: In the Ed Insight’s executive summary, Women Leading Ed founder and CEO Julia Rafal-Barr wrote that, “Back in December a headline caught my attention, and perhaps yours as well. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that narrative, because the notion that women leaders are shrinking from ambition simply does not reflect what we are seeing in education.” The report notes that leaders first had to deal with the pandemic and are now navigating steep enrollment declines, tighter budgets, political polarization and, notably, a sudden influx of artificial intelligence into both classrooms and administration.
What it means: While 62% of respondents served as principals and 58% were comfortable handling typical academic leadership duties, far fewer reported confidence in managing complex district budgets or negotiating contracts. When asked what skills they most urgently needed to develop, finance was far and away the top choice. And, while 88% of respondents use AI tools at least weekly, only 35% report having sufficient resources or policy frameworks to implement AI in a responsible way. More than nine in 10 called stress a significant issue for women in education leadership, and nearly 80% reported poor work-life balance. Women in the U.S. account for nearly 60% of unpaid caregivers and spend 37% more of their tine on unpaid household and care work than men.
What happens next: Though women now hold an all-time high of one-third of superintendent positions in the nation’s 500 largest school districts, gender parity remains decades away. The report calls on states and schools boards to build early-career leadership pipelines, expand professional training in finance and operates and establish clear guideline around AI and other emerging technologies. “The idea that women are losing ambition just doesn’t match what we see every day,” Rafal-Barr says. “These are leaders raising who are raising their hands for more responsibility in one of the hardest moments education has faced. In many ways, the sector is being held together by the bootstraps of hardworking women.”
