Mourning silence: Women superintendents (and a researcher) rethink speaking up and speaking out

This article uses Derrida?s (1994) concept of philosophical mourning as an analytic to explore the aftermath of broken silence about sexism and discriminatory treatment in the public school superintendency. The two major sections of the article focus on the mourning work done by a researcher and three female former superintendents in reconstructing their thinking following the participants? speaking up in research interviews about their differential treatment as women working in the most gender stratified executive position in the United States.