From Teachers to Leaders: Overcoming Gender Gaps in Peru’s Education System

A World Bank study in collaboration with MINEDU and LACGIL found that targeted behavioral interventions, such as motivational messaging, significantly increase female participation in Peru’s school leadership, particularly in rural areas. The research highlights the need for tailored policies to close gender gaps and foster inclusive educational leadership.

A new policy brief from the World Bank, in collaboration with Peru’s Ministry of Education (MINEDU) and the Latin America and the Caribbean Gender Innovation Lab (LACGIL), examines the persistent gender disparities in school leadership nationwide. Despite women making up a significant portion of Peru’s teaching workforce, they remain underrepresented in school management positions. The Concurso de Acceso, the centralized process for assigning school leadership roles, sees a steep decline in female participation at multiple stages, with the most notable drop occurring at the initial registration step. While gender gaps exist in both urban and rural areas, rural women face additional barriers such as limited access to information and fewer female role models. Addressing these disparities is essential, as increasing gender diversity in school management leads to more equitable decision-making, stronger representation for female teachers and students, and better role models for future generations.

Encouraging Change Through Behavioral Science

To address this issue, researchers partnered with MINEDU to design and implement a behavioral intervention aimed at encouraging more female teachers to apply for school leadership positions. This intervention introduced enhanced motivational messages delivered through SMS, email, and WhatsApp. Unlike standard informational messages, the enhanced messages used behavioral science insights to boost confidence and encourage action. They incorporated elements such as personalized encouragement, affirmations of leadership ability, success stories from female role models, and motivational cues to strengthen self-efficacy. The study tested the effectiveness of these messages through a randomized controlled trial, assessing their impact on application rates, exam performance, and job offers.

The Power of Targeted Interventions

The study revealed that well-designed, cost-effective interventions can significantly increase female participation, particularly in rural areas. The intervention led to a 3.3 percentage point (p.p.) increase in application rates among eligible women in rural areas, effectively reducing the gender gap in applications by 20.6%. However, in urban regions, the effect was not statistically significant. The intervention also had a measurable impact on subsequent stages of the Concurso de Acceso. Women have traditionally been 10 percentage points less likely than men to pass the centralized standardized exam (Prueba Unica Nacional). The intervention slightly improved pass rates, with rural women seeing a 2.4 percentage point reduction in the gender gap. More strikingly, the intervention led to a 1.8 percentage point increase in rural women securing management positions, amounting to a 32.5% reduction in the gender differential in job offers.

Understanding Barriers to Female Leadership

One of the key takeaways from this research is that the gender gap in school leadership is not due to a lack of qualifications but rather to psychological and structural barriers discouraging women from applying. The enhanced motivational messages sought to counteract these obstacles by emphasizing personal potential, showcasing successful female school leaders, and using psychological nudges such as loss aversion (e.g., “Don’t miss this opportunity!”) and peer encouragement. These strategies helped women recognize their ability to succeed in leadership positions and motivated them to take the necessary steps to apply.

The study also underscores the importance of tailoring interventions to regional contexts. The intervention had a more significant impact in rural areas, where women have fewer role models and less access to career advancement information. In urban areas, where female teachers are already more engaged in professional development, additional strategies may be needed to address implicit biases and structural barriers within the education system. The research suggests that while behavioral interventions are effective in narrowing gender gaps, they must be adapted to specific challenges faced by different groups.

The Path Forward: Policy and Structural Reforms

Policymakers can draw several important lessons from this study. First, integrating behavioral science insights into policy design offers a low-cost and effective way to encourage female participation in leadership roles. Simple interventions, such as personalized and motivational messaging, can yield significant results, particularly in rural areas where information barriers are more pronounced. Second, while these interventions help increase applications, additional support may be necessary at later stages of the selection process. Strategies such as exam preparation assistance, leadership mentorship programs, and targeted training for female candidates could help bridge the remaining gaps. Finally, addressing structural barriers such as workplace biases and institutional norms is crucial. Ensuring that women not only apply for leadership positions but also succeed in them requires a more comprehensive approach that includes policy reforms and changes in institutional culture.

The research aligns with global evidence demonstrating that gender diversity in leadership leads to better institutional outcomes. Studies in other fields have shown that women often perform as well as, if not better than, their male counterparts when given equal opportunities. In the education sector, increasing the number of female school leaders can lead to more inclusive curricula, better representation for female students, and overall improvements in school management. Additionally, having visible female role models in leadership positions can inspire future generations of women to pursue management careers, creating a lasting impact on gender equality.

The study was supported by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank, with contributions from international donors, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The research team included experts from LACGIL, the World Bank, and academic institutions specializing in gender studies and behavioral science. Their findings contribute to a growing body of evidence demonstrating how behavioral interventions can drive meaningful social change.

The study serves as a call to action for governments and educational institutions to adopt scalable, evidence-based strategies to close gender gaps in leadership. By leveraging behavioral science, policymakers can create inclusive and equitable school management systems that benefit educators, students, and society as a whole. Ensuring that talented female teachers are encouraged and supported in their leadership ambitions is not just a matter of fairness—it is a vital step toward building stronger, more effective education systems worldwide.