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Few people running the nation鈥檚 school systems look like Sharon Contreras鈥攂lack, Latino, and female.

In fact, only 2.6 percent of superintendents identify as Hispanic women, according to a 2015 national survey of district leaders. Contreras was 41 when she was appointed in 2011 to be the first woman to run the 21,000-student Syracuse, N.Y., district, a position she held for 5陆 years before she was recruited this past summer to run North Carolina鈥檚 third-largest school system, the 72,000-student Guilford County district.

SEE ALSO: Few Women Run the Nation鈥檚 School Districts. Why?

In her first week on the job in Syracuse, a reporter called Contreras asking to see her superintendent鈥檚 license. A rumor had been circulating that Contreras, who by then had been a top administrator for a decade, was not licensed to hold the district鈥檚 top executive position.

鈥淚 remember one of the first comments written about me was that I was a triple-affirmative-action threat鈥攁 woman, black, and Latino,鈥� says Contreras, who is raising her 8-year-old great-nephew, told Education Week in a recent interview. 鈥淭he way I addressed the issue was by doing a good job, by being a strong superintendent. You don鈥檛 keep throwing in someone鈥檚 face, 鈥業 am equally qualified, it doesn鈥檛 matter that I am a person of color, it doesn鈥檛 matter that I am a woman.鈥� You don鈥檛 need to say that. You just do the work, and people will see that you are qualified.鈥� The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

In a profession dominated by women, why do so few occupy the top spot?

The thing I hear most from women is that we still see ourselves as taking care of the family and children. Women are less likely to go into administration early, and going into administration is usually a precursor to becoming a superintendent. We rarely will go into administration while we have small children. That is not as true for men.

I also believe that鈥攁nd this is based on my experience in trying to promote women鈥攚e often feel that we are not ready for the position. We will prepare, and prepare, and prepare, while men will step right into the challenge whether they are prepared or not. I believe the third reason is just sheer bias. I will give you an example. I have a good friend who is a superintendent of color, who said to me he wouldn鈥檛 work for a female superintendent. This is coming from a superintendent. There are many parallels with female pastors, where people just feel, 鈥業 won鈥檛 attend a church where the pastor is a female.鈥� I think there is a lot of that, even among school board members. You have to remember it鈥檚 school board members that hire the superintendent, and even when there are female school board members, it is no easier to be appointed as a woman.

Should school boards consider diversity when they are hiring superintendents?

They should be thinking about diversity and thinking about the world that their students live in. However, I don鈥檛 want to ever get a job because I am a woman or a person of color. I want them to see me as a strong superintendent. But if my gender and race and ethnicity help to foster a world where we understand diversity better, we understand one another better, and we understand that all of us can be leaders and we can be whatever we choose to be in life, ... then I think that鈥檚 the icing on the cake for me.

That must be quite a tightrope to walk, particularly if you are the first woman or the first person of color leading a district.

Yes, very much so. When I was in Syracuse, I was told they were worried that I wouldn鈥檛 be tough enough to be superintendent. They would never question whether a man would be tough enough. To me, that鈥檚 something very specific to how we view gender.

By the time we become superintendents, we havemore years of experience and education, often more degrees [than men], but we are questioned about our ability to handle the district鈥檚 finances. That always comes up, not because of any experience you鈥檝e had, but they just don鈥檛 think women can handle money.

People worry about whether or not we are tough enough, whether we can make snow calls. It鈥檚 very silly, but very sad in many respects.

What are some of the things that helped you along the way?

[In my first district], there was a woman of color who was the associate superintendent. I would get off work, I think at 2:50 p.m. I would go to the central office and I would work until 7 p.m. with the associate superintendent, learning the business. I did that for several years. When she went on to a different district as superintendent, I became her deputy, and I learned and grew under her.

I also made sure that I was involved in the state networks. I have always been an executive board member in every state I鈥檝e worked, whatever the superintendents鈥� organization was, even before I was a superintendent. I made sure I participated so that when search firms called the executive director of, say, the Rhode Island [School] Superintendents鈥� Association, they said, 鈥榊es, we have a [chief academic officer] from Providence who would really do a great job.鈥�

It鈥檚 important that women participate in networking. It鈥檚 time-consuming, especially if you are teaching and you have a family, but you must do it.

I would also say interacting with board members to really learn how board members think about the superintendency, to understand what they are looking for ... was very helpful to me in interviewing.

Are you optimistic based on what you鈥檙e seeing in the field that [the number of female superintendents] will change in the near future?

I am optimistic. I think of the welcome that I have had here by the community, and I know they see me as a highly qualified educator. What they talk about the most is not that I am a woman or a person of color, but that I have done this work for 25 years, and that鈥檚 really important to me. That gives me hope that we will continue to see the contributions of women and people of color in education, and, indeed, in all fields, and continue to make sure that they are represented at the board level, at the leadership level, in the classrooms.