Purpose:

Although it is generally claimed that organisational structures possess a gender-neutral characteristic (Acker,

1990; Martin, 2000), there are also studies showing that masculine characteristics are embedded within organisational structures.

The most striking of these are the ‘gender-neutral organisational employee model’ and ‘hierarchical organisational structure’ characteristics. The ‘genderless organisational employee model,’ which requires employees to dedicate themselves and all their time to the organisation they work for, prevents women living in traditional societies from dedicating themselves to their organisations like men do, due to their responsibilities at home (Acker, 1990; Acker, 2012; Hoy and Miskel, 2015; Martin, 2000; Van Echtelt et al., 2009). Furthermore, in Weber's ideal bureaucracy, the requirement for the ideal organisational employee to be devoid of emotions and possess the ability to make decisions objectively requirement (Hoy and Miskel, 2015; Martin, 2000) leads to the negative perception of feminine traits (emotional, caring, subjective, personal, maternal, egalitarian, etc.), which are mostly attributed to women (Martin, 2000). This ideal bureaucracy, particularly in societies where sexism is internalised, prevents women from having advantages such as increasing their educational level as much as men or being employed under intense working conditions (Hoy and Miskel, 2015; Martin, 2000). This ideal bureaucracy, particularly in societies where sexism is internalised, prevents women from having advantages such as increasing their educational level as much as men or being employed under intense working conditions (Hoy and Miskel, 2015; Martin, 2000).

 This study aims to investigate the opinions of school administrators and teachers regarding organizational structure and sexism, and to analyze the correlation between these concepts. To examine this relationship, a structural equation model with the mediating effect of the variables "organizational justice", "self-efficacy", "organizational silence" and "work-family conflict" will be developed and tested.

This study sought answers to the following questions.

1. Are organisational structure, organisational justice, self-efficacy, organisational silence and work-family

conflict in schools meaningful predictors of gender discrimination in school management?

2. Do organisational justice, self-efficacy, organisational silence, and work-family conflict have a mediating effect on the relationship between organisational structure and gender discrimination in school management?

3. Does gender discrimination in school management have a significant effect on organisational structure, organisational justice, self-efficacy, organisational silence, and work-family conflict?

Since this study aims to test a model created to reveal the relationships between the variables of “organizational structure”, “sexism”, “organizational justice”, "self-efficacy”, “work-family conflict” and “organizational silence”, the relational design, one of the quantitative research designs, was utilized. The study sample consists of 400 participants, including 18 kindergarten teachers and administrators, 94 elementary school teachers and administrators, 121 middle school teachers and administrators, and 167 high school teachers and administrators from both private and public schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in the central district of Kütahya. In this study, data was collected using the “self-efficacy”, “organizational silence”, “work-family conflict”, and “organizational justice” measurement tools, along with an “organizational structure in schools” measurement tool (adapted by the researcher) and a “sexism in school management” measurement tool (developed by the researcher). Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, t-test, ANOVA, and correlation analyses were used to analyze the data obtained for the study. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis were used to ensure the construct validity of the measurement tools and path analysis was used to test the structural equation model. IBM SPSS Statictics 20, Lisrel 8.51 and IBM SPSS AMOS 22.0 programs were used for these analyses.

Participants' perceptions of the “Sexism in School Administration” were calculated as neutral, with an average of 2.82. When the participants' perceptions were examined according to the sub-dimensions of the measurement tool, the mean values were calculated as 2.43 for "Management Skills", 3.36 for "Preference" and 2.66 for "Human Relations". It can be seen that the mean value of the “Preference” dimension is higher than the other dimensions. Another striking finding is that 70.2% of the participants had an implicit perception of sexism or a sexist perception. It was found that the perceptions of teachers and administrators about the organizational structure of the school were at the "agree" level with an average of 3.76. It was observed that the participants' perceptions for the sub-dimensions of "Division of Labor", "Technical Competence", "Hierarchy", "Formatting", and "Objectivity" were at the "agree" level with mean values of 3.79, 4.12, 3.66, 3.84, and 3.38, respectively. It was seen that the participants perceive both the bureaucratic structure (X = 3.63) and the professional structure (X = 3.96) at the "agree" level. Considering these findings, the schools located in the central district of Kütahya are perceived by the participants as "Weberian school type". In the path analysis, it was found that the variable "Organizational Structure in Schools" had an indirect effect on "Sexism in School Administration" through the mediating variables "Organizational Justice", "Self-Efficacy", "Organizational Silence", and "Work-Family Conflict".

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