CHAPTER 8: “I’m Either Nice or I’m a Bitch”: Gender Entrapment and Black Female Principals

This chapter conceptually explores the actions that one Black female principal employs to achieve socially just outcomes for students, and the subsequent labels placed upon this principal. According to her practice, this principal discusses being measured against the labels of “nice” or “bitch” when she does not conform to the “nice” image. This chapter identifies the ways in which this principal problematizes the gender and raced constructions of “nice” and “bitch.” Forced into supporting district leadership or policy, this principal manifests a form of “gender entrapment” (Richie, 1996) articulated through labels constructed for her. By examining and analyzing interviews with this principal, this chapter also explores how she continues to reconstruct these labels in the interpretation of policy to interrogate marginality, promote social justice, and initiate social activism in her school.