ABSTRACT
Women are exposed to barriers in their work-life that are not stated clearly. Although these invisible barriers occur in many sectors, they are common in the education sector. So, this study aimed to reveal the relation between the paternalistic leadership displayed by principals in traditional collectivist cultures and the glass ceiling syndrome experienced by female teachers. For this reason, the correlation survey model was used in the research. Female teachers living in Istanbul were selected with the appropriate sampling method due to the COVID-19 outbreak. "The Paternal Leadership Behaviors Scale of School Principals" and "Glass Ceiling Syndrome Scale for Female Teachers" were applied to 358 female teachers. Applied t-test, correlation, ANOVA, and regression analysis. As a result of statistical analysis, it saw that the benevolent, moral, authoritarian, and exploitative leadership behaviors perceived by teachers significantly predicted the perceptions of glass ceiling syndrome. Although benevolent, moral, authoritarian, exploitative paternalistic leadership behaviors mainly indicated teachers' perception of the glass ceiling, they were even low. Especially authoritarian and exploitative paternalistic leadership behaviors explained 5% of the total variance in teachers' perception of the glass ceiling syndrome.