An analysis of the relationship between the history of the word "supervision" and the evolution of the American public education system, with a focus on women's roles, is presented in this paper. A historical overview of the role of educational supervision in the United States is followed by discussion of an alternative way of viewing supervision, in which supervision is defined as a relational process involving historical metaphors of power. A hermeneutical application of the works of Foucault, Weber, and Arendt to themes of supervision in three Western texts ("The Book of Exodus,""Little Women," and "The Official Boy Scout Handbook") and a content analysis demonstrate the process by which cultural metaphors frame women's perspectives of themselves as supervisors. The conclusion argues that the epistemology of supervision in American public education contains problematic metaphors for women and people of other cultures, and introduces the concept of a collective "mind's eye", which acts as a guidepost for interpretation and interaction in the supervisory sphere. Addressing these metaphors may cause rethinking of assumptions about the role of supervision in respect to gender, age, and ethnicity and help to reconceputalize it as part of the teaching process. (30 references) (LMI)