At professional meetings and conferences, the scarcity of women in the ranks of secondary principalships is very apparent. In 1988 the results of a national survey showed approximately 12 percent of high school principals were female. If skill and ability are not the problems standing in the way of women, why are the numbers so meager? From experience and interviews with practicing and potential female administrators six conjectures are made. They include the restrictions in mobility due to a female's partner also being in a career track and the difficulty of taking the necessary incremental steps without being hooked into the power network. The speech posits that many women have refused to fit the male mold. Some suggest that the female model may be superior. The very qualities that men have traditionally denigrated as feminine weaknesses--sympathy, sensitivity, and a lack of killer instinct--may often be advantages when it comes to bringing the best out of people. Listed are the skills in managers of successful working situations, the characteristics of good secondary school principals, the most important skills needed for the principalship, and how women can establish themselves as secondary principal candidates. (Contains 11 references.) (RR)