This paper explores gender-equity issues from three distinctive perspectives: numeric distribution, compensation, and sense of empowerment. It is based on large-scale national surveys--the School and Staffing Surveys--in which public-school administrators assessed the differences between female and male principals. Based on findings from the study, it appears that significant gains have been made in achieving gender equity among public-school administrators. From 1984 to 1994, female representation in the administrator work force increased from 21.4 percent to 34.5 percent. Among principals with fewer than 5 years of administrative experience, more than 38 percent are female. However, such gains are still not significant enough to offset the large gap in numeric distributions between female and male principals; female principals continue to be underrepresented among public-school administrators. In terms of compensation, differences in annual salary between female and male principals seem to be statistically insignificant. However, it takes women longer to become principals, and they are less likely to be paid as highly as their male counterparts. Even so, female principals have a greater sense of empowerment, believing that they have more decision-making power in school matters than do their male counterparts. Seven tables provide data on gender distributions of principals and other information. (RJM)