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The study contributes to our understanding of the less obvious ways in which gender divisions at management level in schools are perpetuated. The authors examine a situation in which a confident, ambitious, well-qualified woman teacher chose not to apply for internal promotion to a management position. The context is a comprehensive school with a proven commitment to issues of equality. Governors and the head of the school were determined to encourage women applicants. Deficit models, 'trait' models, and traditional patterns of gender hostility are all considered yet provide a less than adequate explanation. Instead, complex individual behaviour patterns and external constraints influence events within an apparently positive equal opportunities climate. Analysis of these events and the parts played reveal subtle yet powerful gender dimensions behind a foreground of financial pressures and budget cuts.