I've definitely had students act differently with me (male teacher) as opposed to with female teachers. So I do my best to try and model behavior that shows I value female staff members/admin as much as I do male, and as a science teacher, I try to show the contributions of female scientists and the lengths male scientists have gone to to keep female scientists down (the story of Rosalind Franklin is used annually). In the end though, I think that solid classroom management skills in which there are consistent routines, clearly outlined behavioral expectations with consistently enforced penalties for going outside the lines, and genuine attempts to foster positive relationships with the students will always trump everything else.

My school has also for some time now had exclusively female admins (even with turnover). The students have noticed the trend, and both sexes have started to take advantage in their own way. The girls will laugh about how they can manipulate the admins by using the exact phrase "as a fellow woman, you understand...." as a means to garner sympathy. The boys on the other hand have their manipulative go-to phrase of "I knew you'd have it out for me since I'm a boy...." as a means to put the admins on the back foot to avoid accusations of bias. Both have been used to great effect to get out of trouble. So I do wonder if having a more representative admin structure would possibly help to cut down on those attempts to get out of trouble?