Women and Leadership Dissertation

…14 Definition of Key Terms 16 Summary 16 References ………………………………………………………………………………………17 Introduction Studies have shown that women are prevented from securing influential positions in the various formal leadership roles in both the corporate as well as the informal portions in all human endeavors (Rhode, 2003. ) This is a fact that needs the attention of every person that any woman is equally a leaders as any man is. Skilled like men, it is for this reason that they can work in good leadership positions, and equal importance considering that women have the temperament to succeed in leadership positions. Women are subjected to biases and obstacles to making their mark in leadership positions. Historical documents are evidence of the fact that women are not incapable of working in leadership positions.

There is another aspect to this phenomenon. Women are judged and scrutinized for their feminine features that are deemed incompatible with the administrative male standard of aggression, confidence, competence, and arduousness (Riger, Ahrens & Blickenstaff, 2015). This leads to women being perceived as subordinate and inferior to men, and women who perform the administrative roles are deemed as “too manly” and thereby flouting their gendered norms and rules (Fitzgerald, 2014). The persistent underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, evident through the consistent male representation, is, therefore, a social problem that needs to change (Fitzgerald, 2014). Women are judged for their purportedly feminine features that do not match the male standard of competitiveness and confidence (Cahn, 2015). This would be beneficial in understanding the different factors that would influence women in obtaining leadership positions in the domain of higher education.

In juxtaposition to the earlier achievements of women, there have been considerable improvements in the condition of women (Flanagan, 2002). Therefore, the thrust of the study would be to understand the different factors that have made a huge contribution to the emerging inequalities between the male and female workers. The research is about the understanding the individual experiences of women in the higher education administration and thereby understand their success. Another objective of the research study will be to understand the dynamic systems that have empowered women to seek leadership positions. According to Deborah (2016), women in leadership positions are also models for other women since they show the societal impacts of equality, change workplace policies in a positive way, and promote diversity.

Understanding the underlying issues of inequalities in the recruitment of women to the higher education leadership positions will aid in increasing the representation of women in the economy. To some extent, this male-centric work culture bars women from realizing their potential. Both genders are given equal opportunities in the marketplace, but women find it harder to blend in the male-dominated system because of the cultural bias showing women as unable to handle the pressure that comes with leadership. With changes in the workplace demographics, a new way of leading people must be developed (Dunn, Gerlach, & Hyle, 2014). This entails investigating how the dynamic systems such as the culture, social norms, beliefs, and values have enabled or limited women to attain leadership positions in the political, social, and economic arenas (Joseph-Collins, 2017).

This will, therefore, help the author in understanding the various factors that influence women in acquiring leadership positions in the field of higher education. In fact, when compared to the past scenarios, women have now been involved in the mainstream activities and are also being appointed at the leadership position. Earlier in the days, women were not offered any chances of taking basic school or college education. They were only asked to perform the domestic chores. (Deborah, 2016). Women have risen in their social and professional arenas as per the number of women in leadership today as opposed to the past where women were not enabled to own up and qualify for leadership positions in the higher education system. The earlier practice was based on a norm of the responsibility of men to be leaders and always guide women.

A phenomenological research design will be utilized to focus deeply on the positive approaches of bringing in more number of women in the higher education leadership positions. These approaches are those that can and must be taken to provide more employment to women and bring about equality, and what’s involved behind the lack of women in the higher education leadership positions (Creswell, 2009; Smith et al. However, there is a prosaic invisibilization of women in the corporate sector (Sawer, 2006). Male exclusionary measures like the in-group preference and the notions of homosociality operate with the intention of keeping women out of the powerful positions. According to feminist scholars working on gender and organization, it was found that while private patriarchy works to constrain the life chances of women in the private sphere, in the public sphere, public patriarchy operates with the aim of curtailing the life chances of women (Sultana, 2011).

While a positivist intervention into understanding of women in leadership roles would be interested in ensuring that women do not make it to the top position, it is the feminist standpoint that acts as a fulcrum in revealing the streams, disposition and sources of inequality, stratification and discrimination that inhibits women from switching to leadership roles (Young, 2013). Feminist scholars have identified that the constraints faced by women in taking up leadership roles can be attributed to the societal expectations of women being ideal wives and mothers. The phenomenological research design would focus on the positive approaches and investigate in what ways the approach has motivated women to attain a leadership position. The phenomenological research expounds on the events, experiences and the occurrences by putting minimum consideration to the physical and the external reality (Creswell, 2009; Smith et al.

The sample population of the research would be selected carefully and purposefully that would put into consideration the expertise of the participant’s and their experience in leadership with the aim of collecting the best experiences from the participants (Jarmon, 2014). Data would be collected from the participants by sending them an email request. This would be done with the view that the participants would be busy and send an email would give them the time to decide on their schedule and at the same time save the cost and time for booking the appointments. The secondary data collection would comprise document analysis through websites, published documents and the reports (Patton, 2002). Research Questions RQ1 How do women mentorship programs influence women in attaining top leadership positions in the higher education sector? RQ2.

What support do women need to attain successful careers as leaders in the domain of higher education? RQ3. How does the representation of women in higher education leadership positions reflect equality? RQ4. What are the various factors motivating or limiting women from attaining top leadership positions in higher education? The significance of the Study The challenges that women face from the glass ceiling effect is a problem in all organizations. The findings of the study focus more on the higher education institutions in the United States with an average of 60% master’s degree graduates being females. However, they hold only 25% of all the leadership positions (Deborah, 2016; Dunn et. al. The role that academic institutions play in meeting the needs of women becomes challenging since the institutions are not nurturing the right women to men ratios.

The role of this study, therefore, is to understand why higher education institutions have higher levels of male dominance and the role that this variation has on the leadership development of women. Invisibilization- The term invisibilization refers to the discursive action of making a particular thing invisible (Herzog, 2018). Summary Hence, from the above definition of each of the mentioned key terms, it can be stated that leadership is the potential of a person for leading and managing a group or people in a proper way. The leadership Position is the assigned or the allocated role and responsibilities given to the person who is likely to be responsible for the overall result of the whole team. Furthermore, underrepresentation is the insufficiently low representation of a living or non-living thing and mobility is the ability of a person or thing to move or to get moved easily and in a free manner.