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This paper aims to critically reflect on current leadership development programmes (LDPs) and their potential in addressing the issue of women’s under-representation in leadership positions. To this end, this paper queries the current processes through which employees are selected to participate in LDPs as well as how these programmes are designed.

Drawing on Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, this conceptual paper draws attention to the pitfalls of current organisational practices aimed at women’s leadership development.

The introduction of gender quotas and the implementation of women-only LDPs are unlikely to address the persistent gender leadership gap. Instead, these practices are likely to intensify the negative effects of second-generation gender bias and perpetuate the issue of gender inequality and inequity in the workplace.

This paper critiques contemporary organisational practices aimed at women’s leadership development and suggests alternative practices which are more likely to respond to the issue of women’s under-representation in leadership positions.

Women are rarely seen in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies, which is unsurprising. Following gender equity policies, few women have been able to break through the gender equity barrier and assume leadership positions in schools. Few research investigations have delved into the experiences and challenges that women encounter in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies in government schools in Northern Ghana. The study seeks to comprehend the experiences and challenges that women confront in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana.

The study aimed to gain a better understanding of the experiences and challenges that women encounter in educational leadership roles in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana. To achieve the study's objectives, a quantitative research approach and a social survey design were used, as well as descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings of the study revealed that in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana, women experience conventional gender roles that conflict with roles, cultural values, gender stereotyping, family responsibilities and cultural beliefs and perceptions of women and attitudes and low expectations of women's managerial skills discourage women from taking on leadership positions in men-dominated societies.

There is a need to shift the gender position and question the negative cultural convictions of cultural and patriarchal societies. Equal opportunities for men and women necessitate equal access to leadership positions. It proposes that in patriarchal societies, education and community stakeholder involvement in leadership training programmes for women be considered, as policy documents alone would not be sufficient to eradicate deeply embedded cultural social practices and dispel negative notions about women in leadership positions in men-dominated societies.

The study established that in patriarchal societies, women experienced conventional gender roles that conflict with roles, cultural values, gender stereotyping, family responsibilities, cultural vulnerability of women and the interplay between cultural expected roles and management goals influence women from taking on leadership positions.

This study aims to identify the critical barriers to women’s leadership in Indian corporate sector using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach.

Through data obtained from extant literature and the expert opinion of women seeking higher managerial positions in the Indian corporate sector, this study identified total 18 barriers to women’s leadership. Thereafter, this study used the Delphi technique to identify the most critical barriers and ISM to understand the causal relationship among them, and then ranked them based on relevance.

Of the 13 critical barriers identified, corporate policies, conscious organizational bias and family responsibilities had the highest driving power. By contrast, inadequate career opportunities and the lack of risk-taking ability and assertiveness had the highest dependence power. Unconscious organizational bias and occupational segregation were other prominent barriers.

This study establishes the interrelationships between women’s leadership barriers. It provides a well-defined model which helps to get theoretical insight considering barriers for women leaders in their career progression in the Indian context. Based on the ISM model, these findings can help academicians and researchers gain deep insights into the barriers to women’s leadership in the Indian context, as no studies have been found in the literature concerning the given subject.

Based on the findings, corporations and policymakers can design inclusive leadership policies to support women as they climb the corporate ladder and to enhance their contribution to organizational success.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to identify barriers to women’s leadership in India using ISM analysis.

Much research has been conducted regarding leadership success challenges. However, few are practically oriented on whether the success of women's leadership aligns to organisational, personal and societal contexts as glass cliffs. Thus, this study aims to examine these factors and introduce how they inhibit women from leadership success.

This research examined the glass ceiling effects Ethiopian women leaders face. This research focused on adjusted clusters and a survey of 446 female employees from zones, woreda and kebeles. The data was processed through SPSS 25.0 to regress the values.

Breaking the glass ceiling, the glass cliffs effects on women’s income levels, the lack of an arena for self-improvement, the nature of organisation policies and challenges in teamwork were found to contribute to women’s under-representation in top leadership positions.

The results focused only on the 94 public organisations in Ethiopia that were selected by adjusted cluster sampling.

Realizations of substantial change and refocusing on bringing a significant number of women to the boardrooms in the public bureaucracy, besides glass cliffs.

Enhancing the importance of accepting women leaders.

To add value to the stock of literature in gender equality, this research brings a strategic focus on factors that inhibit women from top leadership positions.

Gender bias and stereotypes are universal issues in today’s society. This study presents a comprehensive review of women’s leadership based on bibliometric analysis. The feminist approach to leadership is helpful in many ways, and it could be the type of leadership needed in the challenging world of academia. Women present unique characteristics and traits, particularly their motherly approach to leadership.

A review of the literature based on bibliometric analysis by mapping the knowledge structure of the subject is conferred by uncovering the past, present and future trends based on three bibliometric analyses.

The finding suggests that gender equality, stereotypes and barriers in women’s leadership are at the forefront of the subject in HEIs. The overall system, mindset and willingness for institutional transformation are needed to change the mindset of accepting women as leaders of HEIs.

This study brought the significant idea of increasing women’s empowerment in HEIs, eventually strengthening institutional leadership’s capability towards advanced education.

This study would present a crucial foundation in women’s empowerment, particularly from the HEIs perspective and from the generic women’s leadership literature.

This study aims to explore the factors that build positive leadership identities in women and reduce woman-leader identity conflict in societies with low gender equality. In doing so, it responds to calls to examine the role of “context” for women aspiring to leadership roles.

The required data were collected through semistructured interviews with 30 senior-level female leaders in the corporate sector of Pakistan and analyzed using NVivo.

Successful professional women are often facilitated by various social and organizational factors that boost their confidence and ability to view themselves positively as leaders, reducing woman-leader identity conflict. The main facilitators observed were egalitarian values practiced at home, male sponsorship in organizations and individual leadership experiences. Furthermore, the age and socio-economic status of women have also emerged as important factors contributing to the success of women leaders in Pakistani society, which is characterized by gender inequality and high power distance.

Organizations committed to developing women for leadership roles and attaining their gender diversity goals need to address the structural and psychological barriers that hinder women’s progress in the workplace. Moreover, men need to be engaged as allies to enable women’s advancement as organizational leaders.

This study highlights how culture, gender norms and significant experiences of women moderate equality lows in patriarchal societies. It aims to demonstrate that women can progress as leaders within a low gender-egalitarian culture in the presence of factors that facilitate the establishment of their identities as leaders, thus reducing identity conflict. In addition, the role that men can play in creating a supportive environment for establishing women’s leadership identities is particularly highlighted in this study.

This scoping review aims to examine peer-reviewed literature related to girls’ (age 0–18) and young women’s (age 19–30) leader identity development.

This study uses a scoping review. A research librarian was consulted at the start of the project. Two sets of search terms (one for each age group) were identified and then used to find publications via our selected databases. The search results were uploaded to Covidence and evaluated using the determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The final sample of articles for the review was analyzed using exploratory coding methods.

From the analysis, four domains were identified that influence girls’ and young women’s leader identity development: relationships, personal characteristics, meaningful engagement and social identities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to solely explore girls’ and young women’s leader identity development. The factors and domains identified provide useful guidance for future research and practice. The findings reveal considerations about leader identity that can inform the creation of effective leadership development initiatives for girls early in their lifespan. These interventions could provide girls with a strong leadership foundation that could drastically alter their leadership trajectories in adulthood. Previous research has conveyed the advantages of having more women participate in leadership. Thus, this potential not only benefits girls and women but organizations and society at large.

The Women in Leadership Development (WLD) Initiative is a year-long, multifaceted co-curricular leadership development opportunity created to support the unique developmental needs of emerging women leaders. WLD was intentionally designed around the context of second-generation gender bias with a firm grounding of research and theory on gender and leadership.

Organized around three leadership pathways – leadership training, leadership coaching, and leadership support networks – WLD brings together the best practices of leadership development in combination with feminist pedagogy and critical perspectives to foster meaningful and impactful development of women leaders.

This paper describes the design of the initiative and how each leadership pathway supports the leadership development journey for emerging women leaders. It provides a model that is impactful as well as foundational, for undergraduate women’s leadership development.

Women leaders, in particular, can benefit from leadership development that takes gender into account (DeFrank-Cole & Tan, 2022a; Ely et al., 2011).

This study aims to underline the importance of addressing gender issues in family firms. It reinvigorates research in this field by revealing its current state, identifying research gaps and suggesting future agendas.

A bibliometric approach using a co-word analysis of 376 papers from the Web of Science database and their 885 keywords was performed to reveal the thematic structure of gender and family firm research, research topics, associations among them and their evolution over the last 30 years (1991–2021).

This review provides an extensive literature base and suggests research topics that facilitate the adoption of a gendered lens in family firm literature and business practice.

This review demonstrates how gender issues are intertwined with management, leadership and family firm approaches. Our observations inform scholars, policymakers and practitioners on the need to integrate gender issues into organizational culture and to connect empowerment strategies with the sociocultural environment.

This study shows the need to address women’s empowerment in business, considering different sociocultural contexts in addition to a Western focus. It also calls for embracing gender and feminist perspectives in research.

To promote gender equality, world leaders at the UN came up with Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5). It proposes to eliminate discrimination against women by providing them with similar opportunities for reaching leadership positions. Hence, this study aims to examine the contribution made by women transformational leaders to their employees’ performance. The study seeks to emphasize the role played by female leaders in the on-job performance of employees and their mental well-being by encouraging intrinsic motivation among them.

For the purpose of data collection, a questionnaire was sent through Google Forms to the employees who had females as their superiors or in the decision-making position. Data from a final sample of 517 respondents was gathered, on which SEM was applied to analyze the direct impact of transformational women’s leadership on employee performance and the indirect impact through the mediation of intrinsic motivation.

The study found that by having feminine traits, women are stronger transformational leaders as they encourage individuals to be self-motivated instead of getting stimulated because of some external incentive. Also, such a leadership style ensures better work performance and mentally healthier employees. In addition, transformational women's leadership creates a better work environment by inspiring a teamwork culture instead of individualism.

The study has implications for not just researchers but other stakeholders as well. The study is useful for organizations as it directs them to hire and promote more women for leadership positions. Also, the results hint that people prefer working for women-led organizations as it will ensure a healthier work atmosphere.

There are many studies from earlier times related to transformational leadership. However, female leadership and the role it plays for employees have not gotten their fair share of attention. Thus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present work is one of the very few where contributions made by women transformational leaders have been assessed.