| Abstract: | The correlation between women’s leadership styles and characteristics and those which
organisations need to face the challenges of the new globalized context has not to date translated
into an advantage either for our universities or in terms of the position of women in them. As
Kandiko Howson, (2016); Altbach, (2016); Mulyampiti and Kanabahita (2013), Kwesiga et al,
(2012),Ahikire (2011), Abiola, 2009, Endeley and NchangNgaling (2009) point out ‚women are
grossly under-represented in higher education management‛ citing that hardly any exception in the
global picture exists. Men outnumber women at about five to one at middle management level and
at about twenty to one at senior management level. In terms of administrative positions, it was
found that ‚women are more likely to succeed as registrars, librarians or heads of personnel, than if
they aspire to be vice chancellors (or their deputies) or directors of finance or even deans of
faculties.‛ As a result, the studies cited conclude ‚women deans and professors are a minority
group and women vice-chancellors and members of University Boards are still a rarity.‛
Findings are based on a case study approach where we purposively identified the sites and the
participants in the study to try and elicit individual views. We use personal histories of ten university
women who are or have been at the rank of Professor and have served at different levels of the
leadership ladder to examine the ways in which women are consistently excluded from managerial
and leadership positions. These processes enable us to undress the intricacies related to
challenges women face while trying to build and be part of the leadership dynamics, while at the
same time they encourage us to look to feminine styles for the transformation of universities into
democratic entities. We then used these case studies’ participants to suggest ways in which
universities can build gender balanced leadership cultures.We find that first, women have certain unique soft traits for the work place with great potential for
impact on organizational success and they are outperforming men in particular instances, but they
are not earning salaries or obtaining leadership roles commensurate with their higher levels of
performance. Second, women’s career paths are dotted with major difficulties such as
discrimination, often subtle but not always, as well as the requirement for higher input of energy
than their male counterparts to achieve the same goals. Finally, that mentoring is critical in the
career paths of female professors, most women interviewed have had women mentors and a small
percentage received successful mentoring from men. |
