Abstract
M.Phil.
The number of women in leadership positions seemingly decreases as they ascend the corporate ladder even with the large number of females that exist at lower levels within an organisation. Women still lag behind in power dynamics and are still under represented especially in various corporate entities. Their numbers at the CEO levels worldwide are said to be around 3% to 4%, which is quite puzzling especially since women are said to have thrived in positions that were previously dominated by males. Moreover women are said to bear qualities that make them more successful leaders than their male counterparts.
This study has therefore been focused on critically analysing the leadership approach that women adopt so as to gain relevant insights that will add to the ongoing discussions on female participation at the executive levels. The study gathers insights from perceived senior women leaders on their perspectives about female leadership in order to generate leadership lessons that can be transferred to emerging women leaders to enable more women to progress within their respective leadership domains.
This study adopted a qualitative research approach. First a preliminary literature review that focused on document analysis was conducted to seek clarity about certain aspects of the research by looking at what other information exists and getting a deeper understanding of the research questions. Secondly the researcher used semi-structured-interviews focusing on life-history to collect primary data and thereafter additional secondary data was sourced from existing literature to explore and enrich themes extracted by the interviews.
Four major themes emerged, General Leadership Traits; Female Leadership Traits; Female Leadership Derailers and Female Leadership Enablement. Female Leadership Enablement emerges as the principal category and subsequent theory. It embraces a range of factors that are critical for successful female leadership and should be looked at holistically. These factors include i) critical stakeholders both in and out of professional settings that can support emerging women leaders during their journey; ii) professional development that takes the form of continued learning and embracing existing trends so as to enhance the professional capacities of emerging...