Abstract
Women leaders in educational institutions are on the increase; however, they are faced with many challenges in their leadership. One significant challenge is society’s view on the responsibilities of women. In a patriarchal society, the traditional role of women is one of being the caregiver, the nurturer and the housewife. Hence, women are not always seen as leaders in an organisation, and if they are, they are often not taken seriously. The Middle East society still implements these patriarchal views; however, these depend on one’s upbringing in this society. Some women are being supported as leaders, while others are not. Women thus have to use their power wisely and diplomatically. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate how women leaders in an educational institution in the Middle East use power bases and tactics to enact their leadership. To achieve this aim, the study drew on critical feminist theory and critical leadership theory as the analytical and sense-making lenses. Data was generated among purposefully sampled women leaders through individual semi-structured interviews and observations.
Six themes emerged from the study: Perspectives on the meaning of leadership-leadership is not a power trip!; patriarchal culture and beliefs mediating leadership power and its expression; power as productive and destructive; acquisition, use, maintenance and loss of power; interdependence and interchangeability of the power bases; and enacting power through soft tactics. The findings reveal that women leaders conceptualise and explore their leadership’s power in different ways, and they draw from different power bases and tactics to enact their leadership, which interdependently enable their leadership. Leadership is viewed critically, largely as not an individual leader’s power possession, with the control over everyone but as a deliberated collaborative effort in leading an organisation. From this perspective, women leaders use their power productively. Although leadership is seen as cooperative, the patriarchal dynamics undermine the extent of the power bases and tactics women leaders could draw on. Hence, they experience their power acquisition as circumscribed, and its maintenance is exiguous. Moreover, their power is precarious and there are possibilities of losing it.