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In this Leading Women seminar, we investigated the intersections of gender, race, and geolocation in shaping women’s experiences of leadership in Higher Education. We aimed to identify commonalities and differences between how women experience and circumnavigate barriers in their career trajectories that make leadership positions possible and desirable.

The session reported on two international projects.

Dr Amanda French from Birmingham City University will report back on a British Council Going Global: Gender Equality Partnerships project The EnPOWER project engaged with women’s inequal access to leadership opportunities in higher education in Vietnam. There is a growing interest in this area in recent times and research indicates that despite the introduction of the Gender Equality Law introduced in 2006 by the Vietnamese government to promote equal opportunities to women intended to reduce the Gender Gap Index score of 70% in Vietnam, “there are few women in leadership roles in several sectors including HE” (Maheshewari and Nayak (2020). Soryaly and Khon’s 2017 study of An Giang University noted for example that whilst 52% of academic staff were women only 32% had achieved a key leadership position. Nguyen et al (2017) further note that women who have successfully progressed into leadership roles have often not had formal leadership training and most commonly learn ‘on the job’ by experience. Dang’s 2012 case study of women in leaders in universities and colleges in the Meekong Delta also found that women who did progress to leadership roles tended to do so contingently and “unintentionally” (Dang, 2012:3).

Dr Karen Jones from Reading University introduces a large scale research project into women’s experiences of maternity leave and the period that follows. The presentation will report findings from a study into maternity leave experiences and career implications in Higher Education (Jones & Floyd, 2023), which involved secondary analysis of a global mixed method online survey with 553 women academics (82% UK, 18% international). The findings show women’s maternity rights were frequently eroded. Many women undertook core academic duties during periods of formal maternity leave, such as writing grant applications and journal articles, supervising doctoral students, teaching and responding to email, primarily in response to managerial expectations and psychological pressure to meet performance targets or due to fear of ‘career death’. Punitive measures and backlash were frequently reported by women upon the return to work, even when they had undertaken work duties during maternity leave. This had a profound impact on women’s sense of self-worth and belonging in their institutions.

Both projects conclude by suggesting policies and practices for promoting gender equality and inclusive leadership within organisations.