Theorizing Women Leadership

Theorizing Women and Leadership: New Insights and Contributions from Multiple Perspectives is the fifth volume in the Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice series. This cross?disciplinary series, from the International Leadership Association, enhances leadership knowledge and improves leadership development of women around the world. The purpose of this volume is to provide a forum for women to theorize about women’s leadership in multiple ways and in multiple contexts. Theorizing has been a viewed as a gendered activity (Swedberg, 2014), and this series of chapters seeks to upend that imbalance. The chapters are written by women who represent multiple disciplines, cultures, races, and subject positions. The diversity extends into research paradigm and method, and the chapters combine to illuminate the multiple ways of knowing about and being a woman leader. Twenty?first century leadership scholars acknowledge the importance of context, and many are considering post?heroic leadership models based on relationships rather than traits. This volume contributes to this discussion by offering a diverse array of perspectives and ways of knowing about leadership and leading. The purpose of the volume is to provide readers with not only interesting new ideas about women and leadership, but also to highlight the diverse epistemologies that can contribute to theorizing about women leaders. Some chapters represent typical social scientific practices and processes, while others represent newer knowledge forms and ways of knowing. The volume contributors adopt various epistemological positions, ranging from objective researcher to embedded co?participant. The chapters link their new findings to existing empirical or conceptual work and illustrate how the findings extend, amend, contradict, or confirm existing research. The diversity of the chapters is one of the volume’s strengths because it illuminates the multiple ways that leadership theory for women can be advanced. Typically, research based on a realist perspective is more valued in the academy. This perspective has indeed generated robust information about leadership in general and women’s leadership in particular. However, readers of this volume are offered an opportunity to explore multiple ways of knowing, different ways of researching, and are invited to de?center researcher objectivity. The authors of the chapters offer conceptual and empirical findings, illuminate multiple and alternative research practices, and in the end suggest future directions for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed?methods research.

Women and Leadership, edited by George R. Goethals and Crystal L. Hoyt of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, is a compact collection of thoughtful essays by experts on leadership theory as well as women’s history. Women and Leadership has been designed to help students and citizens who want a more nuanced explanation of what we know about women as leaders, and about how they have led in different fields, in different parts of the world, and in past centuries. It includes twenty biographies of women leaders in many different domains—not only politics but also education, fashion, sports, and social and environmental movements.

Women and Leadership in Higher Education is the first volume in a new series of books (Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice) that will be published in upcoming years to inform leadership scholars and practitioners. This book links theory, research, and practice of women’s leadership in various higher education contexts and offers suggestions for future leadership development strategies. This volume focuses on the field of higher education, particularly within the context of the United States—a sector that serves a majority of students at all degree levels who are women, yet lacks parity by women in senior leadership roles. The book’s fifteen chapters present both hard facts regarding the current demographic realities within higher education and fresh thinking about how progress can and must be made in order for U.S. higher education to benefit from the perspectives of women at the senior leadership table. The book’s opening section provides data and analysis in addressing “The State of Women and Leadership in Higher Education”; the second section offers descriptions of three effective models for women’s leadership development at the national and institutional levels; the third section draws from recent research to present “Women’s Experiences and Contributions in Higher Education Leadership.” The book concludes with five shorter chapters written by current and former college and university presidents who offer “Lessons from the Trenches” for the benefit of those who follow. In short, the thesis of the book is that our world is changing; higher education collectively, as well as institutions of all types, must change. Bringing more women into leadership is critical to the goal of moving our society and world forward in healthier ways.

Women's Leadership challenges traditional concepts of leadership that draw on the male experience and offers an alternative construction that emerges from the female experience. Highlighting leadership's social, cultural and political roots, the authors argue that leadership is neither a free floating nor a gender neutral concept.

Women and Leadership around the World is the third volume in a new series of books (Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice) that will is now being published to inform leadership scholars and practitioners. The purpose of this volume is to explore areas of women’s leadership in four regions around the world: the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. Hence, we have included 14 chapters that cover a wide range of important topics relevant to women and leadership within specific contexts around the world. Our goal for this volume is to provide readers with explorations of women’s experiences as leaders, including recent research studies, analysis and interpretation of statistics unpacking the status of women in various sectors and countries, stories of influential women leaders with national or local spheres of influence, and including recommendations for positive change to increase women’s access to positions of authority. The volume contributors use various theories and conceptualizations to problematize, historicize, and analyze women’s limited access to power, and their agency as leaders from the grassroots to the national scene, from education to non-profits and business organizations. Overall, the book contributes interpretations of the status of women in various countries, presenting the stories behind the numbers and statistics and uncovering not only challenges but also opportunities for resiliency and effectiveness as leaders. The authors offer recommendations for change that cross national boundaries, such as structural changes in organizations that would open the door for more women to access positions of authority and be effective as leaders. It is rare to find a book with such a diverse array of topics and countries, making this a timely contribution to the literature on women and leadership. The authors remind us to continue to expand the literature base on women and leadership, drawing from both qualitative and quantitative studies as well as conceptual explorations of women as leaders in different countries, regions, indigenous communities, and across different sectors. The more we know, the better informed will be our efforts to create appropriate leadership development activities and experiences for emerging women leaders and girls around the world. This book contributes significantly to that very effort.

Gender, Communication, and the Leadership Gap is the sixth volume in the Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice series. This cross-disciplinary series, from the International Leadership Association, enhances leadership knowledge and improves leadership development of women around the world. The purpose of this volume is to highlight connections between the fields of communication and leadership to help address the problem of underrepresentation of women in leadership. Readers will profit from the accessible writing style as they encounter cutting-edge scholarship on gender and leadership. Chapters of note cover microaggressions, authentic leadership, courageous leadership, inclusive leadership, implicit bias, career barriers and levers, impression management, and the visual rhetoric of famous women leaders. Because women in leadership positions occupy a contested landscape, one goal of this collection is to clarify the contradictory communication dynamics that occur in everyday interactions, in national and international contexts, and when leadership is digital. Another goal is to illuminate the complexities of leadership identity, intersectionality, and perceptions that become obstacles on the path to leadership. The renowned thinkers and scholars in this volume hail from both Leadership and Communication disciplines. The book begins with Sally Helgesen and Brenda J. Allen. Helgesen, co-author of The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work, discusses the two-fold challenge women face as they struggle to articulate their visions. Her chapter offers six practices women can use to relieve this struggle. Allen, author of the groundbreaking book, Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity, discusses the implications of how inclusive leadership matters to women and what it means to think about women as people who embody both dominant and non-dominant social identity categories. She then offers practical communication strategies and an intersectional ethic to the six signature traits of highly inclusive leaders. Each chapter includes practical solutions from a communication and leadership perspective that all readers can employ to advance the work of equality. Some solutions will be of use in organizational contexts, such as leadership development and training initiatives, or tools to change organizational culture. Some solutions will be of use to individuals, such as how to identify and respond productively to micro-aggressions or how to be cautious rather than optimistic about practicing authentic leadership. The writing in this volume also reflects a range of styles, from in-depth scholarship that produces new knowledge to shorter forums that feature interesting ideas worth considering.

Over the past thirty years the number of women assuming leadership roles has grown dramatically. This original and timely book identifies the challenges faced by women in positions of leadership, and discusses the intersection between theories of leadership and feminism. The chapters in Women and Leadership: Transforming Visions and Diverse Voices are written by prominent and respected scholars in feminist and leadership theory, research, and practice. The book bull; bull; Addresses how diverse women lead, how feminist principles contribute to leadership, and the barriers that women face as le.