Barriers towards leadership position for women: Case study of higher education sector in the Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This dissertation aims to identify factors causing barriers for women representation in the leadership role in the higher education sector of the Saudi Arabia. To achieve this objective this dissertation adopted quantitative methodology through conducting an online survey. 45 responses were collected from women working in different universities in Riyadh city in the Saudi Arabia against social, organizational and personal level factors causing hurdles in the way of women’s leadership in higher education in the Saudi Arabia. Statistical analysis of findings revealed that apart from Islamic traditional, all other social factors such as male domination, family obligations and mobility have found to be negatively impacting women’s pursuit of leadership position in Saudi higher education organization. However, all organizational factors studies in this dissertation such as participation in decision making process, restrictions on authority of women, organizational culture and human resource policies have been found to be negatively impacting women’s march towards leadership role in higher education in the Saudi Arabia. Finally, while women working in Saudi Arabia have been found to not suffer from personal level skills needed to become leader such as self-efficacy, confidence and motivation however other personal factors such as leadership skills, difficulty in creating work-life balance and lack of professional networks have been found to be negatively impacting women’s leadership in higher education in the country. These findings implications that initiative taken by Saudi government to integrate women in workplace such as lifting travel and driving ban are not enough as for women to success in Saudi workplace there is a need for changing cultural mindset. Various recommendations have been made to eliminate hurdles in women’s way to leadership in higher education in the Saudi Arabia such as setting up gender quota in leadership role, educate people about women’s rights, government to establish monitoring mechanism to examine whether organizations are meeting gender target in leadership position and finally academic organizations should promote organizational justice in their human resource practices such as promotion and succession planning.