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Women's leadership gamut in Saudi Arabia's higher education sector

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Listed:
  • Hammad Akbar
  • Haya Al‐Dajani
  • Nailah Ayub
  • Iman Adeinat

Abstract

This paper explores women's leadership in Saudi Arabia's three university settings—gender segregated (women or men‐only), unsegregated (co‐educational) and the majority of partially segregated universities where women's campuses exist within male‐dominated universities. While Saudi Arabia's accelerated reforms are creating new opportunities for women's leadership, these are not reflected in the higher education sector yet. In adopting a feminist institutional theory perspective, this study employed a feminist qualitative approach, including 14 semi‐structured interviews in Saudi Arabia's three university settings. The findings revealed that the barriers to women's leadership were most significant within the partially segregated universities, rendering women leaders as effectively powerless. In contrast, women's leadership flourished in the women‐only university setting. As such, the findings suggest that the dominating partially segregated model is ineffective and problematic for women's leadership, and contradict the dominant view that gender segregation disempowers women. These insights have implications for the transformation of Saudi Arabia's higher education sector, aligned with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Hammad Akbar & Haya Al‐Dajani & Nailah Ayub & Iman Adeinat, 2023. "Women's leadership gamut in Saudi Arabia's higher education sector," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 1649-1675, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:5:p:1649-1675
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Haya Al-Dajani & Mashael Alsahli, 2021. "Can women entrepreneurs thrive in Saudi Arabia?," Entreprendre & innover, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 100-109.
    2. Paula Koskinen Sandberg, 2021. "Wage politics and feminist solidarity," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 973-991, May.
    3. Donna Bridges & Larissa Bamberry & Elizabeth Wulff & Branka Krivokapic‐Skoko, 2022. "“A trade of one's own”: The role of social and cultural capital in the success of women in male‐dominated occupations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 371-387, March.
    4. Mohammad Nurunnabi, 2017. "Transformation from an Oil-based Economy to a Knowledge-based Economy in Saudi Arabia: the Direction of Saudi Vision 2030," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(2), pages 536-564, June.
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