Female leadership in the Middle Eastern higher education

Purpose - Female leadership is a still largely unexplored aspect of the higher education (HE) field. While it is known that barriers to entry exist, few studies have addressed female leadership and have investigated what makes a female academic seek leadership, what their experiences are and how they perceive their positions and the associated responsibilities. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this lacuna as it provides a qualitative account of female academic leaders’ perceptions regarding their positions in the Middle East (ME) context. It also outlines their main tasks as administrative and academic leaders. Design/methodology/approach - Data collection and analysis took place according to grounded theory principles, as outlined in this study. Participants were selected according to theoretical sampling principles, access and willingness to participate. Findings - The findings illustrate a core concept, the female academic leadership mindset in the ME, and three emergent concepts that address the main shared perceptions, which are leadership experiences and expectations, differential treatment and work-life balance. The first discusses the different types of leadership and how female leaders experienced their positions, the second addresses the perceived differential treatment female leaders experience and the last addresses the dual pressure of work and home responsibilities that many female leaders have to deal with. Interestingly, several participants felt that fellow females were often unsupportive, which might also provide an explanation as to why women still experience obstacles. Originality/value - This study provides in-depth exploratory accounts of female leaders in various Middle Eastern HE sectors, and gives insight into leadership-related perceptions. Furthermore, it explores the effect of the Middle Eastern cultural context on aspects of female leadership.