This paper will utilize an empirical lens to examine the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in higher education. In most of India’s higher education policy documents, it has been observed that gender was a negligent category of analysis. Realizing the significance of the issue, Sustainable Development Goals have included the issue of gender parity as one among seventeen goals by the policymakers (United Nations Development Programme, 2017). This paper will argue that while women in higher education leadership in India is of paramount importance, there are a plethora of barriers for the absence of women in leadership. In the largest societal context, the barriers found are social, orthodox, and cultural-religious stereotypes such as gender bias, family constraints, child care, domestic violence, cultural identity, and marginalization of an ethnic minority. Because of traditional male hegemony at the macro level, patriarchal ethos governs women’s perceived lack of self-esteem. These barriers must be understood in order to improve current practice. The major barriers of this deep-rooted patriarchy are 1) Family roles and gender inequality, 2) Constraints engrained in culture and religion, and 3), Career development challenges i.e. lack of leadership preparation and inequality of opportunity also impacts the representation of women in leadership positions.
Background
India has an extensive history of higher education and has had the most ancient (since 500 BCE) international learning centres, Takshashila, Nalanda and Vikramshila with students from all over the world, mainly from Asia and Africa (Surendra & Anjali, 2017).
India’s history of women leaders in education is of paramount importance, as leadership can be defined in many ways. Before 1947, prior to independence from The British, there were several women leaders who carved a niche for themselves. The women leaders who laid the foundation for educational reforms in India are Savitribai Phule, was one of the first women in modern India to publish her work on important subjects such as discrimination based on caste, child welfare, and social reforms, in the form of poems in 1854 (Pandey, 2015). Another, an insightful Calcutta based woman educator, Rajeshwari Chatterjee, was a well-known organic chemist with a keen interest in natural products and their use as medicines. She paved the way for women in India to participate outside their households in order to empower them to perform multiple roles with the balance of personal as well as work life (Basak, 2015).
The first woman engineers from Karnataka, Mysore, Rajeswari Chatterjee having astonishing potential, went to the USA to pursue higher education (Sen, 2010). She joined IISc, Bangalore as a faculty member after completion of Ph.D. from the USA in 1952 and her passion and achievements in education ranging from microwave engineering to science, and to social engineering, played a revolutionary role in social reform and women empowerment (Bhat, 2010). While another woman leader, Durgabai Deshmukh, dedicated her life for uplifting underprivileged women (Suguna, 2002).
There is a tremendous increase in the number of affiliated colleges and universities since independence yet the absence of women in leadership positions has detrimental ripple effects across communities and countries.
Perspective on Leadership from Around the World
Various studies in recent years have revealed the absence of women in a leadership role from an international perspective. The path to leadership is more often blocked or slower for women. Thus, the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030) have a strong focus on empowering women and improving gender equalities. Notably, the research in various countries indicated the strong need for movement towards support for women in higher education leadership.
For example, Lamia and Helen (2017) from the Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, UK discussed the under-represented role of women as a leader within higher education in Bangladesh. The authors presented the findings from the study that the number of women academics is about a quarter in comparison to male academics and Bangladesh. This article reported that out of 37 public universities and 91 private universities in Bangladesh, only two female vice-chancellors were appointed in 2014 as per 2015 data from The University Grants Commission. The data examined the barriers as a male-dominated society, women cannot always get the minimum qualification for the post and the education system being politicized to a greater extent. The authors concluded that leadership positions in Bangladesh are still seen preserve for men and revealed the dire need for empowering women irrespective of conservative, social, political, cultural and economic traditions.
The article “Women’s leadership in the Asian Century: does expansion mean inclusion,” (2016) presented the findings on women’s absence from senior leadership positions in higher education in South Asia. This research clearly specified that leadership was frequently not an object of desire for women. Delving into the results of the power of Asian Century in the knowledge economy, the authors examined that South Asian universities currently do not have any universities in the top 100 in international rankings, the countries where the population size account for 25% of the world’s population. Exploring the HE in six countries, the authors summarized the key frameworks for women’s absence from leadership in the global academy that includes the gendered division of labor, gender bias and misrecognition, management and masculinity and greedy organizations. The authors revealed that many women academics are reluctant to aspire for senior leadership in terms of navigating a range of ugly feelings and toxicities except a few in the number who are struggling hard to integrate into masculine communities. This article highlighted the urgent need for re-vision leadership.
Turning to the importance of women mentoring, an article “The Case for Women Mentoring Women” explored the current situation of women in leadership positions specifically touching on the importance of women in higher education administration as mentors for other women aspirants to guide in their careers. Supported by relational-cultural theory and narrative practice, the authors mentioned a plethora of benefits from focused and quality mentoring in terms of satisfaction, grants, improved skills, and rewards. The authors utilized a decade’s data and revealed that women have earned over half of all baccalaureate degrees and doctoral degrees but still underrepresented and hold only 31% of the full professor rank positions. This article outlined the barriers navigating the women’s career path are work-family balance and lack of women’s voices on governing boards. The authors critically analyzed the importance of mentoring in leadership roles in not only for the university but for society. This article recognized and acknowledged the women’s mentoring capacity to change the lives of other women to support the next generation.
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Another interesting article from the Australian perspective, “Fixing the Women or Fixing Universities: Women in HE Leadership, “. The authors, researchers at the University of Leeds, UK and Federation University, Australia explained the gendered power relations at play in universities that often hold women back. This article depicted that there is a lack of women in leadership across higher education by arguing that it is universities themselves that need fixing, not the women. The authors utilized two different case studies - the first study involved qualitative interviews of a sample (18) of senior women at top leadership positions in the UK and the second drew data from a quantitative survey with younger women who completed a professional leadership development program in an Australian university, to examine the increasing job insecurity and continuous organizational restructuring that affected gender power relations at work. The authors found significant similarities in their experience of the gendered organizational culture in two different countries. The authors outlined the perception of educational leaders that women are not meeting the demands of educational leadership and have identified women as “the problem”. The article clearly illustrated that the women in leadership positions struggle in their career progression and propose the need for further research to explore this resistance thoroughly as it leaves the readers with many unanswered questions.
The next section of this paper will break down the three major limitations of the absence of women leadership within higher education: 1) Family roles and gender inequality, 2) Constraints engrained in culture and religion, and 3), Career development challenges i.e. lack of leadership preparation and inequality of opportunity.
Family Roles and Gender Inequality
In India, women’s representation in leadership positions is meagre 3% to 5.8 % as compared to 15% in the West (Catalyst, 2011). In reviewing the research, it appears that women’s progress laid on one’s family and family roles that create a major hindrance in career progress irrespective of progressive policies being undertaken by the Government of India. Wyszynski et al. (2016) revealed about India as a deep-rooted patriarchal country with diverse cultures, multiple religions with varied languages, and uneven dispersal of economic wealth and resources. These resources, in turn, has perpetuated the increasing gap between rural and urban India. As a result, the women in Urban India only have benefitted from the Government policies. While in rural India there has been patriarchal norms/ ideologies that have shaped gendered roles. These ideologies categorize men and women with their roles in a family where men being accountable in the domain of work and financial matters, but on the other hand, women being responsible for taking care of the family and household chores (Ahmed & Carrim, 2016). This dominating patriarchy system was a potential threat, stopping the women to contribute actively in leadership roles. Now, the women have come a long way and as per the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, girls constitute 44.4% of total enrollment in education. All India Survey on Higher Education (2013) revealed that the enrolment for Ph.D. in science subjects is 22.97 percent for women in comparison to 21.60 percent for men but lagging in engineering and management studies. Gupta (2007) reflected in his study on doctoral students, gender discrimination and revealed that men were more likely to have informal interactions with their supervisors. As a result, women felt that women must work harder than men to prove themselves. It has been noted by Bal (2004), that even in sciences, the number of research publications by women and academic representations in prestigious groups and permanent positions is low in number than men. I question where are all women in higher education leadership? More interestingly, despite more enrollment in higher education than men, why do women not become involved when it comes to a leadership role? As noted in Chanana (2003), 26% married women reported career disruptions due to the demands of their husband’s career and 26% had frequent job changes due to other family responsibilities indicated women’s low participation rate in a leadership role. This clearly reflects inequalities and raised questions about gender bias in the process.
Constraints engrained in culture and religion
I will discuss the cultural challenges associated with the poor presence of women in leadership role in India, even though the ratio of men and women in the population is almost 50:50 (9.4 women for every 10 men) (Census, 2011). Flood (2012) stated that “religions are cultural forms within which people live meaningful lives, that religions mediate the human encounter with mystery and fill the world with meaning, and that these cultural forms of meaning-making have political and social ramifications that should be taken seriously” (p. 3). India is a diversified culture with many religious constraints, beliefs, and value systems that poses difficulties for women to get a leadership role. The dominating religion is Hinduism (80%), while the other significant minority religions are Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. As a cultural practice, the role of Indian women remained as simply supporting male members of the family. As noted by Anita et al. (2009), National Family Health Survey-3 data revealed the prevalence of child marriage among rural Indian women having education less than secondary education. Further awkward and challenging practices of for Indian women includes widow burning, and polygamy, since the later Vedic period (1100–500 BCE). The Hinduism portrays the religion where women have been marginalized and are not seen, as important as men and moreover, her identity and caste changes post-marriage. The effect of patriarchy, stereotypical portraying of women, based on religious laws and socially constructed commitments makes women acquiescent in this male dominating society.
However, this view of women being treated as property is slowly changing in order to push for more equality. But as per Nath (2000), women are constantly reminded of their fragile nature, in the workplace that forces women to feel weak and low in self-confidence. I understand that, although the patriarchy is deep-rooted in the culture of India but support from family can help women to achieve success in their career, make them financially independent which, in turn, decreases domestic violence and increases respect in the society (Pande & Moore, 2015).
Career development challenges
Altbach (2013) revealed that India is one of the global economic rising powers in the higher education sector. As noted by EIU (2013), India had a nine-fold increase in planned higher education expenditure between 2007-12. However, in most Indian universities, the representation of female academics is less than 40%. The barriers hindering the career path of women are dual work i.e. balancing work and family life, extra long hours, absence of women leader mentors, and reluctance to promote themselves.
Meena (2015) emphasized on the importance of supportive family to help the women to build their career in a leadership role, as the balance of work life along with the responsibilities of the home is difficult without their cooperation. I understand that the family understand one’s limitations and always encourage to do the best at professional end. As per the study by Deota (2014), 53 percent of women are struggling to balance work-home life and sacrificing their sleep, in the absence of support of family members. The second, working extra hours, most of the families do not support women to do the same from the gender perspective. Vanderkam (2015) revealed the importance of working late hours for a leader and stated as mandatory to be successful in a leadership role. The third, absence of women mentors, focussed on the dire need of women leaders who can become a role model and set an example for the younger woman to follow and achieve leadership positions. Jain (2016) emphasized that most of the men are not comfortable working under women’s leadership. Absence of women in top management positions pointing out the strong cultural root of gender inequality in the workplace and society. The last barrier, emphasizing on women’s reluctance to promote themselves due to a lack of confidence and motivation. Goyal & Prakash (2011) revealed the common issues in a leadership role as lack of information, fear of career setback and ability to comprehend themselves right. I understand that it is not the women’s reluctance in promoting themselves but on the part of workplaces, to understand and address the organizational as well as cultural issues that cause hindrance in the path of women’s career development and success (Suessmuth-Dyckerhoff et al., 2012).
Conclusion
The number of women in higher education leadership in India is very less than their male counterpart. Mahapatra and Gupta (2016) revealed stereotyping and socio-cultural rules as barriers depicting that 60 % of women leaders perceived apprehension about themselves, family responsibilities, culture and male ego. In India, women’s work has been associated with the private domain of household with the interplay of various identities, while on the other hand men’s work has been associated with authority and productivity, despite of efforts by the government to these apprehensions (Kameshwara & Shukla, 2017). In tackling gender disparity and inequality in higher education context, I understand that there is a need to address the status quo and the women must be fortified with captivating self-esteem to develop decision-making administrative skills and capacities.
I observed that women are capable and competent and are effective decision-makers but need to accept the reality that they are multi talented. In Indian family systems, women play multiple roles and balance work-family life. Women are gifted with skills of bringing people together, encourage dialogue and to understand the social as well as emotional needs of others. They only need to explore their own language and goals, to develop these skills into professional strengths to become effective educational administrators/leaders.
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