Abstract
Although women are considered to be dominant contributors in the field of education, underrepresentation of women in educational leadership is still a pervasive issue. The situation may be more critical in the Asian Chinese context, wherein the male-dominated tradition of the feudal system has been prevalent for thousands of years. This article examines the barriers faced by women in educational leadership roles in a Chinese university, and the facilitators of female educational leadership. The case study was conducted using qualitative methods, involving interviews with both male and female leaders. The findings present a range of barriers that women in the research university are now facing, facilitating factors, and ways to solve the issue. Addressing the importance of recognising the underrepresentation of women in Chinese universities also has the aim of promoting gender equity in educational leadership.
Introduction
The underrepresentation of women in educational leadership has been pointed out by Moorosi (2005:21) as a “long-standing problem which has received significant attention in different contexts over the years”. According to the Department of Education (DfE, 2016a), in the UK, although 64% of classroom teachers are women, women constituted only 40% of head teachers. Within secondary schools (2015–2016), the percentage of female head teachers is only 38% (Fuller, 2017). This disparity between the high proportion of women in educational roles and the underrepresentation of women in educational leadership is also seen in Asian countries. A distributed leadership study in Bhutanese schools carried out by Tashi (2015) found that, compared with male teachers, female teachers had a lower engagement with distributed leadership practices, as was the case with senior teachers, especially those with higher levels of qualification. In Pakistan, being a teacher is regarded as one of the best professions for women, but top positions are less likely to be occupied by women (Aziz et al., 2017). As Aziz et al. (2017) point out, where a female is a principal, her role and power may be limited to managing daily affairs rather than making long-term decisions. The situation may be worse in the Asian Chinese context, wherein a male-dominated tradition rooted in the feudal system has been prevailing for thousands of years. As Pounder and Coleman (2002:128) further summarise:
The underlying patriarchal values made it very difficult for women to transcend entrenched attitudes to women and take on senior management roles in schools, despite the general approval of the idea of equality between the sexes.
Within Chinese universities in 2013, there were 714,000 female teachers; the proportion of male: female fellows in Chinese universities is 53.2%: 47.7% (Jia, 2015). Nevertheless, the proportion of women in senior management teams is still remarkably low. Liu (2018a) conducted a large-scale and quantitative study into female leadership within 272 Chinese universities, and found out that there have been only 349 women in senior leadership positions, occupying just 18.63% of those roles. The underrepresentation of female leaders exists not only in Chinese educational settings, but also in the fields of business, media, and politics (Liu, 2018b; Li, 2018; Li, 2012).
From the theoretical perspective, the term ‘female leadership’ in Mandarin was first being used in China in 1988 (Shen, 1988). There have been only 261 journal articles on women in educational leadership between 1978 and 2005; since 2005, there are increasing numbers of studies in women leadership in different contexts, mostly in political and business contexts, with over 50 journal articles on the subject published each year (Sun, 2015). Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies of women in educational leadership within the Chinese context, especially in the Higher Education context. Within the data base of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (
The difference between this study and most other studies of women in educational leadership is its Chinese perspective combined with Western literature; the author sheds light on the women in the Chinese Higher Education context, in a culture which has been deeply influenced by patriarchy. This article seeks to identify the barriers to and facilitators of women in educational leadership roles in a Chinese University by using semi-structured interviews. The purpose of this article is to aid recognition of the underrepresentation of women in Chinese universities, and to contribute to the international data of women in educational leadership, with the aim of promoting gender equity in education. The research questions addressed here are:
Within this Chinese university,
Having provided a brief introduction, this article goes on to outline the existing literature relating to women in educational leadership. Following this, the methodology is outlined so as to present the research methods and the process of the data collection. The findings are discussed based upon the research questions and the relevant literature. The conclusion then indicates the contribution of this research to existing knowledge and its implications for further research.
Literature Review
Leadership is more likely to be seen as relating to men rather than women (Schein, 1994). As Blackmore and Sachs (2007) argue, female leaders may receive more negative views and discrimination because of the discontinuity of their career path. Subordinates may perceive women leaders as lacking in visibility, recognition and support (Diko 2014). Chisholm (2001) conducted a study into female leaders in the South African education system, and found that the female leaders find it difficult to be accommodated and to succeed because of their unchanging social context.
At the same time as economic globalisation was taking hold, the ethos of universities was no longer seen as that of building collegial communities with collective values and cooperative practices anymore (Currie et al., 2002). Individualist and competitive values have become prevalent—“scholars are competing against each other in a performativity culture that tends to benefit men more than women” (Currie et al., 2002:36)—as a result of which a male-dominant culture has been normalised in universities since the 1990s. Drawing on the nature of female employees’ positions within universities, Castleman et al. (1995) claim that women are more likely to occupy the role of casual vacancies or the role of academic lecturers. Cubillo and Brown (2003:279) wrote that:
When women do achieve senior positions within the educational institution, they are often typecast into the same ‘caring, nurturing’ roles. Women in middle management roles in education are often assigned pastoral duties; that is, they are cast in the role of ‘the senior mistress’, while the men are given responsibility for areas such as curriculum and finance.
The recognition of gender-based discrimination has been promoted by the rapidly increasing economy and wider political communication, wherein the globalisation era requires the establishing of democracy, ethnic diversity, and gender equity (Blackmore, 2009; Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011). As Guihen (2017) summarises, there are three main barriers to women’s career paths: gender bias and stereotypes from the society, responsibilities for the family and being in caring roles, and negative impressions about their taking on leadership roles. Besides these, Coleman et al. (1998) also mention some additional barriers including culture and tradition, and the inherent qualities of men and women; the strong family attachment that women have when they get married and have children makes it difficult for them to further develop their career and be promoted. In addition, men may have higher academic qualifications than women because women are less likely to study for further qualifications such as a Master’s or PhDs (Probert, 2005). Although this may be the case within certain cultural backgrounds, academic qualifications are not the ultimate barrier for women to achieve leadership positions.
Byrd (2009) explains the reason for the underrepresentation of women from a cultural perspective: a man finds it much easier to become a leader since men in society hold more dominance, social power and control than women. According to Diko (2014:827), “Men are socially constructed so as to have the upper hand in areas of power”. In addition, most leadership research “had [has] been carried out by men on men in leadership, producing dominant notions of particular forms of masculinity as the leadership norm—being rational, unemotional and objective” (Blackmore, 2009:73). This raises the importance of women conducting leadership studies of women. As distinct from male leaders, female leaders are described as sensitive, cooperative, warm, gentle, empathetic, emotional, expressive, intuitive, tactful, submissive, talkative and receptive to ideas (Park, 1996). The requirement for those women who seek to be promoted into executive positions in universities is to fit that model and norm which has been built by men, rather than challenging the existing corporate leadership model (Blackmore & Sachs, 2007). In order to reach leadership level, a female leader needs to be educated or trained, rather than being seen as an eligible leader (qualified by things such as innate qualities rather than education or training) who could bring certain qualities (Schmuck, 2005). This refers to the social stereotype disadvantage.
The social stereotyping disadvantage is one of the major reasons for the underrepresentation of women in educational leadership (Chabaya et al., 2009). Cooper (1997) wrote that men are less likely to be blamed for the passive and negative consequences of their actions at work than women, and that it is not easy for women to “enter into the perceived masculine world of managerialism and leadership” (Cubillo & Brown, 2003:280). The social stereotypes of femininity and masculinity impairs the authority of women leaders (Valentine & Godkin, 2000) and becomes a cross-country boundary. As Cubillo and Brown (2003:281) wrote:
The socio-political dimension focuses on the entrenched hegemonic traditions and culture of a region or country (often strongly influenced by religious customs and beliefs) which women, positioned by circumstances, are obliged to accept.
Chinese cultural tradition is deeply rooted in Confucian idealism (Bush & Haiyan, 2000). According to Confucius, there are five codes of human relations and five principles (wulun). As Fan (2000) illustrates, the five codes of human relations refer to sovereign and subject/master and follower, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brothers, and friend and friend. The five principles are loyalty and duty, love and obedience, obligation and submission, seniority and modelling subject, and trust (five principles). Wulun refers to the notion that there should be obligation and submission in the relationship of husband and wife, revealing the different social positions of women and men. It can be noted that male terms are mainly used to express the relations between the terms, demonstrating patriarchy in Chinese culture.
Historically, the influence of patriarchy led to the subordinate position of women in Chinese society, and may still continue to influence the positions of men and women in educational leadership today (Bush & Haiyan, 2000). As Bush and Haiyan (2000:65) wrote, “China is by no means alone in experiencing under-representation of women in management positions, within and outside education, but it may be slower than most to acknowledge the issue and to seek remedies.”
One of the main barriers to women in Asian Chinese culture is an obstacle that they may arguably have made for themselves; this refers not only to the ‘wrong’ characteristics of women caused by the male normative construction of leadership, but also their low level of ambition to pursue leadership roles, and their negative impression of women in relation to leadership that they create through this lack of ambition. Coleman, Qiang and Li (1998) carried out a study to examine the role of female leaders in Schools in the Shanxi province of China. By comparing the situation of schools in Shanxi province with schools in England and Wales, Coleman et al. state that the difference is that women in Western countries tend to have more interest in leadership. The author’s previous study of distributed leadership within a Chinese university shows that female teachers are less likely to have consciously taken on leadership responsibilities. Having conducted four cases studies, the author chose one department in each school with a high proportion of female teachers and drew comparisons between data sets. Correspondent with Coleman et al. (1998), the findings of this department indicate that female teachers themselves are more likely to give up their chances to take part in leadership activities, even though the position and treatment of Chinese women has greatly improved since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (
The characteristics of women are also referred to as one of the main barriers to achieving leadership roles. There have been several studies that have shown that female leaders are seen as overly indecisive, sensitive and emotional when facing with difficulties and dilemmas (Valentine & Godkin, 2000; Pounder & Coleman, 2002). In a similar vein, Cubillo and Brown (2003) note that some women tend to lack competitiveness, and confidence, and have a fear of failure. Although the gender differences and natural traits of different genders are difficult to overcome, the perceived weakness of women can be simultaneously used as a strength in educational leadership and management. The lack of competitiveness of women means that they are less likely to be aggressive than men in self-advancement and in their career (Probert, 2005). Krüger (1996) also highlights that compared with men, women use conflict-avoidance and a high level of adaptability ability to deal with tensions and conflict.
Studies have shown that women leaders are more likely to establish close relationships with colleagues than male leaders, since they are more collaborative and democratic (Park, 1996; Jirasinghe & Lyons, 1996). Grant (1988) claims that female leaders demonstrate the traits of encouragement and support and a relationship-oriented attitude more than male leaders do. Compared with male leaders who are goal-oriented, female head teachers tend to focus more on interaction, cooperation, and team work (Rigg & Sparrow, 1994; Gisbon, 1995). The interpersonal and communication skills displayed by female leaders enable them to become soft but powerful leaders and can be used to make up for the weakness of male leaders.
From the perspective of leadership theory, another facilitator of women in educational leadership is that women are more likely to possess a feminine style of leadership than men. The leadership role performance defined by open to consideration and encouraging participation is rated as feminine in nature, whereas the behaviour of controlling and directing people is considered as masculine (Eagly et al., 1995). Within the globalized environment and faster-paced organisations, scholars have addressed the facts that there has been a tendency toward a more feminine style of leadership which focuses on open communication and a participative environment (Volberda, 1998; Hitt et al., 1998). Organisations are shifting from the traditional masculine outlook on leadership towards a more transformational and feminine view of leadership (Paustian-Underdahl et al., 2014).
The positive correlation between women leaders and effective leadership has also been recognised. Paustian-Underdahl, Walker and Woehr (2014) conducted a meta-analysis study aiming to examine the relationship between leadership effectiveness and gender. By summarising 99 samples from 95 studies, they found out that female leaders are actually more effectively than male leaders, though men may have higher self-rating scores. Thompson (2002) also added that the political movements and negotiations, in which women are at the forefront are more likely to achieve success; for example, four of six successful state-system revolutions in Asian (Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh) were led by female leaders.
Despite all of this, the stark contrast between the high proportions of women in education and the underrepresentation of women in educational leadership shows that there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equity in educational leadership. From the political perspective, policy making can be an effective approach. As Fuller (2017:58) suggests:
It is vital that governing bodies, academy trust boards and head teachers ensure that objectives are set with respect to their responsibility as employers- not just as educators- in compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
There have been a range of national policies and legislations regarding gender equity established in the UK, the USA, and Australia since 1970 (Blackmore, 2009). In South Africa, the South African Schools Act of 1996 (
… Increasing the opportunities for all children to take various leadership roles in and out of school should help boys feel more comfortable with the idea of women as leaders beyond the family and school.
In the micro-environment, leaders and managers are required to create visibility for women who are holding themselves back or scared of being visible, possibly due to a lack of consciousness or confidence (Fernando, 2018). Creating a visibility environment for women in leadership might help to promote a higher level of networking and peer support, and role models can also be used to promote diversity in the workplace. As Fernando goes on to argue,
Organizations can be proactive, making role models more visible. Role models should be able to tell their story, to challenge stereotypes by relating their experiences, to explain how they have coped, in order to make the aspiration of combining a respected career with motherhood and family life seem something that is both tangible and achievable.
Methodology
To develop a ‘sample’ which enabled this study to capture a range of viewpoints from real people in real situations, case study was adopted as the method to conduct ‘an in-depth study undertaken within a defined boundary of space and time’ (Brundrett & Rhodes, 2013:57), though the issue of generalisability is recognised. The study was conducted combining qualitative method achieved through semi-structured interviews. The questions within the set of interview schedule were designed based upon a detailed exploration of the issues and facilitators faced by women in leadership positions. The prospective research universities were selected within Shanghai, following consideration of the open and international environment of the city. After establishing the initial contact through emails, the study was carried out in
The research university is a comprehensive and research-oriented university with high teaching and research quality. The total number of staff (academic/researcher/teaching) is over 2,000. The study was conducted from the university level rather than departmental level; therefore, the samples was selected from all male and female leaders working in the research university. Respondents were selected from three different departments covering the disciplines of science, social science, and humanities respectively. The proportion of male to female interviewees is roughly in proportion with the sampling. There were 21 respondents in total; 9 were male leaders while 12 were female leaders. ‘Leaders’ were defined as those possessing leadership titles, including the University Principal, Party Secretary, Heads and Associate Heads of the departments, Party Branch Secretary, Director of the Centre, and Course Leader. They were also all professors who had been working in the research university for over ten years. The participants (sample) were selected purposefully. They were contacted and invited to take part in the research in advance through an official email, with an informed consent form attached. The form provided a brief introduction to the research aims and detailed information about the researcher. The respondents were assured that the confidentiality would be maintained as neither their names, nor that of their institution were used in the research. Likewise, only their approved version of the interview was used, and only on an anonymous basis.
Due to the logistical difficulty of arranging face-to-face interviews with participants in China when the author was based in the UK, interviews took place with the respondents through telephone calls. Initial contact was established before the formal interviews, to overcome the time difference between the two countries. Coleman (2012:254) states that telephone interviewing is the most suitable means of communicating with participants when the geographical distance makes face-to-face interview impossible to achieve. It saves both travel time and money for researchers, and is also beneficial to interviewees in allowing them to readily fit the interview into a busy schedule. Compared with a face-to-face interview, respondents may feel it to be less intrusive as “the relative anonymity of the exchange could encourage a more open dialogue than in a face-to-face meeting” (Coleman, 2012:254). Each interview lasted for 30–45 minutes. Once the interview process was finished, transcripts were returned to the respondents for confirmation and amendment.
Demographic information of the respondents
During the data analysis, participants were labelled as Male Leader A to K and Female Leader A to N respectively, for convenience. By using both an inductive approach and a deductive approach, thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data. The author identified key themes before and during the analysis. Quotes were translated, coded, labelled, and categorised in accordance with the themes.
The Barriers
The underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in the research university is obvious. Despite the fact that there are significant numbers of female leaders within the departments and institution, most of the respondents confirmed that the proportion of male leaders within the university is much higher than the proportion of female leaders, and indicate that female leaders are less likely to be appointed to senior leadership roles. For example, as Male Leader C said:
Women are especially suitable to be in charge of management works such as student work and allocating teaching task […] male leaders are good at decision-making and academic innovation.
As Castleman et al. (1995 cited in Blackmore, 2009:75) wrote:
Women in higher education are still largely concentrated in the lower non-tenured ranks as lecturers and senior lectures and in marginalized contract or casual positions as assistant lectures and research assistants.
Correspondent with Castleman et al., the extract shows that women may observe the social stereotype of their having less leadership ability and the capacity for coping with decision-making responsibilities, despite the work existing female leaders have undertaken to combat the barriers they have faced as being women in leadership positions. Observing the institutional structure of the research university helped the author to recognise the hierarchical nature of a Chinese institution and its different requirements for leaders at different level. As Female Leader A illustrated:
The requirement of management depends. It is essential for a senior leader to be innovative and have the ability to make decisions […] Leaders in the middle level have to show their executive force. The leaders in [the] lower level need to have the organizational skills. […] Usually, decisiveness is one weakness for a woman.
Alongside having the necessary organisational skills, female leaders are required to demonstrate leadership qualities which are traditionally masculine. This suggests that female leaders may need to fit in with the existing leadership structure that has been established by male leaders, rather than building a new leadership model.
Most of the respondents mentioned the deep influence of the Chinese patriarchal tradition when talking about women in Chinese education. Two of the participants argued that some of the old Chinese old sayings may have a negative impact on gender equity: for example, ‘men work in the society while women are confined to the family chores’ and ‘women are inferior to men’, amongst others. But they all stressed that the position of women has improved significantly in modern Chinese society, especially in Shanghai city. All of the male leaders in the sample claimed that they treated females equally, both at home and in society. Male Leader D argued that leadership positions are for the candidates who have abilities and achievements, regardless of their gender and background. As Female Leader B said, women in urban cities are well-educated and therefore are more independent; they are provided with the material resources to build their characters and pursue career success. Despite the notable change in Chinese society with respect to the relationship between men and women, two out of five female leaders highlighted that the situation in rural areas might be different, revealing that education and economy can become two great barriers for women in society and in educational leadership. It is also noted that some of the findings may be less generalisable, due to regional disparity in China.
Half of the participants suggested that women have the tendency to avoid becoming senior leaders and may have a low degree of willingness to take on leadership responsibilities. All of the female leaders admitted that they had become more stressed and burdened since taking on leadership positions at the same time as being responsible for family care. During the interviews, it seems that women leaders place more emphasis on their family responsibilities when considering the balance; this is consistent with Blackmore (2009) who states that it is more difficult for women to take on extra works for after work activities or toward promotion because of the additional requirement of providing family care. As Female Leader D said,
Girls may have been told to not pursue for leadership roles by their parents, as I can understand that as a mother. Actually, most parents do not ask children to become extremely rich or famous. What they expect for a girl is just to have a happy marriage and
The use of the word ‘stable’ suggests that women may have a stronger attachment to pursuing a stable and settled family life environment than men. This extract also shows that, apart from social stereotypes, family education can also have an influence on women’s willingness to become involved in leadership responsibilities.
Though Probert (2005) states that the lower academic qualifications of women may be one of the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in educational leadership, data from this study revealed that not to be the case, at least within the Higher Education context. Eight out of ten participants pointed out that within the institution, there are more female than male employees who hold a Master’s or PhD, whilst female employees also show more interest in gaining higher qualifications. However, most of the female leaders agreed that some character traits seen as typical female (e.g. being emotional and soft hearted) are certainly barriers to them becoming senior leaders, although they further added that personality should not be completely linked with gender.
The Facilitators
Another area identified by the participants was the advantages of female leaders to the university. Most of the participants (males and females) responded that in their view, female leaders tended to have better skills in resolving conflicts as compared to males. However, the reasons given by the participants for this varied. One male leader stated that it may be linked with women’s experience of taking care of children. Some men said that women seemed to be more careful and considerate than them. One of the female participants explained:
Women like to establish a collaborated environment and have close relationships with subordinates. I think we should encourage cooperation and mutual help. When making the decision, there should be more discussions to get everyone involved. However, male leaders may prefer to assign and delegate the tasks.
In line with Grant (1989), female leaders in this study possessed the psychological characteristics of encouragement, relationship-oriented attitude, and support, while male leaders showed these to a lesser extent when occupying leadership roles. Scholars such as Park (1996), Rigg and Sparrow (1994), Gibson (1995), Jirasinghe and Lyons (1996) also emphasise the women’s collaborative and relationship-oriented strategies in leadership roles. It can be noted that instead of employing the leadership model built by men, female leaders have the skill of leading in a more collaborative way.
Most of the female interviewees also suggested that women leaders are helpful in accelerating the speed of overcoming gender inequality in the organisation, society and the global world. Indeed, as women become more congruent with leadership roles, prejudice toward women in leadership and in the workplace broadly can be gradually reduced. Likewise, as some of the female respondents claimed, the increasing numbers of women leaders in academic and other settings enables the promotion of gender equality from the perspective of government policy; For example, it is likely to lead to laws and policies for stabilising the family after maternity, such as supporting maternity leave for both male and female staff members, or building more baby care room in the public place, which subsequently bring great benefits to both men and women, and improves community care.
The Solutions
In order to achieve gender equity in educational leadership, legislation and policy are seen as the most salutary approach by the participants. Among the responses were the following:
The age of retirement for male and female was 55 and 50 respectively. Nowadays, it has been changed to 60 and 55 respectively. There have been people advocating that it should be rectified to age 60 for both men and women.
There should be more policies launched to protect women in career and leadership positions since women have maternity leave in their career path.
These findings are in line with Blackmore (2009) and Diko (2014). It is noted that China may have taken gender equity into consideration when changing government policy, although one male leader reiterated that in order to truly solve the underrepresentation of women in education, there is still a long way to go, since the deep influence of the tradition dominated for thousand years could not be erased completely in the short-term completely.
At institutional level, stakeholders should also work on supporting female leadership by encouraging and motivating prospective women leaders, providing leadership trainings, and nurturing the consciousness of becoming women leaders. Respondents highlighted that it is important to pay close attention to women teachers, with the aim of raising women’s voices for the rights that women in the workplace should have. Likewise, correspondent with Fernando (2018) who wrote that peer support can be useful for women to thrive in a male-dominant culture, respondents mentioned that women in the workplace should have a sense of empathy and be conscious of helping one another. For example, as participants addressed,
Instead of focusing on his/her own power, the person with a high leadership position should care about people. It is important that we listen to difference voices, from people in different backgrounds, different positions, and different gender.
The role of leaders is to discover the potential ability of staff members, including future female leaders.
For the equal salary we need, sacrifice we made for the giving birth and baby care, more women should be motivated to take on leadership roles so that we could change those unequal instances … Role models of women leaders can be set up and stressed; leadership training is necessary!
Another solution identified by the participants was that during parenting, parents should educate children to have equity and respect across genders. That is, boys should be taught to respect girls and women, whilst girls should be encouraged to fully develop themselves in their chosen career path. A specific example was given by a Female Leader B:
I noticed that within our society, some parents who have sons hope their son could find a wife to ‘take care of their son’ after their marriage. Instead of privileging men over women, boys should be told the equal relationship between genders. That is, men and women respect and ‘take care of each other’.
Once equal values have been better established, the underrepresentation issue could be reflected on and addressed in a more practical way. When asked whether they have a preference between male leaders and female leaders, only one female respondent suggested that she felt it would be better to work with male leaders, to avoid conflicts between members of the same sex. Most of the participants maintained that the dominant reason for choosing potential leaders should be the person’s leadership ability, rather than their gender. This implies that the issue with respect to underrepresentation of women in educational leadership can only be solved when putting men and women in a truly equal position, wherein the focus goes beyond gender onto leadership ability. As Male Leader E maintained, over-emphasising either the men’s or women’s roles indicates the existence of gender inequality in the leadership domain. To achieve ultimate equity is to treat individuals equally, without extra priority, since gender is only one of the factors that could determine female leadership in universities. Likewise, instead of gender, individual performance and leadership capacity should be the ultimate criteria for selecting potential leaders. As Blackmore (2009) argues, “to essentialize gender will take it no further” and “take this field to its theoretical limit”, though this must be considered only if since the culture and ethos of equity have been created.
Conclusions and Implications
This study has explored the barriers to and facilitators of women in educational leadership roles in Chinese Higher Education settings, and the ways in which the stakeholders might help women leaders to overcome these barriers. The findings reveal that women in educational leadership in Chinese universities are facing a range of barriers, including social stereotyping, traditional Chinese patriarchal culture, low ambition to get involved in leadership responsibilities, responsibilities of caring for family, and certain perceived feminine character traits (e.g. being emotional and soft-hearted). Meanwhile, female leaders have the advantage of possessing better skills in solving conflicts and leading with the strategies of encouragement, collaboration and relationship-oriented approach, as compared with male leaders. The State Council of China (2011) has launched a national policy aiming to ensure that there will be ‘at least one’ woman leader in senior leadership and management teams in Chinese universities and local governments by 2020. However, as far as achieving the technically ‘equal’ position in leadership for women is concerned (female: male = 1:1), there is still a long way to go. In order to achieve gender equity in educational leadership within Chinese universities, more rigid legislation and policy needs to be introduced and thoroughly implemented by the government, whilst parents should also help children to establish the value of equality from childhood. This study reveals that the issue of underrepresentation of women in educational leadership can only be solved when putting men and women in a truly equal position, wherein the focus is not gender but leadership ability.
This study discussed the overarching challenges facing female leadership in the Chinese Higher Education sector, covering the ongoing scrutiny of female underrepresentation and joint efforts toward equality from multiple parts of the society. The situation of female leadership in academic settings and other settings in both China and the international community was considered to identify patterns, and seek shared and tailored solutions. Different from most female leadership studies previously undertaken in China, this article focused on the issue of female leadership based upon both the Western literature and the domestic situation within the Chinese setting, which enables both Western and Chinese scholars to understand the status quo of women’s underrepresentation in a Chinese patriarchal context and international settings respectively.
It is hoped that this article may be helpful for policy-makers, researchers, teachers and other stakeholders in promoting the women’s proportionate representation in university leadership, and indeed other settings. As to policy making, governing bodies and the university principals should consider their responsibilities toward equality as employers and provide an equal environment for recruiting. The UK DfE (2016:45) set an example in a 2016 white paper, “we need to do more to release the full potential of our diverse leadership talent pool, including groups unrepresented in leadership (like women, people from black and minority ethnic [
It is noted that the research findings are more generalisable to certain, although not all, of the Chinese university contexts examined. This, again calls for domestic and foreign scholars to conduct women-centred studies more deeply and widely. The study has focused on leaders in the university who have taken on formal leadership roles; it is vital that future research should focus on the experiences of those respondents who are not in leadership roles in universities as well. As Grimshaw and Francis (2014:207) wrote, “if we view leadership as the exercise of influence, rather than associate it simply with those who fill top executive or administrative positions, we may discern how power resides in people at lower levels in hierarchical systems”. It is hoped that this article may be helpful for the Chinese scholars in recognising the research gap between Western countries and China on the subject of women in educational leadership. With regard to the small body of empirical research carried out in Chinese universities, the researchers and female professionals should take responsibility to challenge underrepresentation, publish articles to increase the awareness, and monitor the ongoing situation.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: Sponsored by Peak Discipline Construction Project of Education at East China Normal University. The author’s