Going upstream: the experiences of women in leadership in Myanmar

Female Leaders and Distributed Leadership: What Can Women Bring to the Table?

“…"Absent women discourse" was noted as the lack of data on women in leadership in some contexts (Aiston & Yang, 2017: p. 263). The unequal and in some cases (Chin, 2011;Barmao, 2013;Al-Jaradat, 2014;Samier, 2015;Aiston & Yang, 2017;Nyoni et al, 2017;Mon & Saito, 2018;Tarbutton, 2019;Thorpe, 2019;Iyekolo, Okafar, & Abdulaziz, 2020) were highlighted in the literature evidencing women's struggle to leadership in various geographical locations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, North America and Australia as cited in Table 2.…”

“…In some contexts that held certain leadership expectations with respect to culture, women were found to be "advocates" within their communities and in some cases for minority groups (Gillett-Karam, 2017). With views on collaborative processes being an essential consideration to effective leadership (Chin, 2011), women leaders were collaborative, inspiring more participation and empowering others within schools and higher educational contexts (Chin, 2011;Lowe et al;Barnao;2013;Mon & Saito, 2018;Alyami & Floyd, 2019;Chase & Martin, 2021). This cultural shift of women's participation in leadership positions in educational contexts turns the narrative from the male heroic leader to perhaps a new phase in leadership (Gillett-Karam, 2017).…”

“…It was strongly evident through the review that women's struggles to attain leadership positions continue in various geographical regions reflecting a variety of cultures. As women were portrayed as "invisible" in some contexts or merely under-represented (Mon & Saito, 2018;Tarbutton, 2019;Thorpe, 2019;Iyekolo, Okafar, & Abdulaziz, 2020) calls for the need for replace talk with action to promote equality and seek diversity and inclusion in such contexts. While a distribution of leadership perspective may provide equal opportunities for women to practice their capabilities and be empowered to exercise their leadership regardless of the formal leadership requirements, further empirical research is needed within these cultural contexts.…”

“…The early narratives defined leadership within a singular framework bringing the ideology of a singular male hero where very little documentation on women in leadership (Vogel & Alhudaithi, 2018) and at times non-existent within certain cultural contexts (Vogel & Alhudaithi, 2018;Samier, 2015) was noted. It is suggested that what we may know about women in education is relative as research on women reflects many areas which are yet to be explored (Mon & Saito, 2018).…”