Advancing women's leadership and diversity in higher education

Tiếng Việt

Advancing women's leadership and diversity in higher education

Vietnam’s female participation in the labour force was at a high rate of 72.7% in 2019 as per World Bank data, yet the number of women in leadership positions remains low. An RMIT researcher offers a sector-specific look into the current situation in higher education.

Barriers to leadership for women in higher education

RMIT’s School of Business and Management lecturer and researcher Dr Greeni Maheshwari has recently undertaken research to identify the key barriers and enablers that women leaders experience in Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs). The barriers faced by women leaders range from professional to personal barriers.

“Despite living in modern times, women in Vietnam still have to fulfil their household responsibilities under the influence of Confucian culture and hence find it difficult to achieve work-life balance,” Dr Maheshwari said.

This challenge is visible more in higher education as compared to other industries because women leaders are fulfilling the workload in four different work areas including teaching, supervision, management, and research. Out of all the work areas, research in particular is found to be an important pathway to promotion.

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Dr Greeni Maheshwari’s research Women leadership in Vietnamese higher education institutions: An exploratory study on barriers and enablers for career enhancement identified the key barriers and enablers that women leaders experience in Vietnamese higher education institutions.

“Taking up a leadership role for women also means having the pressure of attending social networking events on top of their workload and accountabilities, while at home they have family and childcare responsibilities,” Dr Maheshwari added.

“Women continue to face barriers due to personal reasons wherein they prefer not to become a leader due to the lack of self-confidence and fear of sacrificing their family time.”

Enablers for women’s leadership in Vietnam’s higher education

Despite the number of barriers, women leaders also receive various support during their career growth.

Mentoring support has been playing an important role in the development of women leaders in HEIs.

“This kind of support and encouragement from their mentors and line managers might motivate women in their career enhancement,” Dr Maheshwari said.

“The women feel more comfortable to work with female mentors due to the collegial leadership style of women leaders, and this can be helpful in bringing a better supportive environment at the workplace.”

“Apart from the women’s qualifications and personal abilities, the strong support from their families or relatives are helping the women and found to be a decisive factor for women to become a leader,” she said.

The RMIT researcher suggested that another motivator was “the changing mindset of the employers towards women leaders and the open-minded attitude of young male colleagues who show their acceptance towards female leaders.”

Dr Maheshwari said Vietnamese HEIs can use the research findings to frame policies and programs that support a more diverse workplace.

“The inclusion of female leaders will be helpful to promote diverse leadership in an institution and this will help improve the organisation’s productivity further,” she said.

As an academic who has been researching in this area, Dr Maheshwari believes there are some further support measures which can be implemented for women leadership in HEIs:

Forming new policies including reducing workload in some areas such as research, supervision, teaching, and management for women leaders might help them to manage the work-life balance.
Arranging formal networking events during working hours may prove to be beneficial, and women might not feel that they have to sacrifice their family time after work.
Introducing professional development opportunities can support women in realising their professional and personal aspirations, and this might boost their confidence in taking up leadership roles in the future.
Building a supportive work culture where women leaders get their due respect will help them feel inclusive.

Dr Maheshwari’s research Women leadership in Vietnamese higher education institutions: An exploratory study on barriers and enablers for career enhancement was published in Educational Management Administration & Leadership Journal. The research finding might be a stepping-stone to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality in Vietnam, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Story: Thuy Le

Business and management

Campus and community

05 March 2021