Women in Leadership and Perceived Factors of Success
Women in Leadership and Perceived Factors of Success
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Issue Date
2025-12-06
Authors
Reinike, Scarlet
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Abstract
Women working in U.S. companies face underrepresentation in upper-level leadership roles. This qualitative phenomenological study examined the perceived success factors that enable women to overcome sexism and achieve upper-level leadership roles. Recruitment occurred through purposeful and snowball sampling. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews. This study was guided by concepts from feminist theory (Brunell et al., 2023; Wollstonecraft, 2016), role congruity theory (Schein, 1975), and status characteristics theory (Berger et al., 1977). RQ1 asked: What are the lived experiences of women around overcoming sexism while working in large U.S. companies? SUB1-4: explored perceived barriers, experiences reaching leadership, success factors, and identity traits. Transcripts were analyzed and interpreted for critical terms, then coded for themes (Peoples, 2021; van Manen, 2016). Five themes emerged: (a)Ambition, (b)Culture, (c)Network, (d)Resilience, and (e)Trust. Findings suggest that women need to take risks and be proactive about having conversations with their leaders and skip-leaders, specifically around career progression and constructive feedback, to overcome sexism and other barriers they face. Champions were most critical in early and mid-career time periods. Personal and professional challenges occur throughout all stages of women’s career journeys, but self-imposed barriers were a common barrier that all participants had to overcome to find success. Five recommendations are: (a) clarity of promotional pathways, (b) utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to identify candidates for promotion, inform employees of their potential and options inside their organization (c) creating feedback loops, (d) create/implement resource groups for employees for skills- based coaching, mentorship, and subject matter learning, and (e) offering therapy and coaching to counter self-imposed barriers. Future research should (a) expand study to other groups; (b) compare women in large for-profit companies to nonprofits or smaller size companies; (c) implement a longitudinal study of phases of career progression; (d) study how reorganizations and restructuring affects promotion; (e) explore male perceptions of underrepresentation of women in leadership inside large, medium, or small companies; (f) explore the lived experiences of women inside nonprofit U.S. companies; and (g) a longitudinal study of the use of AI to identify and inform organizations and candidates about leadership positions currently open, being created, or becoming vacant.
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Keywords
women in leadership , sexism , factors of success , intersectionality , transformational leadership , servant leadership , transactional leadership , leader-member-exchange theory , feminist theory , role congruity theory , female leaders in F500 companies , status characteristics theory , ambition , culture , networked , resilience , trust , LBGTQ+ , American working women , phenomenon , artificial intelligence (AI) , broken rung , social capital , skip-level leader , glass cliff , human capital , glass ceiling , gender parity , gender dysphoria , gender diversity , c-suite