Women in Educational Leadership

 

Introduction

Women are gradually making their leadership presence felt in entrepreneurship, administration, education, engineering, health, etc. at regional, national, and global levels. Women are now resolved to break the traditional glass ceiling that barred them from entering leadership positions even if they possessed the requisite skills and talent to occupy them.

We often heard that Indian Women leaders changed the face of India as they can have inner predictability and multitasking ability to handle two or more work in a single time consequently. Women have often been limited in India in their roles due to socio-cultural constraints, including politicization, rigid social norms, and expectations prioritizing family over career some called them gender roles. The stereotype thinking was still seen nowadays also, complexity in the social structure and a heterogeneous population of more than a billion varying in culture and religion have made it difficult for governments and institutions to implement policies that are inclusive and not gendered. In this chapter, we outline the scope of engagement of women leaders in the education sector in the last 70 years, including kindergarten through higher education, and elucidate their achievements. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze models, statistics, barriers, and challenges for women leaders in education, along with opportunities in the education sector in India.

Women continue to be under-represented in India’s higher education leadership despite a nine-fold increase in the government expenditure on the sector between 2007 and 2012, according to a British Council report. For instance, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson of State Bank of India, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder of Biocon to Indra Nooyi, President of PepsiCo, and Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, the women of India have left no area untouched when it comes to holding leadership chairs. Whether it is the corporate world or politics, 21st-century women can be found everywhere, displaying a statement to the world that they are second to none. Women, who are considered as born multi-taskers, never fail to bring something different to the table and groom organizations to emerge as vibrant and successful entities.

According to a report, there has been a steady growth in women in leadership positions from 17 percent last year to 20 percent in 2018. This depicts the capabilities of the women community and the constant effort they are making to emerge as powerful human beings in our society. Today, with a number of a woman coming out from their homes and choosing to serve multiple roles like a daughter, wife, and mother along with earning their bread, they are inspiring those thousands of girls who dream of making a mark on this world. Like any other working arena, the education sector also is endowed with some iconic women leaders and administrators who are spearheading the institutions to a path of progression and possibilities.

These praiseworthy personalities or to say the unsung heroes in the education arena are firmly announcing a journey of transformation by bringing on an undeniable change in the lives of numerous future citizens. Ignoring the gender gap, they are writing a new saga of equality in the country where they are not only concerned about the education the quotient of the students but also acting as a guide, friend, and a philosopher to young aspirants. To recognize and honor a few of such exemplary women personas, we at Higher Education Magazine have come up with "Top 25 Women Leaders in Indian Education Sector- 2018." In the next few pages, we have narrated the untold stories of these women along with a brief on the educational organizations they are associated with presently. We sincerely hope that this endeavor made by us will be able to motivate several young women leaderships moreover, not only in our nation but on the various part of the countries the leadership of women should place on the peak as they are sound with the concurring solution to a variety of alternatives to become a better value-based education.

 

 

Definition

 

Any institution, whether it is society or organization, in the present century cannot function effectively without women’s equal participation in leadership activities. Women create a perspective that brings competition and collaboration to organizations and teams.

In today’s world, organizations that are led by inclusive leadership teams make effective decisions that deliver a better result. In the twenty-first century, the essential qualities required to lead include the ability to collaborate, connect, empathize and communicate. All these qualities are feminine and can help build a more sustainable future.

Many statistics show that companies led by women have better financial results. Leadership by women is vital to increase the pace of societal transformation at home and in the workplace. Women leaders are likely to provide an integrated view of work and family, resulting in an engaged and promising personal and professional future.

Gender parity in leadership plays a crucial role, development cannot happen without a diversity of perspectives in leadership roles of women.

There is no specific definition given by any author.

According to Author (Nayan Patel) on Women educational leadership which means by “The leadership which is being carried out by a woman in the betterment of education with her best manner knowledge and traits to make a set towards a major change in the world.”

Need & importance of women in leadership positions

 

In today’s world, women may not always realize their potential, and once unleashed, they have a direct route to success. When they find themselves in a leadership role, their capability and abilities are undeniable. However, it’s simple to claim this, so that establishes the need to outline multiple benefits women can bring to leadership roles.

 

1.  Women leaders will paint the future

 A woman who is currently not in a leadership role can be a daunting prospect entering such a high-profile role with current stigmas that may be attached. In turn, this could push away the younger generation from striving to break down barriers. The proportion of women in senior management roles globally grew to 29%, the highest number ever recorded. In 2020, this percentage remained the same. While this can be considered positive news, women just entering the workforce will need to be inspired by other women who are currently smashing their role as a leader in the workplace. Once achieved, it can carve a direction for all young aspiring women leaders to increase the global percentage and break new records.

2. Unique transformational ideas will be brought to the front

A meta-analysis comparing male and female leaders identified those female leaders were more transformational. They demonstrated more contingent reward behavior than the two-dimensional actions (active and passive management) presented by male leadership.

 

3.   The enhancement of teamwork

There is no doubt that we’ve all seen women demonstrate passion, enthusiasm, and a capability to take command of a situation when need be (let’s not look further than our own mothers or female caregivers in this instance). Women can make bold and wise decisions as leaders; this helps make the team environment less authoritative and more cooperative, bringing a family-like feel to the team. This boosts teamwork across the organization and helps implement a new culture within the business.

 

4.   Women demonstrate superior leadership values

Heading back to a national Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends survey, 2,250 adults ranked women better than or equal to men in seven of the eight primary leadership traits assessed throughout the survey. The key statistics from this survey outline half of the respondents ranked women as more honest than men, with 20% saying that men are more honest than women. In terms of intelligence, 38% said they viewed women as smarter, with only 14% indicating men are smarter. For the other cases, women were ranked for being more compassionate, outgoing, and creative.

 

5.   Business-wide communication can be enhanced

Communication is said and known to be among a woman’s strongest skills. Female leaders will utilize this power to enhance meaningful conversations with employers, co-workers, and partners, thus creating an open communication stream that creates a sense of clarity.

 

6.   Achieve a better financial outcome

Within a more diverse workplace, the more likely creative ideas are going to be presented. This helps fuel growth and helps create more sustainability within an organization. Diversity in the workplace should not just priorities women, but instead, have a fluid combination of both genders throughout the organization. Workplace gender diversity helps increase productivity, creativity, improves performance, staff retention, and, as established, boosts collaboration throughout the business. In a workplace study, 21% of businesses are more likely to experience above-average profitability if the workforce is gender-diverse.

 

7.   Fresh new outlooks and perspectives

We have outlined the need to construct a diverse workforce, and with this will come new experiences and perspectives that ultimately contribute to bringing some much-needed innovation into the business. Women leaders will bring skills, different perspectives, and innovative ideas to the table, but these three combined will help create new perspectives that lead to better decision-making as a whole for the business.

 

8.   Women leaders can provide better mentorship

Especially for the younger generation, the power of role models cannot be overlooked. Regardless of a person’s gender, all people need someone who will guide them to progress in their careers. Specifically, for mentoring and coaching young talent, women leaders are better mentors than men. According to a study, 29% of women believe that their gender will be an obstacle to advancement. To overcome this obstacle, women in leadership positions can take this opportunity and begin empowering the bright young minds of the next generation.

 

9.   The ability to wear many hats

In a women’s life, wearing different hats within their roles is often a common occurrence. You can find them often balancing careers, households and taking up the mantel of parental guidance along with many other experiences. These combined help women leaders to quickly adjust to new situations and focus on finding solutions to real-life work issues.

 

10.  Women in leadership roles can close the gender pay gap

Something that can often be overlooked is that the gender pay gap can be transformed into a gender opportunity gap. It has been seen that when males and females start their progress from scratch, men are usually offered more opportunities leading to higher-paying positions. However, employing more women in leadership roles can not only provide the benefits we’ve listed already but instead, help achieve a wider goal and close the pay gap more effectively.

 

 

The percentage of women indulge in the Education leadership from 2010 to 2018 in India.

Initially, the women were always seen in the kitchen as a stereotype thinking regarding as a gender role, however, nowadays we can see women are working in all the areas of the world especially, here in the line chart its show the information regarding the contribution of female towards the education leadership shows a tremendous change in this specific decads from the many of the last decades. 

Conclusion

From the equality of opportunity to education for women’s equality was the sea change experienced by the nation between the first National Policy of Education (1968) to the National Policy on Education, 1986. Since then, women's education has developed at a faster pace, especially during the 1990s. The planners and policymakers are convinced of the several benefits of educating women, some of them being higher age at marriage, a smaller family size, lower infant and child mortality, better educational and health inputs into the quality of life of the family, and higher productivity. However critical issues need to be addressed to promote women’s education. The expansion and growth of women’s education, its direction, and the disparity between the education leadership of men and women cannot be understood only to limited theory but adding more reservation towards the educational leadership may take the world to a new step that is not yet predictable by a normal human being.

Thank you for reading since long your valuable comments will be my motivation to make a certain post in nearly future. 

- Nayan Patel 

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