Arete Volume 3 No 2 PDF of Arete

Αρετή (Arete) Journal of Excellence in Global Leadership | Volume 3, No. 2

in leadership roles (Ellingrud et al., 2025). The glass ceiling continues to shape women ’ s professional experiences by reinforcing these inequities. For example, women consistently report lower levels of job satisfaction and encounter disadvantages in areas such as work-life quality and organizational socialization. According to Fernando et al. (2020), the incorporation of distinct female perspectives and leadership styles can equip gender-diverse top management teams with a managerial capability advantage over equally talented yet homogeneous male teams. This link between gender diversity and organizational capability is expected to be more pronounced during times of crisis. Moreover, researchers have also analyzed the motives of women entrepreneurs in sustaining their businesses (Rey-Marti et al., 2015). It is also implied through their research that women who pursue a better work life balance are less likely to succeed in their professional lives. On the positive side, studies have shown that companies with the best records for promoting women outperform their competitors on every measure of profitability (Field et al., 2023). In addition, a few studies showed that when all leadership contexts are considered, men and women do not differ in perceived leadership effectiveness; in many cases, companies that are best able to hire and maintain a diverse workforce are expected to outperform those who do not (Glass & Cook, 2016; Offermann & Foley, 2020; Yousaf & Schmiede, 2017; Zadoorian, 2018). The government, employers, leaders in every organization, academic institutions, society in general, and women are essential players in breaking down barriers that hold women back. Gender diversity challenges (and therefore opportunities) are global ones. In short, barriers for women to assume leadership and managerial positions in organizations can be grouped into individual, organizational, and sociocultural factors (Cohen et al., 2018; Fry et al., 2023; Kaur & Mittal, 2022; Manzi & Heilman, 2021; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2023), consisting of gender bias, unequal access to development opportunities, and exclusion from decision making networks among others. Women continue to face lower job satisfaction, limited career advancement opportunities, and challenges in balancing work and family life. Individual Factors in Breaking the Glass Ceiling Despite extensive legislation outlawing gender-based discrimination, is the glass ceiling a reality or a myth? What are the perceptions of gender inequality in the workplace? What are the gender limitations in workplace promotion? What are the perceptions of women in the leadership role of their success stories of moving to the higher echelon in the corporate hierarchy or to the full-professor rank and administrative roles, e.g., president and provost positions? Breaking the glass ceiling is a complex process that requires action on multiple fronts. What are the success factors of those who have achieved leadership and managerial positions? The research found that the following were the most significant components that best described individual factors that may help women be successful while climbing the career ladder: (1) training; (2) mentoring and coaching; (3) networking; (4) ability to balance careers in leadership and their personal life; (5) organizational policies and practices that assist women; (6) leadership capacity; (7) ability to remember one ’ s self worth and confidence; (8) motivation and opportunities; and (9) fair hiring and promotion processes (Richards, 2017).

Organizational research suggests that female leaders bring a unique constellation of leadership-related traits, attributes, and behaviours to the workplace that may provide

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