How Women in Leadership Describe Their Rise to Leadership

The significance of female marginalization and inclusion in leadership decision making has been

increasingly a topic of deliberation. Women and men share typical characteristics such as

knowledge, educational qualification, expertise, socioeconomic status, yet women are

continuously marginalized. The bias that women face because of their gender is a lot more

pronounced in countries where the traditional roles of the sexes are defined rigidly. Due to these

strict gender roles, women find it hard to get to the positions of leadership in organizations.

Gender discrimination against women in the workplace is a common issue that women around

the world face. Leadership becomes almost impossible for women in countries, especially in the

African region, where women become dependent on their partners, and they have to live in any

circumstances that are made available to them. Although the number of working women is

increasing in these regions, these women still face workplace discrimination almost daily. The

purpose of this case study is to understand how women in leadership describe their rise to

leadership in Nigeria. The theory guiding this study is Heilman's (1983) lack of fit model. This is

the most well-known theory that concentrates on unfairness against women leaders. Qualitative

method was used in this research because of its distinctive methodological traditions of inquiry

that explores a human socio problem. Participants were Nigerian women in leadership positions.

Interviews were carried out with participants; themes were aligned for multiple participants such

education, culture, sexuality as well as authentic leadership.