Women and Leadership in Higher Education: Current Realities, Challenges, and Future Directions

The Problem. There continues to be concern about the need to develop more women leaders in all sectors and industries in most countries around the world. This includes the need for more women to be positioned to take on critical leadership roles within higher education. The Solution. This preface article highlights the Issue’s overall problem, purpose, the approach used, and its relevance to human resource development (HRD) and practice. It introduces relevant literature and provides a brief introduction of each Issue article. The Issue in general explores various topics that directly influence the career decisions, challenges, experiences, and opportunities of women in postsecondary settings. Each article shares results of research studies or conceptual frameworks and also outlines specific implications for practice. The Stakeholders. This Issue will provide researchers and practitioners in various fields of study with foundations and strategic frameworks to be used for more reflective teaching, research, and practice around the topic of women and leadership.