Introduction
Regardless of the applied interventions and the intentions of higher education leaders to promote women representation in regards to higher academic ranks, the women are still underrepresented. This underrepresentation has been noticed after a closer analysis of documented reports regarding the same. Different academic institutions and NIH have carried out individual evaluations to look into the reason for underrepresentation and its ultimate persistence.
The NIH (National Institute of Health), in 2008, attempted to promote the leadership of capable women from different backgrounds by a publication of a Request For Application. The report was published to back-up studies seeking to uncover the reasons and interventions aimed at promoting and sustaining women leadership in higher education fields including engineering, medicine, and behavioral sciences. The publication highlighted the necessity for evidence to promote the attempts to tackle this issue (http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jul2008/od-14.htm)
Problem Statement
Women discriminations concerns are still existing issues. The most controversial and diverse subjects concerning women underrepresentation include diversity and gender equality, which are put in place to appreciate and develop women in higher institutions. With the contemporary needs for transparent and accountable personnel in leadership positions, then it is of great importance to deliberately and timely prepare women for leadership. Nevertheless, regardless of crisis and a gap in leadership regarding gender equality, there are still small developments with regards to these concerns. Additionally, there are not enough holistic and multi-faceted strategies in place to prepare women for the skills and rigor required for higher learning leadership positions. Moreover, there is no extensive research to point out how leader development procedures like succession planning, talent identification, broadening of professions and developments of skills. Thus, there are no appropriate strategies to address these issues regarding women underrepresentation.
The Study Purpose
This study aims at exploring the different underlying reasons for women underrepresentation in higher learning positions. It also seeks to explore and uncover the holistic and multi-faceted strategies that can be put in place to sufficiently prepare women for leadership roles. Moreover, the study aims at clearly identifying procedures which can aid in women leadership developments like talent identification and skills developments among other processes.
The study purposes to be qualitative in nature. This study design is relevant and appropriate to this kind of research since it intends to uncover underlying inspirations, opinions and most importantly reasons for women underrepresentation in leadership. This study design enables development of hypotheses to offer insights regarding the problem. This study design will also help trace the opinion trends.
There are several types of interviews that can be selected for this paper. Talking is an essential technique for both quantitative and subjective social exploration and assessment. Meetings are discussions between an examiner (questioner) and a respondent ('interviewees', "witnesses" or 'sources') in which inquiries are requested that all together get data. Interviews try to gather information and account data keeping in mind the end goal to better comprehend the respondent's interesting points of view, suppositions, and world-sees.
Structured interviews are usually administered by talking with the subject. This type of research design would utilize unstructured interviews, and focus group discussions as methods of data collection. The interactions will be indirect and direct interaction. While structured surveys and interviews limit respondents in their responses hence the likelihood of missing important information, unstructured surveys and interviews may result in the extraction of pool or irrelevant information from the study population. Surveys and individual interviews have the advantage of achieving a higher rate of response and reading the respondents' unspoken expressions for better judgments. Individual interviews and surveys are costly and time-consuming since the researchers must look for the respondents physically. The survey can be written completed by the person being asked the survey. The survey can be online in which people are apt to see it as a pop up or through a software program as Survey Monkey which has become quite popular. A survey can take the form of a face to face interview or along those lines a phone interview. Surveys are difficult to measure as good or bad. The positive and negatives are generally based upon the results achieves. Sometimes the visual survey is better done face to face but the online ones are expedient and reach a wide range of people so it really depends on the subject material and the construction of the survey.
Focus group discussions have the advantage of depicting a research process which is social-based, however, in FGDs; participants may be reluctant to oppose current information and may try to frame their answers to please others.
In this study design, mail surveys would be appropriate. Mail surveys will offer a complete responses which can be sent anywhere at an insignificant cost. However, mail surveys can prove time-consuming for some respondents who will, therefore, submit incomplete data. To ensure the validity of mail surveys, the study seeks to include key-related subjects, ensure the questions adequately explains the desired outcomes and determine the degree within which the result can be generalized to the study population represented by the survey sample.
Individual observations would be conducted to spend enough time in the study setting. Field notes based on observations regarding the issue would be noted down on notepads, and cameras would also be used to capture videos of the situations. Observation is advantageous since it gives the researchers real-time unbiased results, however, this method is compromised by obtrusion which may lead to the study population behaving in a ‘suitable' manner. Objective scientists fulfill this through perception alone or by both watching and partaking, to differing degrees, in the study group's every day exercises. Member perception continuously happens in group settings, in areas accepted to have some importance to the research questions. The strategy is particular in light of the fact that the analyst approaches members in their own particular surroundings as opposed to having the members gone to the analyst. For the most part talking, the specialist occupied with member perception tries to realize what life is similar to for an "insider" while remaining, unavoidably, an "untouchable." While in these group settings, specialists make watchful, target notes about what they obviously, recording all records and perceptions as field notes in a field scratch pad. Casual discussion furthermore, connection with individuals from the study populace are likewise vital parts of the technique and ought to be recorded in the field notes, in however much detail as could be expected.
Support to Validity
Ethical Considerations
In conducting this research ethical issues will be considered. Matters relating to respect, confidentiality, honesty and openness will be upheld. Additionally, the respondents will not face discrimination of any form, and any organizational policy in their areas of work will be respected.
Field notes is a method of recording data as the efficiently watch and precisely record the differing parts of a circumstance. By continuously approaching your field study with a point by point arrangement about what you will watch where you ought to lead your perceptions, and the technique by which you will gather and record your information. The use of field notes break down your perceptions as the researcher continuously searches for the importance fundamental the activities you watch.
The field notes allow the researcher to intentionally watch, record, and examine what you hear and find in the connection of a hypothetical structure. This is the thing that isolates information social events from straightforward reporting. The hypothetical structure managing your field examination ought to figure out what, when, and how you watch and go about as the establishment from which you decipher your discoveries.
Validity is the step in research in which the researcher questions what they are looking to observe or measure. The focus group and unstructured survey proposed in this study allows for valid conclusions to be drawn from the data.
The Research Questions
What are the underlying reasons for the underrepresentation of women in higher academic ranks?
What leader developments procedures are necessary for ensuring that women are deliberately prepared for leadership?
What are some of the holistic and multi-faceted strategies necessary to prepare women for the rigorous responsibilities in leadership positions?
Hypotheses
Based on this study regarding women underrepresentation in higher academic, professional ranks, the following hypotheses were formulated;
There exists a negative association between women leadership requirements and training.
There exists a positive association between lack of leadership mentorship and identification.
Leadership development procedures are non-existence for higher learning positions.
There exists a positive association between lack of mentoring programs and succession planning roles.
Ethical issues
Data security and privacy of the people taking the survey will be of utmost important in this study as well as in all studies. The data will be kept secure and not used for personal reasons or gain in any manner. The names and personal information acquired will not be available to any other members of the team and really will not be even gathered unless it is volunteered.
References
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