Challenges to female educational leaders in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

____________________________________________ Carol Coohey ____________________________________________ Jill Smith ii Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my trailblazers, my parents, Fazl-e-Rehman Khan (late) and LalaRukh Khan (late), whose strong and gentle souls lit in me a desire to continue their efforts to enlighten our society with education in order to improve living standards. Indeed, my late mother's untiring toils sowed the seeds of my success. Rest in peace.iii

Challenges to female college principals and vice principals: Patriarchal gender beliefs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

“…After having said all the above, and keeping in view the main research questions I easily reached the conclusion that the female principals in district Chitral have many challenges and according to the narratives of participants, leadership is a multidimensional process and in Pakistan, it is perceived within a conventional framework, and a lot of factors constantly challenged them professionally, intellectually, emotionally, culturally, and socially. The findings presented in the research study are consistent with other research (e.g; Shah, 1999, Taj, 2016, indicating that mostly the female college principals remain under tremendous pressure because of the factors mentioned above.…”

“…The study of Mahitivanichcha and Rorrer (2006) further makes the evidence available that male leading selection boards held biased attitudes toward women selection as managers. Taj (2016) also revealed in her studies the hesitations of school selection boards' regarding women's social knowledge and capabilities. Additionally, the views of hiring panels regarding women's capabilities and women's adjustment to traditional paths of career make their pursuit of leadership complicated.…”

The Gendered Academy: Women’s Career Progression in Pakistani Universities

“…While the statistics for men have increased from 174504 to 244513 men (Batool, Sajid & Shaheen, 2013). More recently, this has translated into the participation of women in the workforce which was an area previously discouraged (Taj, 2016). Nevertheless, as stated above women experience low social status in the country and are discriminated against at the workplace due to strong masculine hegemony.…”

“…The experience of Pakistani women in the labor force has not been very different from their counterparts in the rest of the world (e.g. Authors, 2021;Fazal et al, 2019;Taj, 2016). Pakistan, with a population of 220 million, is the 5th most populated country in the world.…”

“…Considering the low position of Pakistan in Global Gender Inequality Index (World Economic Forum 2017), and the widespread gender discrimination in the society rooted in male dominance, gender inequality in academia is not an exception. Scholarship from Pakistan has addressed women's representation in academic leadership positions particularly focusing on challenges and constraints (Authors, 2021;Johnson, 2018;Taj, 2016;Yousaf & Schmiede, 2017). There are few studies that address the issue of workfamily conflict and highlight the struggles of women academics in fulfilling their responsibilities as professionals while also juggling their responsibilities of care and domestic chores (e.g.…”