CAPACITY BUILDING OF WOMEN LEADERS VIA MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

Despite of women advancement in politics, business, and other spheres of life, women are largely absent from senior position and are marginalized in terms of power and resources. In Latvia women set up and lead vibrant and successful governmental and private organizations. The purpose of the article is to explore cultural roots of gendered inequality in leadership and economic power positions by the literature review and as reviled in interviews. Interview data reveal the obstacles women need to overcome in their career advancement and their stories of success. Methodology: The study presents a qualitative study on women's leadership as defined in legislation and recent research and is supported by the qualitative inquiry of life stories of seven women engaged in the education's management programs. These women undertake leadership positions in their organizations. Conclusions: To conclude, the goal of equal participation for both male and female players in all significant spheres of life as declared in the international legislation and the United Nations, declarations will strengthen democracy and will promote its proper functioning. The authors assert that higher education through management study programs can also build women's capacity for leadership by assertiveness training and encouraging independent and critical thinkers.

Why it's a good practice: Leadership has been a social construct based on expectations of community rather than based on qualities of individual leaders. Community perceives leaders as prototypically male. As a result, women are less likely will be considered for leadership positions because such roles do not fit or the ideal model of aggressive an assertive leadership, thus devaluing women’s experience. Therefore, women’s work and achievements are left unacknowledged or provoke negative reactions. In overall, women continue to enter traditional women’s fields of work, such as teaching, social work, and nursing. The challenge is to situate inequality in a system perspective, economically, culturally, and politically. This is not enough to increase a number of women in leadership positions, one needs to re-evaluate the processes and structures that are male based and to explore the ways to change it. The growth of a global knowledge societies created great opportunities for women and at the same time poses great challenges. In Latvia, the representation of women in the previously dominated field by males of business has increased along with women’s occupational representations in managerial positions. Numerous efforts have been made by NGO’s to challenge the discriminatory policies and practices of educational establishments. However, the issue of gender equality is not solved yet. Therefore, education has its significant role to play in fostering female participation in leadership. Educational programs can play a vital role in emphasizing women’s agency and empowering women to undertake leadership positions in the community, by helping them to become aware of their capacities and abilities to enter non-traditional fields such as engineering, law and businesses, as well to become active agents in reform processes in education and the society at large, by taking an active role in policy making processes in the country. Women need to be encouraged to undertake agency by understanding that agency involves recognition of the power of discourse, ‘immersion in and indebtedness in that discourse, and a fascination of the play of meaning through which new life-firms may be generated: life forms capable of disrupting old meaning and desires (In Arnot et al., 2006, p.82).

Read the full analysis: http://journals.rta.lv/index.php/SIE/article/view/2397/2293