by Joyce Lihemo Kedemi, Rosemary Wahu Mbogo & Edward Aligula
School of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, Africa International University, Nairobi, Kenya
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21013/97881940692254
Renowned agencies such as UNESCO empower women and countries where women have been accorded space in the place of work to make decisions because they are able to use their acquired literacy, confidence and communication skills. Despite these efforts, women still fall behind their male counterparts. This research determines the gender gap in the higher education leadership in order to conduct an in-depth empirical study in the Kenyan context where women empowerment is a current issue which accelerates awareness and support capacity building among women leaders in the higher education system. The inadequacy of literature about women participation in the higher education system in Kenya is a quintessence that the issue is critical and that women are not on the same footage as male(UNESCO, 2012). Globally, for the past two decades, women lagged behind compared to men and as a result of this gender imbalance, a limited number of women exercise their leadership roles in the higher education system. Hence, women should be supported at an early stage of their academic careers to prepare them to rise to top leadership roles; appropriate interventions like inculcating increase in aspirations, developing skills and competencies, mentoring and coaching women for leadership in higher education should be put in place. Institutions of higher learning should focus on deliberate research agenda capable of leading all other initiatives towards gender inequality elimination and higher education leadership inclusion. Therefore, women leaders in developing countries need connections with international partners holding the highest leadership positions in universities for mentorship purposes.
Keywords: Women in higher education, women leadership, gender equality, educational leadership
This chapter is a part of: Contemporary Advances in Education | Edition (2019) (Eds. Sunil Sharma, FCS & Tian Chuanmao, PhD)
© 2020, CSMFL Publications & its authors.