Women Leaders in Administration: Challenges, Coping Strategies, and Pathways to Success

Abstract

Women's educational leadership in Pakistan is becoming visible. Lived experiences of women leaders of public secondary schools are yet to be explored. This study has a qualitative phenomenological research design with the aim to explore the experiences of eight public secondary school head teachers in Sialkot, Punjab, to identify their problems in the access and execution of administrative roles and coping strategies. The participants were chosen by employing purposive sampling and interviewed using a self-developed semi-structured interview guide. Data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis using the six phases described by Braun and Clarke. The two broad themes that emerged were: Obstacles to access and carry out administrative positions, and Overcoming obstacles: coping strategies, resilience, and suggestions to future leaders. Women leaders described various multi-layered obstacles, such as pressure from family and in-laws, work-life balance and double burden of household and work roles, traditional gender norms and community expectations, structural and institutional barriers, as well as lack of resources and financial difficulties. In parallel, they spoke of transformative contributions that they individually contributed to school improvement in the areas of enrolment, learning environment, infrastructure development and community engagement. In order to handle these tensions, participants sought to use open-door communication, to motivate their staff through recognition and inclusion, along with staff spiritual resilience in the Islamic faith and leadership through the Islamic moral framework as well as problem-solving and peer support. The study finds that women's presence in the school leadership is both impactful at the institutional level and costly at the individual level, and that their greater sustainability and equity are possible only through a range of systemic changes to policy and funding, staffing, leadership development, and gender norms in education.

Keywords: Women's School Leadership, Lived Experiences, Barriers to Administrative Roles, Transformative Leadership, Coping Strategies