Women who supervise women: the experience of women leaders in higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover what it is like for women leaders in higher education to supervise women. While some research has been directed toward women leaders in higher education, limited research has focused on the phenomenon of what their experience has been like in supervising other women. This study included a qualitative research design in the phenomenological tradition. Eight women leaders from higher education institutions, including community colleges and universities were interviewed. Two sets of themes were identified in this study. The first set of three "context" themes included women's leadership, supervision, and women can be hard on women. These three context themes contributed to understanding who the participants were as women leaders. The second set of five "essence" themes included female subordinates are capable and work hard; supervising females is both positive and negative; relationships with female subordinates is flexible, informal, critical, and complicated; conflict with females is difficult and time consuming; and differences between supervising support staff and professional staff. These five essence themes answered the primary research question, "What is it like to supervise women?" For the women leaders in this study, relationships with others were a key element in all the themes. Relationships with female subordinates, while sometimes challenging, were positive overall. The leaders noted differences between supervising support staff and professional level staff Based on the findings in this study, additional research on women and conflict with women is needed. Further examination of the unique experience of supervising female support staff is also warranted.