Keywords
higher education
university
gender barriers
war
Social-Ecological Model
Ukraine
United Kingdom
How to Cite
Number of views: 23
Number of downloads: 19
Abstract
This study examines barriers to women's advancement in leadership in higher education through a comparative analysis of Coventry University (UK) and Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture (Ukraine). Using the Social-Ecological Model as an analytical framework, the research investigates barriers across five interconnected levels: individual, interpersonal, organisational, community, and policy. Data were collected from 71 participants through focus groups, with an online survey as an additional channel at Coventry University, including women at various career stages and men in leadership positions. Results reveal convergent barriers—confidence deficits, career-family conflict, informal exclusionary networks—alongside context-specific manifestations. At the UK university, participants described how an established equality framework can coexist with persistent barriers; at the Ukrainian university, participants foregrounded gaps in policy implementation. Participants at Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture linked wartime conditions to displacement, fragmentation of professional networks, and deprioritization of gender-equality initiatives. Analysed through the SEM, barriers emerged as connected across levels rather than operating in isolation, with crisis conditions in Ukraine intensifying several of these linkages simultaneously. The findings describe a cross-sectional pattern by career stage, in which active self-doubt appears alongside withdrawal from leadership consideration. The study contributes an empirically grounded account of how similar barrier mechanisms operate across two contrasting institutional contexts, one of them under full-scale war.
Funding
This work was supported by the British Council through the Going Global Partnerships programme (Application ID: GEP2024-041) “Addressing the underrepresentation of women in Higher Education leadership: Ukraine and UK” (SPRINGBOARD).
References
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002
Acker, J. (2006). Inequality regimes: Gender, class, and race in organizations. Gender & Society, 20(4), 441–464. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206289499
Acker, J. (2012). Gendered organizations and intersectionality: Problems and possibilities. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 31(3), 214–224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151211209072
Armstrong, J., & Sullivan, A. (2023). A time-series analysis of the impact of Athena Swan on the representation of women in senior roles. Available at SSRN. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4447937
Berheide, C. (1992). Women still “stuck” in low-level jobs. Women in Public Service: A Bulletin of the Center for Women in Government. Center for Women in Government, SUNY.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE Publications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781036232078.n9
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674028845
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723–742. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.22.6.723
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. (2022). Pro skhvalennia Stratehii vprovadzhennia hendernoi rivnosti u sferi osvity do 2030 roku [On approval of the Strategy for the Implementation of Gender Equality in Education until 2030] (Order No. 1163-r). https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1163-2022-р
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 15(3), 241–247. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006
Coventry University. (2021). Articles of government. https://www.coventry.ac.uk/globalassets/media/global/08-new-research-section/governance/articles-of-government-21_07_2021-v2.pdf
Coventry University. (2025a). Bye-laws. https://www.coventry.ac.uk/globalassets/media/global/08-new-research-section/governance/bye-laws-september-2025-approved.pdf
Coventry University. (2025b). Staff profile by salary grade 2024/25. https://www.coventry.ac.uk/globalassets/media/global/06-life-on-campus-section-assets/the-university/key-information-page/equality-and-diversity/staff---salary-2024-25.pdf
de Rassenfosse, G., Murovana, T., & Uhlbach, W. H. (2023). The effects of war on Ukrainian research. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10, 856. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02346-x
Dean, L. A., & Dos Santos, P. A. G. (2017). The implications of gender quotas in Ukraine: A case study of legislated candidate quotas in Eastern Europe’s most precarious democracy. Teorija in Praksa, 54(2), 131–157.
Department for Education, & Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. (2020, September 10). Reducing bureaucratic burden in research, innovation and higher education. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-bureaucratic-burdens-higher-education/reducing-bureaucratic-burdens-on-research-innovation-and-higher-education
Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2007). Women and the labyrinth of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 85(9), 62–71.
Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109(3), 573–598. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.109.3.573
Education.ua. (2024). Top 200 universities of Ukraine: 2024 ranking. https://www.education.ua/vstup/top200/
Guarino, C. M., & Borden, V. M. H. (2017). Faculty service loads and gender: Are women taking care of the academic family? Research in Higher Education, 58(6), 672–694. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9454-2
Harrison, T., & Freeman, J. (2025). Who leads our universities? Inside the recruitment of vice-chancellors (HEPI Policy Note 63). Higher Education Policy Institute.
Henry, A. (2015). “We especially welcome applications from members of visible minority groups”: Reflections on race, gender and life at three universities. Race Ethnicity and Education, 18(5), 589–610. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2015.1023787
Higher Education Authority. (2016). Report of the Expert Group on Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education. https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/06/HEA-National-Review-of-Gender-Equality-in-Irish-Higher-Education-Institutions.pdf
Higher Education Statistics Agency. (2024). Higher education staff statistics: 2022/23. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/28-01-2025/higher-education-staff-statistics-and-data-202324
Jarboe, N. (2018). Women count: Leaders in higher education 2018. WomenCount.
Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture. (2024). Statut Kyivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu budivnytstva i arkhitektury [Statute of Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture]. https://knuba.edu.ua/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/statut_knuba-13-06-2024.pdf
Law of Ukraine on Higher Education, No. 1556-VII. (2014). https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1556-18
Madera, J. M., Hebl, M. R., Dial, H., Martin, R. C., & Valian, V. (2019). Raising doubt in letters of recommendation for academia: Gender differences and their impact. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34, 287–303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9541-1
Marchenko, T. (2023). Higher education during the war time in Ukraine. Scientific Journal of Polonia University, 59(4), 49–57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23856/5907
Mason, M. A., Wolfinger, N. H., & Goulden, M. (2013). Do babies matter? Gender and family in the ivory tower. Rutgers University Press.
Morley, L. (2013). The rules of the game: Women and the leaderist turn in higher education. Gender and Education, 25(1), 116–131. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2012.740888
Morley, L. (2014). Lost leaders: Women in the global academy. Higher Education Research & Development, 33(1), 114–128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2013.864611
Morrison, A. M., White, R. P., & Van Velsor, E. (1987). Breaking the glass ceiling: Can women reach the top of America’s largest corporations? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., & Handelsman, J. (2012). Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(41), 16474–16479. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211286109
Munir, F., Mason, C., McDermott, H., Morris, J., Bagilhole, B., & Nevill, M. (2013). Advancing women’s careers in STEMM: Evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the Athena SWAN Charter. Loughborough University.
Nakonechna, N. (2025). Gender policy transformation in higher education: European trends and Ukrainian pathways. Public Administration and Law Review, 3(23), 41–51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36690/2674-5216-2025-3-41-51
O’Connor, P. (2020). Why is it so difficult to reduce gender inequality in male-dominated higher educational organizations? A feminist institutional perspective. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 45(2), 207–228. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03080188.2020.1737903
Parkman, A. (2016). The imposter phenomenon in higher education: Incidence and impact. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 16(1), 51–60.
Schiffecker, S., & McNaughtan, J. (2022). Leading the way—Understanding women’s university leadership during crisis through a feminist educational leadership lens. Frontiers in Education, 7, Article 982952. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.982952
State Statistics Service of Ukraine. (2024). Researchers with scientific degrees by field of science and sectors of performance, 2023–2024 [Data set]. Retrieved September 8, 2025, from https://stat.gov.ua/en/explorer?filter=EDIG05_01&urn=SSSU%3ADF_EDUCATIONAL_INSTITUTIONS%28~%29
Tulshyan, R., & Burey, J.-A. (2021). Stop telling women they have imposter syndrome. Harvard Business Review, February 11. https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome
Vongalis-Macrow, A. (2016). It’s about the leadership: The importance of women leaders doing leadership for women. NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education, 9(1), 90–103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19407882.2015.1114953
Ward, K., & Wolf-Wendel, L. (2012). Academic motherhood: How faculty manage work and family. Rutgers University Press.
Williams, J. C. (2004). Hitting the maternal wall: Before they reach a “glass ceiling” in their careers, women faculty may hit a “maternal wall.” Academe: Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, 90(6), 16-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/40252700
Zayachuk, Y. (2025). Ensuring quality higher education in Ukraine in times of war. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 31(1), 135–159. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14779714241270254
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Nadiia Herbut, Hazel Barrett, Alirza Mamedov, Kalwinder Sandhu, Andrii Shpakov, Richard Tomlins
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Manuscript authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions for any copyrighted materials included within manuscripts. The authors must provide permission letters, when appropriate, to the Society Register Editors. In addition, all published papers in Society Register are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright and publishing rights to their articles, granting the journal the right to distribute them under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0.
1.1 The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person. The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
1.2. The Publisher warrants that is the owner of the PRESSto platform for open access journals, hereinafter referred to as the PRESSto Platform.
2. The Author grants the Publisher non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern CC BY-NC 4.0 as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons.
3. The Author grants the Publisher permission to reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
4. The Author grants the Publisher permission to send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases.
5. The Author represents that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Publisher is entitled and obliged to:
5.1. allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made, based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Creative Commons sub-license or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons;
5.2. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.3. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
6. Because of the royalty-free provision of services of the Author (resulting from the scope of obligations stipulated in the present Agreement), the Author shall not be entitled to any author’s fee due and payable on the part of the Publisher (no fee or royalty is payable by the Publisher to the Author).
7.1. In the case of third party claims or actions for indemnity against the Publisher owing to any infractions related to any form of infringement of intellectual property rights protection, including copyright infringements, the Author is obliged to take all possible measures necessary to protect against these claims and, when as a result of legal action, the Publisher, or any third party licensed by the Publisher to use the Work, will have to abandon using the Work in its entirety or in part or, following a court ruling in a legal challenge, to pay damages to a third party, whatever the legal basis
7.2. The Author will immediately inform the Publisher about any damage claims related to intellectual property infringements, including the author’s proprietary rights pertaining to a copyrighted work, filed against the Author. of liability, the Author is obliged to redress the damage resulting from claims made by third party, including costs and expenditures incurred in the process.
7.3. To all matters not settled herein provisions of the Polish Civil Code and the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act shall apply.