Introduction

Gender equality is a multi-faceted issue all over the world. Historically, socio-cultural norms along with institutional structures have always raised questions about the extent to which women are equal vis-à-vis men. There is strong evidence in the literature that there is gender inequality where women are disadvantaged and being constantly challenged all along with their course of life. Gender inequality in higher education exists and literature (e.g. Keaveny, 2020) indicates that women academics carry more teaching load, have less time for research, and publish less in comparison to male academics.

Considering the gender inequality before the pandemic times and the challenges coupled with the difficulties of the pandemic, we can conclude that female academic leaders' life worsened. We argued that female academic leaders have been challenged not only by increased domestic roles, the lack of support, and their academic roles but also struggled with their leadership roles such as decision-making, communication, or crisis management. Thus, this phenomenological research examined the lived experiences of woman academic leaders during the pandemic times in higher education in Turkey. We interviewed 20 women leaders in various higher education institutions in Turkey and tried to answer the following research question: In what ways, do women academic leaders experienced academic leadership during the pandemic?.

Review of Literature

There are 129 state and 74 foundation universities; and four foundation vocational schools of HE. Of 176.639 faculty members, 79.711 are women, which is 45% of the total faculty members. This is a slight increase in the proportion of women academics compared to 2010 where it was approximately 41%, with 42.893 women academics among 102.682 faculty members (CoHE, 2020). There are only 15 women rectors out of 207 (7%), six in state and nine in foundation universities. According to recent research (TCKÇAM, 2019), women represent only 10% of the vice-rector and 21% of the dean population. All these statistics show women’s low representation in high and middle-level leadership positions in Turkish HE.

Private and academic life challenges with relation to gender inequalities have been worsened for academic women leaders during the pandemic time. The emerging literature on Turkish women academics indicates that various challenges have been experienced as a result of quarantine affecting both work and life balance. The interviews with four academics revealed that there is still more work to change the equality illusion in life for modern women. Experiencing the pandemic, those women stated that there is an unfair household share even though both partners are working and it is almost impossible to allocate time for academic work. Another academic in the interviews mentioned the loss of a separate space for work (Kap, 2020). Being women academics during the pandemic had made us confront the hidden reality - that men and women do not have equal conditions for academic production (Kap, 2020).

During the pandemic, the shift from the coordinator to the performer role in the house with all the existing support gone, working women struggled with their work responsibilities (Kandiyotti, 2020). In another sense, working women during the pandemic turned into a teacher, a cook, and/or a cleaner along with the academic responsibilities. We could argue that these gender roles have not been new in the conservative, patriarchal and traditional societies such as Turkey. However, professional women have been in an illusion of gender equality - whether they are aware of it or not. The support structures that allowed women to have academic and leadership careers was missing during the COVID-19 has which made it visible that there was an illusion leading to intensified challenges for women academic leaders with the support structures.

Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used This research utilized phenomenology research we asked women leaders to unpack the perceptions of their lived experiences in administrative positions during COVID-19. Following the receipt of the ethical approval, a pilot study was conducted and interview protocol was finalized. A purposive sampling method was used where we interviewed with 20 women who are both full-time academic leaders and married or single with young dependents who continued working from home during the pandemic while simultaneously taking care of their families. Data was collected via Zoom online one-on-one semi-structured interviews and particiapants were asked their demographic information such as age, years of experience in the position, type of institution they work at, marital status and socioeconomic status the interviews focused on the ways in which they continued to work in their institutions as leaders during COVID-19, the changes they have encountered in their work and family environments, challenges and facilitators they have had to balance their household and leadership roles. After the interviews were trasncribed, the codes were generated using the open coding system and using the constant comparative method, emergent themes were finalized (Merriam, 1998). Out of 20 faculty members, 13 people work in state universities and seven of them are from foundation universities located in Marmara (8), Central Anatolia (7), Mediterranean (2), Black Sea (1), East Anatolia (1), Aegean (1) regions. They held positions of rectorship (1), deanship (1), vice-deanship (3), vice-directorship (1), department chairship (5), department vice-chairship (2), language school chairship (2), language school vice-chairship (3), and administrative office chairship (2) during the pandemic. Three of these women are full professors, six associate professors, five assistant professors, three instructors with PhDs, and three instructors with master’s degrees. In terms of years of experience, they work in their leadership positions from as early as five months to 10 years. The age of these women leaders range between 35 and 47 and three of them are single and 17 of them are married with only one child (13) or two children (7). Their children’s age range between one and a half and 16 years old. These women report their socio-economic status as low-middle (1), middle (14) and upper-middle (5).

Findings: The thematic analysis can be reported under four sub-themes: - Women Leadership: Shared Decision Making, Collaboration & Constant Communication: Women academic leaders participated in this study explicitly defined the pandemic times as challenging and overwhelmingly exhausting yet very informative and educational in terms of leadership experience. - Work & Life Balance: Home Became Work; Work Became Home: The work and life balance was challenged by the quarantine conditions. - Support at Home: Fair Share or Help: The support at home was either a fair-share between partners or man "helping" the woman. - A Room to Myself: Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s words “What a woman needs in order to write is a room of one's own and five hundred pounds a year.” (Woolf, 2004, p.70), the women leaders in the study were asked whether they had a room to themselves in the house for their academic and professional work. Very few women leaders had their own office space as most of them used the space in their bedroom, living room, kitchen or laundry room in some cases.

References CoHE (November 20, 2020). Turkish Higher Education Statistics. https://istatistik.yok.gov.tr/ Kandiyotti, D. (2020). Salgın modern kadının yaşadığı illüzyonu yıktı geçti. Retrieved from https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/gundem/2020/04/30/deniz-kandiyoti-salgin-modern-kadinin-yasadigi-illuzyonu-yikti-gecti Kap, D. (2020). Pandemide kadın akademisyen olmak eşitsizlikte aslına rücu etmek. Retrieved from https://www.sivilsayfalar.org/2020/05/06/pandemide-kadin-akademisyen-olmak-esitsizlikte-aslina-rucu-etmek/ Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Kadın Çalışmaları Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi,Kadir Has University (TCKÇAM) (2019). Türkiye’de Yükseköğretimdeki Cinsiyet Eşit(siz)liği. Retrieved from https://gender.khas.edu.tr/tr/turkiyede-yuksekogretimdeki-cinsiyet-esitsizligi. Woolf, V. (2004). A room of one’s own. London: Penguin Books.