The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate the representation of women in leadership positions in science and education in Armenia. It also aims to identify the key factors that determine the lower presence of women in senior leadership position in science and education, as well as policies to achieve gender balance in decision-making positions. 

The notable point in this research is a commitment to emphasize relational aspects between leadership and followership, taking into consideration, the fact that the certain way of leadership gives birth to the particular style of followership and vice versa. 

The presented topic emphases on the cultural and behavioral gender-based patterns and obstacles which lead to establishment of the specific way of understanding leadership and followership.

Conceptual framework

Concept of leadership has various definitions. The fundamental definitions persevere highlighting the accomplishment of the goals “Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants” “Successfully marshal human collaborators to achieve particular end”, “Leadership is about power, influence and responsibility, etc.

The power of leadership meaning could be comprehensively different for men and women in institutionalized hierarchy. Different studies have supported the hypothesis that there are gender differences in leadership and followership.  The studies show that in contemporary societies leadership by women more effective,  some studies maintain that women lead and direct in a more participative manner than men, several authors have proposed the idea that women effectively use a transformational leadership style.  Along with development of leadership theories and concepts there is a vast understanding that leadership and followership are bonded. “Leadership is a process that emerges from a relationship between leaders and followers who are bound together by their understanding that they are members of the same social group. People will be more effective leaders when their behaviors indicate that they are one of us, because they share our values, concerns and experiences, and are doing it for us, by looking to advance the interests of the group rather than own personal interests”.

Although women’s status has been improved in the last decades women’s access to the leadership position remains moderately low.

Since the concept of gender equality in terms of leadership and followership travels in space and time, crossing national and as well as institutional boarders, the starting point of this research was to understand the meaning of the leadership and followership concepts in different spatiotemporal contexts. The presentation based on the theoretical and secondary data analysis. Vertical and horizontal segregation of the Armenian labor market has been examined. Leadership and followership gendered schemas and representations observed with particular focus on the field of education and science. It covers occupational segregation and pay back, as well as a study of socially constructed expectations in the frame of leadership and followership domain. The study adopts an approach to deconstruct meaning of leadership and followership in educational and academic environment using a gender analysis approach, predominantly critical frame analysis.

Analysis of the vertical segregation of the Armenian labor market shows that for women hardly can or more often cannot reach top managerial positions. The disbalance between women’s educational procurement and their career achievements is astounding. It is particularly noticeable a great discordance between their high performance at universities and later the low rate of managerial positions with appropriate salary at work in accordance with their acquired knowledge and abilities. This probably can be explained with the high demands of the managerial positions and lack of opportunities to maintain work responsibilities, as well as by leadership and followership fetishized gender frames. There is a statement “grounded in the stereotype that women are “too emotional” in contrast to men who are “more rational.” According to the findings of the recent research on leadership published by Forbes: “The value of gender diversity continues be proven. Organizations with more women in leadership are 1,4 times more likely to have sustained, profitable growth”. It is interesting to observe figures regarding the level of women included in post-graduate education. Conferring to the data presented in the World Bank study “Gender Wage Gap 2018” about distribution of women and estimated wage gap by educational level among people included in post-secondary non-tertiary education gender wage gap is 28, although among people included in tertiary, post-graduate education gender wage gap is 18,3, and accordingly, “for a large proportion of wage levels women are overqualified in comparison to men in the same percentile of earnings”. The investigated materials show the gender gap between women’s status and power in employment and education and the little change at the upper echelon of power.

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