This paper sets the broad context for the challenges that women in educational leadership face globally as they seek to confront the multiple pandemics—economic, education, and public health challenges—of their countries’ citizenry. After colonialism disrupted its traditional systems, the postcolonial world still struggles to assert its space in global discourses as nations seek to be understood from their own perspective, and particularly the notion that gender oppression cannot be isolated from other forms of oppression (Nkomo and Ngambi, 2009). The commonality, regardless of context or region, is that women’s relationship with teaching has a complex historical legacy; viewed initially as being a continuation of their nurturing roles, the so-called caring dimension which teaching requires and provides has been the focus of considerable scrutiny by scholars. Despite a plethora of initiatives by a variety of stakeholders, women continue to be marginalised at leadership level; the further along the promotional ladder they travel, the less likely they are to meet a counterpart. Even so, women in educational leadership globally continue to contribute in substantive ways to refashioning and revisioning education.

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