Female Leadership; Navigating the Organizational Context

Sammanfattning: Background: Today, women and men do not share leadership positions equally within the organizational context. In turn, leadership, particularly transformational leadership, which is mainly used by female leaders, is essential for organizations. Within the organization, the leaky pipeline is a reason why female leaders face gender-specific challenges in their roles as leaders. Further, some aspects provide support for women in the organizational context. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding how these female leaders can overcome these gender-specific challenges.   Purpose: This thesis aims to investigate how Swedish female middle managers can navigate the hinders and helpers they experience within the organizational context.    Method: The thesis was conducted in a qualitative approach with an interpretivist paradigm. The findings were collected through semi-structured interviews with a sample of Swedish female middle managers in the context of private companies and the municipal sector. The empirical findings were analyzed and coded systematically using Gioia’s et al. (2013) method. As a result, a framework emerged based on the existing literature in line with an inductive approach.    Conclusion: This study proposes the Female Leaders Navigation Framework as a help for the female leaders to navigate in the organizational context. Four navigations: 1) Mindset, 2) Awareness, 3) Preparation, and 4) Communication can be implemented by the female leader to navigate the perceived hinders and helpers in the organizational context.