Unleashed, Harnessed, and Empowered

Abstract

This chapter provides an insight into the challenges faced specifically by women in relation to the agency they are afforded within the context of change management in crisis situations and responses. This is contextualised within global higher education and examined through theoretical perspectives such as neoliberalism, which have impacted so much on the context specificity of change management and the cultures within which it has influenced so greatly. The recent global COVID-19 pandemic is used as a vehicle by which to drive thinking around concepts, which have had such an impact on women during this time, such as emotional labour and inequality. The chapter concludes with a consideration of organisational structures and the agency that this has afforded women both historically and within the leadership challenges they currently face.