A review of literature on women’s leadership in higher education in developed countries and in Vietnam: Barriers and enablers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature on women’s leadership in higher education in the last 20 years. This literature review employed a systematic review of 64 articles published worldwide with 28 articles specifically published in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. The aim of the study is to determine if there are any differences in barriers and enablers of women leaders between the developed countries chosen for this study and Vietnam in higher education and how the countries are progressing towards gender equality. The study concluded that most of the research in women’s leadership in higher education had been done in the US and Canada, with a dearth of literature on women’s leadership in higher education in Asia, and only six studies have been done in Vietnam till 2019, with only two studies done before 2017. The findings suggested that women leaders in developed countries and Vietnam still face almost the same challenges as in the past but, with family support, these challenges are becoming less in Vietnam. Mentor support was found to be an enabler in other developed countries which was missing in Vietnam. Vietnam is gaining importance in research in women’s leadership in higher education, which may be due to an increased female labour participation rate and higher growth in gross domestic product rates. The future of women leaders seems to be bright, especially in Vietnam, due to higher female educational attainment. There is a small number of literature review studies on barriers and enablers in the field of women leaders in higher education comparing developed nations and a developing country. Hence, the current study aims to fill this gap to provide an overview of the difference between the enablers and barriers faced by women leaders between developed countries and Vietnam.