Women's Leadership Identity Development: A Phenomenological Study of How a Leadership Development Institute Changes Self-Perceptions

• In Event: Developing Religious Identities

Abstract

Considerable recent research has focused on understanding the contributors to women’s leadership identity development, described by Ibarra, Ely, and Kolb (2013) as an “often fragile process of coming to see oneself, and to be seen by others, as a leader” (p. 62). This qualitative study involved two rounds of interviews with 23 participants from faith-based institutions who retrospectively described a four-day women’s leadership development institute as having been a “defining moment” in shaping their leadership trajectory. Given that limited research has explored the long-term influence of women’s leadership development programs, this phenomenological study contributes to the literature by identifying five dimensions of the institute experience that participants identified as having contributed significantly to their enhanced sense of leadership identity.

Authors

• Karen A. Longman, Azusa Pacific University

• Carrie Stockton, Biola University

• Andrew Bolger, College of the Ozarks

• Sandy Hough, Azusa Pacific University

• Athena Castro

• Julie Cowen, Azusa Pacific University

• Karen Lindsey-Lloyd, Texas Christian University