The Role of Female Leadership to Create Competitive Advantage

This study aims to evaluate the role of women leadership for creating competitive advantage in Higher Education Institutions – HEIs - in Brazilian Northeastern region. As specific goals it aims to describe the characteristics of the women managers of the HEIs studied, identify the leadership style adopted by women managers of the researched institutions and further highlight points that are considered important for women leaders as a competitive advantage. The research is characterized as qualitative, documental and descriptive. Content analysis was used to analyze data. The results showed that women leaders exhibit the following characteristics: appreciation for relationships; results-oriented, agility, perseverance, teamwork, creativity and planning, adopt a participative leadership style; highlight the ability of the staff to create and develop actions turned to the quality of the service and qualification of the professionals involved and efficiency and quality to attend customers and their needs. The surveyed leaders took actions aiming competitive advantage using intuition and also analyzing company and market conditions