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This study examined how gender-based leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) higher education (HE) is understood, managed, and reappraised within the contrasting settings of the UK and Ghana. A comparative qualitative approach was deployed in the study using insights from twenty semi-structured interviews comprising women STEM academics, and four focus groups consisting of two mixed staff UK-Ghana, and two Ghana student groups. The study adopted Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic method, combined with an abductive, cross-context reading to grasp both convergence and difference in participants’ perspectives. Findings produced three inter-connected themes: Power and Prestige in academic leadership, Progression Pathways and Barriers, and Institutional Disruption and Emerging Change Agents. Emerging tides of change such as deliberate recruitment of women, sponsorship beyond traditional mentoring, fairer decision-making panels, and flexible work arrangements, were also found to help recast leadership as more relational, inclusive, and dynamic. While both contexts shared structural roots of inequity, their emphasis diverged. In the UK, policy frameworks often outpaced cultural change; in Ghana, resource limitations remained pressing. This investigation develops an empirically grounded, cross-context articulation of the Power-Progression-Disruption framework, showing how gendered power, progression barriers, and institutional change practices interact to shape STEM leadership, and concludes with a set of adaptable strategies.
Akponeware et al. (Wed,) studied this question.