From policy to practice: aligning gender equity strategies and leadership realities in Omani higher education

This study examines how national gender equity policies align with the lived experiences of female academic leaders in Omani higher education institutions. Specifically, it investigates how national and institutional policy documents represent gender equity and assesses whether these representations align with the experiences of women leaders in their workplaces. The study employed a qualitative methodology, integrating critical policy analysis guided by Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) framework and semi-structured interviews with nine female academic leaders from public and private higher education institutions. The findings indicate that, while national rhetoric strongly emphasizes gender equity, the analyzed documents primarily conceptualize inequality in terms of formal discrimination, procedural fairness, and quantifiable participation. These representations give limited attention to structural and cultural factors within higher education institutions, including gendered leadership norms, informal networks, and unequal role expectations. Interview data show that the participating women reported resistance, legitimacy challenges, and gendered caregiving burdens, even when they perceived their institutions as formally supportive. The study recommends that bridging the gap between policy and practice requires policymakers and institutions to use gender-responsive language, create structured leadership pathways, increase policy visibility, and implement targeted leadership development programs for women.