| In spite of academic advancement women have made over time in Southeast Nigeria, they are still underrepresented in top management positions. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the factors that influenced women's advancement to higher education top management positions in Southeast Nigeria. The phenomenon was factors and experiences that contributed to or limited the ability to advance to higher education top management positions as perceived by the study participants. The theoretical foundation of this study was identity theory. The study was guided by the central research question and four secondary research questions: how positive and negative factors influenced women's advancement, the barriers that limited women's advancement, and the effect of culture, tradition, and gender inequality on women's advancement to top management positions in Southeast Nigeria. Ten female managers working in Southeast Nigerian universities participated in face-to-face, semi structured interviews. Thematic and descriptive data analysis was conducted using a common theme that emerged when answering the research questions resulting in five primary themes. Themes related to culture, organizational bias, mentorship influence, leadership styles and the necessary actions to be taken for the advancement of women to top management positions in Southeast Nigeria emerged. Based on the study results, cultural influence was the most significant factor that hindered women's advancement to top management positions and promoted under-representation in leadership positions, marginalization, and gender inequality in Southeast Nigeria. |
