Perceived Traits for Future Women Academic Leaders in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Malaysian higher education institutions are currently dominated by the female gender, according to the Ministry of Higher Education 2020's statistics.  However, the number of women academics becoming top leaders such as Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dean, and such is still lacking behind other countries. Many factors hinder women academics from climbing up positions like patriarchal perceptions, socio-cultural biases, balancing work-life, or their personality – e.g., lack of self-confidence.  When we addressed the traits of leaders, women academics should possess exceptional leadership traits that can help them become effective leaders in the future.  Hence, the main purpose of this study is to identify perceived traits of women academics to become leaders in Malaysian higher education institutions.  Nevertheless, the population in this study was limited to Malaysian public universities only, with 96 respondents from both genders.  The study method was a descriptive and quantitative method that used simple random sampling based on Cochran's formula for an unknown population. Several limitations are discussed to help future research expand the literature on women academics in the Malaysian context.  Overall, the research questions of this study have been answered thoroughly, and the study concluded that regardless of socio-cultural settings, women academics will always be associated with feminist traits of leadership.