Track: Diversity and Inclusion / Women in Industry & Academia (WIIA)

Abstract

For women in leadership, managing work and life is quintessential, especially when leading in male dominated occupations such as STEM. Many women seeking career advancement successfully manage multifaceted roles but they still continue to face hurdles to reach senior leadership positions.This study examined factors like social support and work-family enrichment/conflict to determine how women HOD’s in all the engineering colleges of Delhi coped with it. By surveying STEM women leaders, this research explored work-life strategies and support resources used by them to balance their work and non-work domains. Structure equation modelling had been used to determine the factors responsible for women being in the lower level of heirarchy and futhur the structural relationships have been supported by interviews of 35 women HOD’s analysed with Nvivo.The results revealed difficulty in between work and personal roles and recognized informational and emotional support as most significant to their roles as leaders. Findings also indicated that most support came from motivation by family and having a social life outside the organization, respectively.