This research has sought to contribute to the literature to the understanding of the factors influencing women’s career progression in higher education management through in depth, semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion conducted with 48 women working in junior, and senior level management positions in the universities of Pakistan. Addressing the first research question to better understand current gendered based distribution of management positions in the sampled universities, a quantitative survey was conducted. The research questions 2, 3 and 4 addressed the following three areas sequentially: first, the constraints faced by participants at familial, societal, organizational and personal levels; second, the supportive factors experienced by the participants at familial, societal, organizational and personal levels; and finally, Is work-family conflict a barrier to women‘s career progression in Pakistan? The aim of the focus group discussion was to extract some further qualitative information from a group of six participants working in one of the universities and to investigate whether participants had similar experiences.\ud
For the analysis of quantitative data the advanced charting and graphing features in Microsoft Office Word and Excel were used to develop basic table, graph, and chart structures to display the frequency count. For the qualitative data the inductive coding and thematic analysis was utilized searching for patterns and themes. The analysis of quantitative data revealed the dearth of women in senior management positions. The analysis of qualitative data provided an unprecedented and comprehensive view of the complex, contradictory, and multifaceted dimensions of distinctive factors influencing women’s career progression in senior management positions. The participants – both junior and seniors – informed about the hurdles they had faced when they got appointed or when they had moved into senior roles, as well as what kinds of help and support they had received for their career progression.\ud
It was expected that knowledge based on participant’s perceptions of the difficulties and social support and the strategies they exercised for facilitating the work-family interface, hopefully, will bring their insights to a wider audience. Such knowledge would support the management of women‘s human resources and their management careers in the cultural specific context and might emerge as a strong strategy for policy makers for countering the issue of the dearth of women in senior management positions