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VOL. 8, ISSUE 2 (2026)
Women participation in higher education administration in Delhi–NCR: Barriers, agency, and the long road to equitable leadership
Authors
Poonam
Abstract
Women in the Delhi National Capital Region
(NCR) have made remarkable strides in accessing higher education as students,
yet their ascent into senior administrative positions within universities and
colleges tells a profoundly different story. This study investigates the
conditions that enable or obstruct women's entry into, and progression through,
the administrative hierarchies of higher education institutions across Delhi
NCR. Combining semi-structured interviews with 42 women holding administrative
positions – spanning Principals, Deans, Registrars, and Heads of Department –
across 18 institutions of varied character and funding models, with secondary
analysis of All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) data from 2020 to
2023, this paper maps a persistent and troubling gap between the region's strong
record on women's educational access and its notably weaker performance on
women's institutional authority. Four interconnected themes emerge from the
analysis: the quiet but consequential power of structural gatekeeping embedded
in institutional procedures; the ongoing pressure of gendered social
expectations that shapes how women navigate professional ambition; the
paradoxical experience of being simultaneously over-exposed and
under-recognised in administrative life; and the varied, inventive ways in
which women carve out leadership influence despite unfavourable institutional
conditions. The paper concludes that closing this gap demands more than
goodwill from individual leaders – it calls for deliberate institutional
redesign, including transparent appointment mechanisms, sustained mentorship
infrastructure, intersectionality-aware policy, and a frank examination of the
cultural assumptions that continue to determine whose leadership is treated as
self-evident.
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Pages:12-18
How to cite this article:
Poonam "Women participation in higher education administration in Delhi–NCR: Barriers, agency, and the long road to equitable leadership". International Journal of Social Science and Humanities, Vol 8, Issue 2, 2026, Pages 12-18
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