Women in Higher Education Management in Thailand

Abstract

This paper reports on a case study of ten academic women in senior management positions in the higher education sector in Thailand. The study investigates women's perceptions of glass ceiling factors that impede women's career advancement. Issues addressed include: gendered management styles, family and childcare responsibilities, career plans and aspirations, married or single status, and age as a factor mediating women's career mobility. It is argued throughout that the western concept of glass ceiling cannot be taken as a universal explanation of women's career impediments. Rather, research on women's career tracks in higher education must take women's differences, their histories, and cultural locations into analytic account.