The Empowering the Next Generation of Global Women Leaders in Universities around the World group aims to help populate the global pipeline of women leaders by developing empirically supported interventions in university-based settings.

Women have been found to enter college with significantly lower leadership aspirations than men. Among Global 500 CEOs, for example, only 4 percent are women and, within universities, women only comprise about 22 percent of elite university presidents. The Empowering the Next Generation of Global Women Leaders in Universities around the World group aims to contribute to populating the global pipeline of women leaders by developing empirically supported interventions in university-based settings that bolster young women’s leadership skills and competencies and foster more equitable aspirations for leadership. Learn more in our Buffett Brief on Empowering the Next Generation of Women, or explore more Global Working Groups' research in our collection of Buffett Briefs >>

READ THE BUFFETT BRIEF ON EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WOMEN

• Gail Berger, Northwestern, USA
• Pradnya Parasher, Threefish Consulting, India
• Elizabeth Hawes, Baylor Scott and White Medical Center, USA
• Shayne Nealon, Peter Berry Consultancy, Australia
• Debra Thompson, McGill University, Canada
• Gillian Hyde, Psychological Consultancy Limited, United Kingdom
• Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Northwestern, USA
• Cynthia Pickett, Cal Poly Ponoma, USA
• Chloe Touati, Authentic Talent Consulting, France
• Sylvie Hénault, USA and France
• Sarah Wuellner, Promus Equity, USA

• Eleanor Colligan (Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Statistics and Data Science ’23)
• Ava Prezant (Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Economics and Political Science '25)

Research Activities

• The group is developing a first-of-its-kind life narrative study of successful women leaders to understand their formative developmental experiences as well as the specific challenges facing women leaders and the role of university experiences in their trajectory. The group will begin data collection in winter 2024. 
• In winter 2024, the group is also beginning data collection with their partner HBCU First to examine the leadership aspirations and motivations of students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). They have collected quantitative survey data from students and plan to conduct focus groups engaging HBCU student leaders to understand their experiences through the lens of gender. The group is developing a study exploring the underrepresentation of women among undergraduates majoring in economics and the potential factors that contribute to this. 

Engagement Activities

• The Science of Personality podcast: Empowering the Next Generation of Women Leaders
  June 13, 2023  |  Listen on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Stitcher 

  Group co-leads Jennifer Tackett and Haoqi Zhang spoke with Hogan Assessments' The Science of Personality podcast co-hosts Ryne Sherman and Blake Loepp about the group's multidisciplinary collaboration aimed at empowering the next generation of women leaders. Listen to their conversation to learn about the origin of the initiative, why women make excellent leaders and leadership success stories.