Organisational culture is a reflection of ‘how things are done here’ and defines the underlying values, principles, norms and acceptable behaviour in the workplace (Lundy & Cowling, 1996; Martins & Terblanche, 2003; Schein, 1990). Organisational culture results from leadership styles, organisational characteristics such as structure and history, environmental factors and the founders’ cultural philosophy (see Szczepańska & Kosiorek, 2017). As a result, most companies have masculine cultures because leadership roles have traditionally been reserved for men (Rodgers-Healy, 2008). Workplace leadership styles are incorporated based on the national ‘masculinity’ – ‘femininity’ cultural environment (Janićijević, 2019; Ünal, 2017). Combined with traditional masculine societal norms, national cultures lack women in senior positions (Lee, 2011). Masculine context cultures can lead to dysfunctional organisational climates marked by toxic leadership, bullying, harassment and gender inequality (Berdahl et al., 2018). Applied within the South African context, Martin and Barnard (2013) discovered that masculine cultures failed to accommodate women’s distinct physical, identity and work-life balance requirements. According to Toni and Moodly (2019), masculine cultures in South African higher education institutions leave women leaders without a voice and opportunity to participate in networking opportunities. According to Player, De Moura, Leite, Abrams and Tresg (2019), the criteria for recruitment and selection processes favoured men over women for leadership positions.

As such, liberal feminist theorists advocate for equal rights, democracy and participation of women in the labour market (Tong, 2009). By reflecting on everyday experiences, the feminist standpoint theory empowers oppressed women to improve their situation (Guring, 2020). Feminism gives marginalised women groups a voice in the workplace to negotiate their own identities (Nienaber & Morake, 2016) whilst challenging discrimination and sexism (Bell, Meriläinen, Taylor, & Tienari, 2019). In addition, feminism reflection helps women ‘identify, recognise and affirm their leadership philosophy’ (Smith & Suby-Long, 2019). According to Syed and Murray (2008), a cultural feminist approach can help women advance in organisational leadership roles. Similarly, Longman, Daniels, Bray and Liddell (2018) contend that organisational culture can shape women’s leadership experiences by influencing organisational objectives, mission and values, thereby forming female leadership identities. Senior female leaders who successfully developed their leadership identity in a masculine institutional environment prioritised values and established clear boundaries (Maki, 2015). Seale et al. (2021) advise that women who consider senior leadership roles in South Africa need to adopt transformational leadership discourse to cope with and change patriarchal workplace cultures.

Values are a central explanation for women’s desire to advance in their careers (Jenni, 2017). According to Moorosi (2020), the values and characteristics shaped their approach to leadership amongst African female school principals. According to a study conducted by Davies, Broekema, Nordling and Furnham (2017), the work values of male and female leaders differ significantly as they advance into more senior management and director positions. Male directors placed a higher value on commerce (i.e. profit realisation), power (i.e. desire to succeed) and science (i.e. being technology-driven) than their female counterparts. Women leaders emphasised altruism (caring for others), aesthetics (the desire to express oneself) and hedonism (i.e. socialising). Gender-based tensions are likely to arise because of conflicting work values (Hannum, Gentry, Booysen, & Weber, 2010). They can spread to the rest of the workforce because leaders play an essential role in establishing the values that underpin workplace culture (Hendrikz & Engelbrecht, 2019).

Although women in top management positions received professional and social recognition, they also faced challenges related to the organisation’s culture, apathetic and indifferent team members and a lack of trust from superiors and subordinates (Macarie, Calin Emilian, & Mora, 2011). According to Akram, Murugiah and Shahzad (2017), female leaders had fewer facilities and resources than their male counterparts. From the perspective of job-demands resources (see Bakker & De Vries, 2021), the absence of supporting resources (i.e. lack of management support, poor communication, meaningless work) in the face of escalating job demands (i.e. emotional labour, administrative overload, labour disputes) can have a negative impact on leaders’ well-being and the performance of their unit (Savage, 2019). As a result, culture reflects employee experience and ultimately determines organisational success (Morcos, 2018).

Another common barrier to women’s career advancement is gender stereotyping. According to Macarie et al. (2011), women are under-represented in top management because of societal beliefs about the roles of men and women. According to Sowjanya et al. (2017), family systems and patriarchal social structures frequently prevent women from breaking free from predetermined functions such as nurturing children, caring for in-laws and being responsible for the family to their career advancement. According to Schwanke (2013), societal forces contribute to assumptions and stereotypes that challenge women in leadership roles, particularly in male-dominated work environments.

Eagly and Cowley’s (1986) social role theory helps understand the foundations of gender stereotyping in the workplace. In a nutshell, this theory proposes that people generally behave following the social norms associated with their gender. Women, for example, are perceived as caregivers in both the work and home domains, whereas men are viewed as heroes because of their strength and agency (Eagly & Wood, 2012). Agency (i.e. assertiveness, independence, instrumental competence and leadership competence) and communality (i.e. concern for others, sociability and emotional sensitivity) are two prominent and defining aspects of gender stereotyping (Hentschel, Heilman, & Peus, 2019). Stereotypes and adverse reactions emerge because of perceived conflicting conceptions of masculinity and femininity in the workplace (Clow & Ricciardelli, 2011). For example, women leaders are more likely to face discrimination because they are perceived to be incompetent to lead effectively (Eagly & Scezny, 2019). Koening and Eagly (2014) discovered that group beliefs and attributes based on social role theory predicted group stereotypes about communion and competence.

This study also applies the gender schema theory to explain workplace behaviours and attitudes contributing to women’s negative workplace experiences. Gender schemas, like social role theory, involve mental models (schemes) that determine roles based on biological gender (Lemons & Parzinger, 2007). Gender schema theory focuses on individuals’ gendered social-cognitive development and how society creates and enforces gender roles (Starr & Zurbriggen, 2017). A gender schema is a cognitive filter that categorises individual characteristics into masculine and feminine dispositions. Schematic people are more likely to stereotype than aschematic people (Valian, 2005). For example, Hajee-Ozman (2011) discovered that men and women differed significantly regarding the factors that advance women’s career advancement in a male-dominated car manufacturing company in South Africa. Men maintained the traditional view that women cannot succeed in their careers because of family responsibilities, insufficient knowledge and inadequate mentoring.

On the other hand, women cited factors such as a lack of equity in promotion, an ‘old boys’ network’, and a lack of equity in pay as impeding their access to leadership positions at work. Lyons (2013) discovered similar findings amongst academic staff in a predominantly male higher education setting in South Africa. Women academics cited the ‘old boys’ network’ and a lack of support as significant barriers, whereas men cited establishing credibility as a significant barrier. Both men and women agreed that family and childcare responsibilities are significant factors limiting women’s academic career opportunities.

Gender stereotypes, according to Heilman (2012), lead to a bias against women’s ability to perform in male-gender-typed jobs and roles. Women are also subjected to normative standards of disapproval, penalties and violation if they succeed. As a result, societal beliefs and practices can foster an environment where female leaders struggle to advance and lead teams (Moeketsane, 2014). Hentschel et al. (2019) discovered that women are more stereotypical than men, describing themselves as less assertive and competent. Men, on the other hand, were rated as less stereotypical. According to Larsson and Alvinius (2020), women in female-dominated and gender-mixed work environments rate their leadership competence more positively than women in male-dominated contexts, who perceive their leadership competence to be weaker. Women may still lack the confidence and self-esteem to perform traditional ‘masculine’ roles such as senior leadership (Born et al., 2018).

Mentorship has received much attention in feminist literature over the last decade as a critical enabler of women’s career advancement in the workplace. In its broadest sense, mentorship refers to a relational process where the more experienced and expert person (the mentor) guides the less experienced mentee (Meschitti & Lawton Smith, 2017). According to Block and Tietjen-Smith (2016), having access to gender-based guidance and support is critical for successful leadership. Dennehy and Dasgupta (2017) discovered that female mentors supported women engineers’ career goals by enhancing their sense of belonging and confidence. Furthermore, top leadership mentoring promotes organisational effectiveness (Moore & Wang, 2017). Mentorship is also essential in assisting women in balancing their work and home lives (Heath, 2012). Mcilongo and Strydom (2021) advised that mentorship is a valuable tool to promote the career advancement of previously disadvantaged women in the South African public sector.

Role models are critical for forming social identities in the workplace (Sealy & Singh, 2008). The social identity theory of leadership is relevant in the mentorship process, where leaders and followers develop a sense of belonging and ‘sharing of a social identity’, that is, a sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’ (Steffens et al., 2021, p. 36). Mentors can influence others when they share a social identity with their followers. Minority groups, such as women leaders, can use social identity theory to challenge and resist material, economic and realistic disadvantages (see Meyer, Durrheim, & Foster, 2016). As a result, social identity can help leaders overcome weaknesses by adopting a prototypical leadership style that the group can identify with (Daher, Guillaume, & Crawshaw, 2018). Understanding social identities can also help women leaders manage a multicultural South African workforce (Booysen, 2007). According to Karelaia and Guillén (2014), positive social gender identity reduces identity conflict in female leaders, reduces stress and increases life satisfaction and motivation to lead.

From the standpoint of social exchange, the reciprocal relationship between leaders (mentors) and mentees can boost members’ self-efficacy and creativity in performing uncertain and risky tasks (Liao, Liu, & Loi, 2010). In the mentorship process, women emphasise the relational aspects of social exchange (Scheepers, Douman, & Moodley, 2018). The latter study also identified social exchange theory as a critical driver of women’s talent development in South African businesses. The leader-member social exchange relationship (i.e. mutual trust, honesty and socio-emotional care) can inspire followers to take charge and return beneficial work-related behaviours (Wang, Zhou, Bao, Zhang, & Ju, 2020). Gender role identity and gender management characteristics (e.g. congruency and authenticity) influence the social women leader-member exchange relationship (Tzinerr & Barsheshet-Picke, 2014). Relationships between social leaders and members improve work performance, organisational citizenship behaviours and perceptions of organisational justice (Kuvaas, Buch, Dysvik, & Haerem, 2012). As a result, perceptions of social exchange in the leadership-follower relationship are critical for employees’ sense of organisational belonging in developing African contexts (Mitonga-Monga, 2020).

Mentorship for senior women is still an underutilised practice. According to a global study on business mentoring, 63% of women have ever had a mentor (Neal, Boatman, & Miller, 2013). A lack of female role models for leadership contributes to the ongoing gender stereotyping of leadership. Woman-to-woman mentoring presents its own set of challenges. According to Hoyt and Simon (2011), women’s leadership status was influential in establishing the mentor-mentee relationship. Mentees could more easily relate to non-elite female leaders who demonstrated counter-stereotypic thinking than elite female leaders. O’Neil et al. (2018) discovered disparities in the career expectations of senior women and the junior women they were mentoring. Junior women expected more from senior women to advance their careers, whereas senior women saw their leadership-member exchange with juniors as adequate. As a result, both female groups may feel isolated from one another (O’Neil et al., 2018). Ellemers (2014) refers to this phenomenon as the ‘Queen Bee effect’ which prevents women in leadership from serving as role models for junior women in male-dominated environments. Women’s job satisfaction, career development and productivity suffer from a lack of mentoring (Cross et al., 2019). Therefore, organisations must establish in-house women’s networks to promote their advancement into senior management positions (Waberg, 2016).

Work-family conflict is a frequently cited barrier to women’s advancement in the workplace (Brue, 2019). The increased migration of women into the workplace can be attributed to two reasons. Firstly, the changing nature of society with increased employment rights significantly altered women’s traditional ‘stay-at-home’ roles (Sekścińska, Trzcińska, & Maison, 2016). Women now have greater access to career opportunities and advancement than ever before, and they can pursue a meaningful career of their choice (Mišić Andrić, 2015). Secondly, economic downturns and rising living costs result in dual-income generation couples, particularly in emerging markets. Traditional family types are now referred to as dual-career, dual-earner, new-traditional and status-reversal families (Duxbury, Lyons, & Higgins, 2007).

Participation in the work domain, according to facilitation theory, can enable individuals to provide support and resources for the home domain. Although dual-earner status can improve family finances, it can also harm work performance and cause societal problems (Adisa, Gbadamosi, & Osabutey, 2017). According to the spillover theory, an individual’s life domains are interconnected, and thus emotions (both positive and negative) can be transmitted between work and personal life domains (Radó, Nagy, & Király, 2016). According to Brue (2018), women leaders must take on multiple roles, presenting challenges in balancing their work-life interface effectively. As a result, female leaders are more likely to carry emotions, attitudes, behaviours and gossip from work to home and vice versa (Liu, Wu, Yang, & Jia, 2020). From the standpoint of spillover-crossover, spillover is more of a within-person spillover from one domain to another. In contrast, crossover occurs when a person’s workplace stress can be transferred to the individual’s partner (Bakker, Demerouti, & Burke, 2009). Role conflicts are on the horizon as the ‘home-system-ecology’ is disrupted, with women still regarded as the primary caregivers of the home environment (Alqahtani, 2020). Work-family conflicts arise when women devote more time and attention to their jobs whilst neglecting their domestic responsibilities and relationships with their partners (Bakker et al., 2009). As the line between work and life becomes more blurred, women must develop more effective boundary management strategies to promote work-life balance (Field & Chan, 2018; Leduc, Houlfort, & Bourdeau, 2016).

Resource-based research shows that women in management are more likely to balance their work-home environment with support from spouses, families, employers, supervisors and colleagues (Mahasa, 2016). According to Kahn (2014), many organisations do not have ‘female-friendly’ policies and are still dominated by masculine-type cultures. According to Belwal and Belwal (2014), family-friendly policies can help women leaders manage their family responsibilities, create flexible work environments and perform better in domestic and professional domains. In contrast, Von Hippel, Kalokerinos and Zacher (2017) discovered that family-friendly policies could exacerbate gender stereotypes and negative attitudes towards women in the workplace.

Changes in global workforce dynamics and talent investments increased the demand for women’s leadership development programmes to eliminate women’s underrepresentation in leadership programmes (Debebe, Anderson, Bilimoria, & Vinnicombe, 2016). According to Kanter’s (1993) theory of structural empowerment, groups are promoted in work environments where they have access to opportunities to learn and develop, amongst other things. According to this theory, jobs that are highly visible and central to the organisation’s purpose, such as leadership, facilitate opportunities for meaningful work through informal and formal support alliances (Orgambídez-Ramos & Borrego-Alés, 2014). In a male-dominated environment, women who participate in training interventions are more likely to experience increased social networking activities, self-advocacy behaviours and enhanced positive psychological states (Pereira, 2017).

According to O’Neil and Bilimoria (2005), male and female career development should not be viewed in the same manner. Women’s career advancement can counter men’s traditional career models defined by stability, maintenance and decline. Women are significantly more vulnerable to social and contextual challenges that impede their career advancement (Ellemers, 2014). Because of insufficient alignments between individual career planning and organisational development and career advancement practices, female leaders may be overlooked for promoting executive positions (Schulz & Enslin, 2014). Chun et al. (2019) discovered that gender and stereotyped gender roles influence female employees’ overall career planning, career moves and client relationships.

As a result, women leaders must take the initiative and invest in their professional development to achieve their career goals. According to the self-determination theory (see Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2017, 2019), three psychological needs must be met: autonomy (i.e. freedom of expression and decision-making), competence (i.e. feelings of success at work) and relatedness (i.e. sense of belonging). Self-determination theory not only promotes the well-being and positive business outcomes of leaders (see Van Tuin, Schaufeli, Van Rhenen, & Kuier, 2020), but it can also be used to improve the motivation of followers (Forner, Jones, & Berry, 2021).

As a result, the psychological link between the individual and the organisation is critical in stimulating female leadership aspirations (Fritz & Van Knippenberg, 2017). Inclusive leadership development programmes can improve relationship-building amongst diverse groups and promote gender synergies for achieving business goals (Sugiyama, Cavanagh, Van Esch, Bilimoria, & Brown, 2016). According to Bodalina and Mestry (2020), instructional leadership, professional learning communities, integrated quality management systems and mentoring and coaching can help women advance to senior positions. Other factors contributing to women’s leadership development and career success include a trusting environment, social support, new business competencies and reframing women’s mindsets about their potential (Lämsä & Savela, 2019).

According to Humberd (2014), how a woman sees herself as a leader is a complex process in which non-work identities (such as gender) influence her work leader identity, career choices, aspirations and leadership career path. According to Karelaia and Guillén (2014), the more positive women’s leadership and gender identities are, the less conflict they will face. Much has been written about the gender differences in leadership between men and women and the societal values that inform their respective leadership styles. Men, for example, are perceived to be assertive, controlling and confident, whereas women are perceived to be more caring, sensitive and sympathetic to others (Tzinerr & Barsheshet-Picke, 2014). However, national culture, organisational context and business nature are essential factors to consider when typifying gendered-leadership characteristics and cannot be generalised across countries (Larsson & Alvinius, 2020). Nonetheless, researchers agree that senior women leaders worldwide struggle to establish their distinct leadership identity in male-dominated environments. Mgcotyelwa-Ntoni (2017) found that women in various South African government departments were subjected to ‘nuanced identity politics’ that manifested through discriminatory practices based on ethnicity, age and disability.

According to the double-bind theory, femininity is associated with appearance whilst also displaying masculine personalities whilst holding executive positions (Mavin, Grandy, & Williams, 2014). Scholten and Witmer (2017, p. 53) conducted a study that demonstrated how a female leader was ‘playing with the boys on their own turf’ by adopting competitive behaviours and gendered images such as an exclusive company car, high-tech cell phone and masculine reading materials. According to Drydakis, Sidiropoulou, Patnaik, Selmanovic and Bozani (2017), women with masculine personality traits were more likely to gain access to male- and female-dominated occupations than those with feminine personality traits. Drydakis et al. (2017) discovered that women with masculine personality traits earned more than those with dominant feminine behaviours. These findings are encouraging and can promote more gender equality in leadership for the future.

To summarise, the above discussion highlighted various prominent factors that can substantially impact women’s career progress in senior leadership positions. Masculine cultures, underpinned by patriarchal values, result in organisational cultures that do not recognise the unique contributions that women leaders can make in the workplace. Although new family types emerge (i.e. dual-income families), women are still perceived to be primarily responsible for family-life aspects, challenging them to balance their multiple home-work roles. As such, women find it difficult to establish their leadership identity in society and the workplace characterised by ongoing gender stereotyping. In the form of mentorship, the absence of support further constrains the leadership ambitions of women.

The next section describes the research design and method adopted for this study.