Abstract:

The world has achieved progress towards gender equality under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Malaysia as well has achieved equality in the education attainment domain where women make up 62% of the total enrolment in higher education institutions, however, women are still absent from many leadership, business market, policymaking, or decision-making positions. Policymaking here involved policies at the micro-level, which related more to the education industry in this paper. The researcher examined the women’s leadership styles and the factors that influenced how they lead explicitly. Likewise, the researcher focused on how gender, culture, and religion may relate to women’s experiences. Data was gathered through in-depth individual interviews among nine women leaders in the public and private sector who were either teachers/lecturers or administrators in the education industry. And to complement the data particularly about the impact of culture and religion on women's leadership styles, a focus group discussion (FGD) was held among another group of Malay Muslim women leaders. The findings indicated that women empowerment is crucial for sustainable leaders in education industries; the highest leadership styles rated by leaders in the education industry were autocratic and democratic which rated 42% of the total approaches listed. While delegation and bureaucratic approaches were the lowest leadership styles been voted with both 8%. In addition, gender, religion, and culture play a significant role in women's leadership experiences within the education industry. This study can provide insight into the landscape of women‘s empowerment and ways to support their leadership style. Hence, this research carries values to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in enhancing the policy on women empowerment.

Keywords:

Education, Education Industry, Women Leader, Religion and Culture in Leadership.