Women and Leadership

Explores how women religious leaders develop and practice self-confidence and humility and transform these qualities into a form of collaborative leadership.

Considering the many challenges women leaders face, self-confidence and humility are among the most crucial yet controversial leadership qualities for women. However, they are often seen as individual personality traits rather than having been developed intentionally and out of necessity in women's sociopolitical, religious, and cultural lives. Using religious women leaders as examples, this book illustrates how women actively build self-confidence and humility amid multiple intersectionalities and transform these qualities into a form of collaborative leadership within their religious ministerial roles. Recognizing the complex processes involved in women's leadership development, the book demonstrates how both women leaders and religious women leaders practice self-confidence and humility based on their experiences of otherness and how they navigate challenges within their gendered leadership contexts. It examines women's experiences of otherness through gender roles and the glass ceiling and analyzes the ideas of self-confidence and humility across various sociocultural and religious settings.