Lack of Women in Leadership Roles and Underlying Biases

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Lack of women in leadership roles and the underlying biases
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction and problem statement...........................................................................................2
Research questions.....................................................................................................................3
Methodology..............................................................................................................................3
Theoretical framework...............................................................................................................3
Approaches to data collection....................................................................................................4
Strategies of data collection.......................................................................................................5
Data collection and sample size selection..................................................................................5
Sources of the researches...........................................................................................................6
Ethical consideration..................................................................................................................6
Expected outcomes.....................................................................................................................7
New knowledge source..............................................................................................................8
Gantt chart..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

2RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction and problem statement
The aim of the paper is to prepare the research proposal for the purpose of
understanding the nuances of the chosen topic. This research paper will be analysing the issue
of gender sensitivity and women representation at the leadership role at the workplace. It has
been observed that ensuring diversity at the workplace in the context of Australia has been
one of the contentious issues since data explains women are over-represented in the low paid
jobs while there is a significant absence of them in the leadership roles (Dayaram et al.,
2016). This research paper is an attempt to understand the nuances of the issue from the point
of view of gender and equal treatment of women at the workplace. This study would be
identifying the gaps in the existing body of literature in order to understand the reluctance of
ensuring diversity in terms of accepting the opposite gender has been lagging behind in the
context of Australia. According to the report published by the Australian human rights
commission that in one woman among every five faces the challenges of discrimination and
ignorance in their workplace(Dayaram, 2017). In in every two women have claimed to have
argued that their life has become redundant without the hope of any change due to the
barriers to their career growth in comparison to a man. It seems that the workplace culture
has not been developing in a way to assimilate and assemble women in different roles post
which women have very little representation in the leadership roles(Rawat, 2019). Hence it
has been observed that the issue lies in the behavioural aspects of the managers and the
human rights management that women are less likely to aspire for leadership roles.
Considering this background of the study focusing on the less representation of women in
leadership roles. The current knowledge on the issue of women and their representation in the
positions of power along with the issue of sensitivity explains as: according to one of the
researcher on emotional intelligence, the core competence of the leaders to win is something

3RESEARCH PROPOSAL
lacking in women which is resulted in the lower or skewed representation of them in all the
top positions of leadership(Rawat, 2019). It has been further argued that there is more number
of barriers for the women to climb the ladder of success since there are more issues that the
male counterpart does not have to face in similar situations. In addition to this it has been
further argued that luck and educational opportunities are the second criteria for the purpose
of such less representation of women (Dayaram, 2017). According to the current literature, it
has also been argued that men are more competitive in nature which is one of the reason for
their higher success while for the women, this competitiveness is missing which leads them
to the lower steps of the ladder (Rawat, 2019). This research is necessary for the purpose of
understanding the underlying factors for such under representation of women in the positions
of power.
Hence it has been observed that less representation of women and related to the
emotional and psychological background of the issue. What is lacking in the present body of
literature is the understanding that there are other issues related to the social biases ad
discriminatory practices against women that is restrictive of the limited nature of their growth
and development.
Research questions
RQ1. What are the underlying factors responsible for the skewed representation of women in
leadership roles?
RQ2. What are the nuances and underlying discriminatory factors that might restrict the
career growth of women in higher position?