Barriers and enablers to leadership advancement for women with disabilities: a systematic literature review.
Udeme Samuel Jacob, Sri Nurhayati, Mbulaheni Obert Maguvhe
Structural and institutional barriers are the most pervasive constraint on women with disabilities advancing into leadership.
Exclusion builds up over a lifetime through education, employment, and governance, rather than appearing at one career stage. Inclusive leadership practices help, but are not enough without structural change.
Key findings
1Structural and institutional barriers were the most frequently reported theme, identified in 12 of the 20 studies.
2Leadership advancement is shaped by interactions among structural, organisational, interpersonal, and life-course conditions rather than by individual capability alone.
3Barriers were more frequently reported than enabling conditions across the included studies, although both were consistently present.
Still to come
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
English-language, peer-reviewed articles only, so evidence in other languages or grey literature is excluded. The evidence base is small (20 studies) and methodologically heterogeneous, mostly qualitative, which limits broad generalisation. Most included studies were conducted in high-income countries, with limited representation from low- and middle-income settings. The included studies varied in how they defined leadership, which may have affected the consistency of the synthesis. The 'cumulative trajectory' interpretation is the authors' reading of cross-sectional and mixed designs, not a demonstrated causal sequence from longitudinal data.
Declared interests
The authors declared that no financial support was received for the work or its publication.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the identification of inclusive leadership practices as an enabler as evidence that any specific programme or policy works. This is a thematic synthesis of qualitative and mixed-methods studies describing patterns, not a test of interventions. The finding that exclusion is cumulative across the life course is the authors' interpretation of heterogeneous designs, not a demonstrated causal sequence.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →