Gender Equality at the Top: Why Women Remain Underrepresented in Leadership in Mauritian Institutions

Abstract Book of the 8th Global Conference on Women's Studies

Year: 2026

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Gender Equality at the Top: Why Women Remain Underrepresented in Leadership in Mauritian Institutions

Deepika Faugoo, Pravishta Khoosye, Nirmala Loung

ABSTRACT:

Despite women’s growing educational attainments and labour force participation, women advancement to leadership positions in Mauritian Institutions is severely constrained. This study adopts a holistic approach to comprehensively examine the interconnected structural and systemic barriers impacting women’s leadership trajectories in Mauritian institutions. Using a quantitative national level research design this study empirically investigates a wide range of impediments such as societal norms and expectations, organisational, and cultural impediments, women’s caring roles, inflexible workplaces, sexual harassment, role incongruity, gender-based bias and prejudice, glass ceiling, discrimination, male dominated toxic workplace cultures and lack of women-friendly workplaces hindering women’s progression from mid management to senior leadership roles in Mauritian Institutions. By offering robust empirical evidence from a small island developing state, this study contributes to an under-researched context within global women’s leadership scholarship. Nine hypotheses were formulated to capture the multidimensional nature of these barriers. Rigorous inferential statistical analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. The analysis of the hypotheses affirms that these structural and systemic barriers interact synergistically, reinforcing gender inequity and underscoring institutional failure to adequately recognise, address, and dismantle these barriers. It concludes with targeted policy level recommendations to enhance the representation of women in senior leadership positions. These interventions are positioned as critical levers for advancing SDG 5 Gender Equality, for fostering inclusive and sustainable socio-economic progress of the country, where leadership is defined by competencies and knows no gender.

Keywords: Women’s Leadership, Gender Equality (SDG 5), Structural And Systemic Barriers, Policy Recommendations, Mauritian Institutions