Date of Conferral

10-8-2026

Date of Award

October 2026

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Lori Salgado

Abstract

Women in public administration face compounding challenges on their paths to executive leadership, yet their lived experiences prior to assuming leadership roles are critically understudied. Existing scholarship has documented the barriers women face once in leadership, but a significant gap remains in understanding the personal, systemic, and relational forces that shape their formative trajectories. This generic qualitative study explored the career journeys and pre-leadership experiences of women leaders in the public sector to better understand the forces shaping their paths to executive roles. Stivers's feminist public administration theory uses women's lived experiences as valid knowledge within its framework. Data were collected via a survey administered to 14 public sector women leaders and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's six-stage reflexive thematic analysis. Three final themes emerged--adversity as the catalyst of mission-driven leadership, strategic resilience in navigating systemic barriers, and feminist leadership as transformative public practice--along with two subthemes that further illuminated participants' development: liminal moments shaping leadership identities and legacy building. Findings revealed that familial support, adaptive strategies, and feminist leadership qualities, including collaboration, inclusivity, and advocacy for structural change, were central success factors enacted within environments that either constrained or elevated feminist leadership as practice. These findings have important implications for public administration, offering guidance to leaders and policymakers on promoting feminist leadership, removing barriers, and supporting positive social change.

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