Women Leaders in the Third Sector: Exploring Motivation, Self-Leadership Strategies and Gender Barriers in Estonia and Sweden
(2025) MGTN59 20251Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- The third sector encompasses organisations that are highly value-driven and oriented toward social change, often addressing needs overlooked by governmental bodies. This thesis explores the leadership experiences of women in this sector, focusing on their motivations for attaining leadership roles, self-leadership strategies used, and whether they encounter gender-based barriers throughout their leadership journeys. Using a qualitative approach, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with female leaders of third sector organisations in Estonia and Sweden. The findings provide insights into what motivates women to pursue leadership, the strategies they adopt to navigate and sustain these roles, and the complex, often subtle nature of... (More)
- The third sector encompasses organisations that are highly value-driven and oriented toward social change, often addressing needs overlooked by governmental bodies. This thesis explores the leadership experiences of women in this sector, focusing on their motivations for attaining leadership roles, self-leadership strategies used, and whether they encounter gender-based barriers throughout their leadership journeys. Using a qualitative approach, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with female leaders of third sector organisations in Estonia and Sweden. The findings provide insights into what motivates women to pursue leadership, the strategies they adopt to navigate and sustain these roles, and the complex, often subtle nature of gendered challenges. While traditional literature often frames gender barriers as external structural obstacles, this research reveals that many of those barriers are experienced internally, manifesting through feelings of imposter syndrome, pressure to overperform, or the need to prove oneself. This study extends leadership and gender research by exploring how women in the underexamined third sector navigate leadership, offering nuanced individual-level insights from differing gender equality landscapes of Sweden and Estonia. It also offers practical recommendations, highlighting the value of support systems, continuous self-reflection, and self-education as key self-leadership strategies. While grounded in the third sector, these strategies have broader applicability, demonstrating the relevance and importance of qualitative research in capturing the nuanced realities of women’s leadership experiences. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9206466
- author
- Gonzalez Ortega, Sara Maria LU and Mägi, Lily LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MGTN59 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Motivation, Motivation to Lead, Self-Leadership Strategies, Gender Barriers, Women, Women In Leadership, Third Sector
- language
- English
- id
- 9206466
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-30 10:21:07
- date last changed
- 2025-06-30 10:21:07
@misc{9206466,
abstract = {{The third sector encompasses organisations that are highly value-driven and oriented toward social change, often addressing needs overlooked by governmental bodies. This thesis explores the leadership experiences of women in this sector, focusing on their motivations for attaining leadership roles, self-leadership strategies used, and whether they encounter gender-based barriers throughout their leadership journeys. Using a qualitative approach, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with female leaders of third sector organisations in Estonia and Sweden. The findings provide insights into what motivates women to pursue leadership, the strategies they adopt to navigate and sustain these roles, and the complex, often subtle nature of gendered challenges. While traditional literature often frames gender barriers as external structural obstacles, this research reveals that many of those barriers are experienced internally, manifesting through feelings of imposter syndrome, pressure to overperform, or the need to prove oneself. This study extends leadership and gender research by exploring how women in the underexamined third sector navigate leadership, offering nuanced individual-level insights from differing gender equality landscapes of Sweden and Estonia. It also offers practical recommendations, highlighting the value of support systems, continuous self-reflection, and self-education as key self-leadership strategies. While grounded in the third sector, these strategies have broader applicability, demonstrating the relevance and importance of qualitative research in capturing the nuanced realities of women’s leadership experiences.}},
author = {{Gonzalez Ortega, Sara Maria and Mägi, Lily}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Women Leaders in the Third Sector: Exploring Motivation, Self-Leadership Strategies and Gender Barriers in Estonia and Sweden}},
year = {{2025}},
}