Women Leaders in the GCC States:
Gender and Leadership in Global Perspective

This project focused on how leadership is conceptualized, accessed, and exercised, especially by women, across diverse political and cultural regions with an emphasis on the GCC states. The Gulf states are a highly relevant region for interdisciplinary area studies and social science research, as the states’ multi-dimensional engagements with women’s leadership and empowerment challenge many key social science perspectives on the topic, whether concerning the “oil curse” theory, feminist political economy, or religious-cultural-centered analyses.

This research spurred multi-disciplinary collaborations with NYUAD colleagues Laila Prager (Anthropology) and Rahma Abdulkadir (Political Science) and Christin Camia (Psychology) at Zayed University Abu Dhabi. Single- and co-authored research articles and book chapters from this project include “Between Leadership and Kinship: Women Empowerment in the GCC Countries” in Corruption and Informal Practices in the Middle East, I. Kubbe and A. Varraich (eds.), 2019, London: Routledge, 188-206; “The Politics of Women Empowerment. Female Leaders in the UAE” HAWWA: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World, 2020, 18(1): 8-30; “Leaders around the World: New Horizons for the Comparative Study of Political Leadership,” in RoutledgeHandbook ofInternational Leadership Research, Y. Tolstikov-Mast et al. (eds.), 2021, London: Routledge, 86-97; and, “Between Uniformity and Polarization: Women’s Empowerment in the Public Press of GCC States” Politics & Gender, 2023, 19(1): 166-194 (impact factor: 3.165 in 2021).

Related Projects/Project Contributor

Women in Diplomacy
LSE Foreign Policy Think Tank IDEAS!

Principal Investigator: Karen E. Smith, LSE
Project Coordinator: Marta Kozielska, LSE

Women are still underrepresented in diplomacy, foreign policy, and public policy, particularly in senior positions. This is despite a proliferation of networks advocating for women across sectors, purported support by numerous governments for increasing women’s representation in negotiations, and research illustrating the benefits of including women in negotiations.

This project at LSE IDEAS was set up to help address this issue, understand what obstacles remain, and how they can be overcome. The project hopes to create better access to and accelerate women’s representation in international organizations, share knowledge and tools to effectively do so, and support structural change.

As part of this project, LSE IDEAS has launched a podcast series that brings together researchers, practitioners, and women leaders of diplomacy and international organizations, to explore how policy-making processes can produce more gender-sensitive policy outcomes.

The Women in Diplomacy project recently published an initial report with recommendations for further dialogue and discussion with women’s networks and international organisations about insights, barriers, and solutions.

Report: Strengthening the Representation of Women in Diplomacy: Challenges and Policy Solutions