Gender, place leadership and levelling up across regions

This paper seeks to understand how ‘sticky’ the gendered, socialised understanding of leadership remains and what impact it has on efforts to level up outcomes between dominant and peripheral regions. We found that women and men leaders agreed on the characteristics that make a good place-based leader, however, women used four channels to dismantle the gendered stereotypes of leadership, demonstrating that gendered perceptions of place-based leadership are fragile narratives – easily challenged and open to alternative models of leading. The men leaders did not believe that gender had any effect on place-based leadership and were less likely to challenge dominant stereotypes or attempt to deconstruct long-established narratives of how places are transformed. We found that while women and men leaders bring with them ideas about how places are led, women place-based leaders acknowledge the need to move beyond gender stereotypes and bring other forms of leadership to life. Men place-based leaders were gender blind and therefore accepted dominant stereotypes – which in turn limited the ability to transform the trajectory of the regions. Greater awareness of gender within the practice of place-based leadership would better empower people in places experiencing change and result in more equal outcomes across regions.