Case Studies

This chapter selects eight study participants (four women in professional services roles and four women in academia), outlines their individual cases in more detail and presents a cross-case analysis. The case studies include descriptive accounts and analyses based on interviews and questionnaire data combined, diary data and interviews with their mentors where available. Case studies are fully and carefully anonymised in line with good research practice. The analysis presented allows a deeper understanding of how participants talked about themselves and their careers and how their leadership activities and roles evolved over time. We found that participants adopt a strategic approach to their careers, including efforts to engage in politics and power in their institutions through networking and relationship building. Leadership discourses are examined in depth. The case studies can also be read as an illustration of the arguments presented in other chapters of the book.