This research investigates barriers preventing women from advancing into leadership roles. Interviews reveal three key obstacles: family responsibilities, persistent gender bias, and internalized expectations of barriers. The study highlights how systemic challenges shape self-doubt and calls for collective responsibility in removing structural inequalities to unlock women’s leadership potential.

This research reinterprets unionization at Carleton University in the 1970s, showing it was driven not only by economic pressures but by feminist activism. Women leaders used unions to challenge inequality, improve working conditions, and advance social justice, reshaping assumptions about labor movements in professional, white-collar environments.