THE CAREER PATH OF ASIAN WOMEN LEADERS: AN EXPLORATION OF WOMEN’ POLITICAL STRUGGLE
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Abstract
This article is an effort to explore career path of the Asian women political leaders, who rose to the top leadership positions. Most of the scholars emphasise that Asian women achieved these positions through their strong family background or political exigency. However, this study argues that beside family background and political situation, these women leaders demonstrated phenomenal political skills in most testing political situations and consequently acquired and retained their positions. Therefore, it is imperative to study the extra-ordinary struggle of these women political leaders. The questions under investigation are how women political leaders acquire and retain leadership positions not only through the backing of their already influential families but also through their extra ordinary struggle? How their personal character and skills were more instrumental in acquiring and retaining top positions? How the situation in which they took leadership provided a context within which opportunities were availed and personal character and skills were demonstrated? Qualitative research method is used to analyse selected case studies representing Asian women leaders. Secondary sources like books, journals, newspaper articles are used to collect data in order to explore the career path of these leaders and to substantiate the claims made by this study.
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