Challenges Faced by Female Leaders at two Zimbabwean Teachers Colleges

The study explored the challenges experienced by female leaders in teacher training colleges in Zimbabwe. The study field was the two teacher training colleges in Harare. The research adopted the mixed method approach whereby both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in compliment. The multiple case study design was the plan used to guide the study execution. The population included all the female leaders holding designated posts and lecturers at the two institutions. Purposive sampling was used to come up with a representative sample of 10 female leaders and 30 lecturers. The semi-structured interview and the questionnaire were the tools used to collect data respectively. The results showed that female leaders in teacher training colleges experience problems like insubordination, alleged incompetence, alleged inability to deal with workload pressure, lack of conflict management skills and stereotyping. The results also indicated that as a result of the challenges especially stereotyping female leaders end up fulfilling the prophesies such as negligence, not doing duty religiously and fixing those who disobey or undermine their authority. As a result such defense mechanisms are perceived as incompetence. Suggested recommendations include need by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to take active steps in combating stereotypes by instituting more rigorous and transparent evaluation processes, as well as educating lecturers and all people in the education sector about stereotyping.