ABSTRACT
Considerable recent research has focused on understanding the contributors to women’s leadership identity development, described by Ibarra, Ely, and Kolb (2013) as an “often fragile process of coming to see oneself, and to be seen by others, as a leader” (p. 62). This qualitative study involved two rounds of interviews with 23 participants from faith-based colleges and universities who had, during the decade between 2002 and 2012, attended similar versions of a four-day Women’s Leadership Development Institute (WLDI). The participants self-selected into a purposeful sample for interviews by responding to a single email query to indicate that they retrospectively viewed the WLDI as having been a “defining moment” (Bennis & Thomas, 2007) in shaping their leadership identity and subsequent leadership journey. Given that limited research has explored the long-term influence of women’s leadership development programs, this phenomenological study contributes to the literature by identifying four dominant themes (affirmation, awareness, agency, affiliation) of the WLDI experience that participants identified as having contributed significantly to strengthening their sense of leadership identity. Further, six impactful components of leadership development programs to advance the leader identity development process are discussed.
