Abstract
The paper seeks to answer the question: What are the motivators and/or sources of resistance related to women’s leadership advancement? The study adopts a qualitative approach, data was collected through semi-structured interviews among academic leaders and faculty members in higher education institutions in Zambia. The paper seeks to make theoretical contributions in three major ways. Firstly, it advances the understanding of theory as regards the causes of resistance to women’s leadership advancement within the context of a developing country, Zambia. Secondly, from the feminist perspective, the paper seeks to demonstrate the unconscious gender discrimination propensities that advances the resistance related to women’s leadership advancement as unconsciously applied. The demonstration of discrimination indirectly (unconsciously) in the absence of explicitly (consciously) objections to the traditional belief that ‘women should remain at home’. Thirdly, taking into account the historical and cultural context, the paper seeks to illustrate how gender divisions of labour limited the knowledge of women’s competence in employment and politics