ABSTRACT
In this chapter I turn attention to women’s career patterns and aspirations for leadership. I provide contextual information to offer a backdrop to reading the various narratives. Women who move into leadership roles not only learn how to adapt to the prevailing masculinist culture, they learn how to strategically manage their positioning as the organizational ‘other’ as I show in this chapter. The move into more senior roles is frequently described as accidental (Rose 1998) rather than integral to a personal or professional career strategy. To be successful in these roles, women tactically distance themselves from institutional housekeeping tasks and work to avoid being labelled in particular ways.
