ABSTRACT
In this chapter two central myths about women and leadership are interrogated. Myth one, the myth of opportunity, implies that gender equality has been ‘won’ and that women now compete on equal terms with men in the academic workforce. The second myth, the leadership myth, exposes populist discourses about women’s styles of leadership that perpetuate a particular ideology about what leadership ought to look like and how women leaders in particular ought to behave. In this chapter I also examine the discourses that circulate about women leaders and propose we set aside reductionist views that locate women as the policy ‘problem’.
