Women's Leadership in Climate-induced VUCA Environments: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Across the globe, communities have been confronted by severe climate shifts, which have brought Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environments.  The VUCA environments have therefore called for more inclusive, flexible leadership that incorporates gender equity.  This paper looked at the challenges and opportunities of women leadership in such VUCA environments.  To achieve this objective, the paper applied the PRISMA framework. In this view, 80 peer reviewed journal articles from different scholarly databases that includes Google Scholar were included. For the quality assessment in the determination of challenges and opportunities of women leadership in VUCA environments, the study applied PRISMA and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The study was hinged on Transformational Leadership Theory and Intersectionality Theory. The results of the study revealed that patriarchal governance systems, limited access to climate finance, and the ‘glass cliff’ phenomenon are the major challenges that hinder women’s leadership in a climate-induced VUCA environment. Women leadership opportunities in such climate induced VUCA environments included the capacity for a collaborated governance system which strengthens community climate change resilience and climate responses. In this view, the study recommended that practitioners give a high priority to initiatives of capacity building that increase women's leadership participation in initiatives to foster and build climate change resilience. The study concluded that the advancement of women leadership is normatively imperative and thus a practical necessity to the creation of more equitable and sustainable climate resilience futures.