Date of Award

Spring 6-12-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Business

Organizational Unit

Daniels College of Business

First Advisor

Melissa A. Akaka

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Constructivist grounded theory, Gender and leadership, Leadership self-efficacy, Lifecycle development, Self-efficacy, Women's leadership development

Abstract

This dissertation examines how women leaders develop and sustain self-efficacy, and develop as leaders, throughout their lives. Although decades of research document the barriers women face navigating leadership journeys, including the challenges described in the Women’s Leadership Labyrinth of prejudice, discrimination, and childcare issues, existing literature offers limited insight into how women actively build belief in their capacity to lead and accomplish their goals. Further, research consistently shows that women report lower leadership self-efficacy than men, even with comparable experience, yet the developmental processes that shape this gap, beginning in childhood, remain underexplored. Guided by self-efficacy research and its four sources of efficacy development—mastery experiences, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective states—this study asks: How does self-efficacy first build and evolve over time, and subsequently influence leadership development, for high-performing women across different life phases? Taking a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore this question, this research, using primary and secondary qualitative data, samples 20% of the current population of global women astronauts. Findings produce a first-of-its-kind lifecycle framework, the Women’s Leadership and Self-Efficacy Development Framework, which explains how women’s self-efficacy is developed and sustained across five recurring life phases: childhood, academia, friendships, workplace dynamics, and partners/parenthood. Through these phases, this study finds that leadership and self-efficacy development is dynamic and relationally cultivated through not only traditional leadership means, like mentors or supervisors, but also parents, educators, friends, and spouses. This research extends women’s leadership and self-efficacy theories by distinguishing that professional leadership development cannot be segregated from personal experiences, and throughout life, personal self-efficacy enables women to overcome barriers such as discrimination and take on new life stages, such as motherhood, with confidence. The framework shows why workplace-only leadership development is often insufficient and demonstrates how relational support and life-context conditions shape women’s beliefs in themselves to pursue leadership and persist in their goals. The dissertation contributes eleven propositions for further research within the framework and offers practical implications for parents and caregivers raising little girls who are future leaders, as well as educators, organizations, spouses and partners, and women seeking to strengthen their belief in themselves and resulting self-efficacy and leadership development throughout their own lives.

Copyright Date

6-2026

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Savanah Faith Sellars Bray

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

162 pgs

File Size

1.3 MB

Download



Share

COinS