The Language, Gender, and Sexuality Research Group cordially invites everyone to an open lecture by Professor Monika Foster (Northumbria University, UK):
Through the Labyrinth: Women Leadership in and Beyond Academia.
Time: Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 15:00
Venue: Aula, Collegium Heliodori Święcicki
Professor Monika Foster is Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (International and Educational Partnerships) in the Faculty of Society and Culture at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK. She has led Business Schools in the UK as Dean and Head for ten years. Professor Foster has been responsible for driving growth and income alongside strategic activities in student experience, restructuring, and financial sustainability in Business Schools across the UK, Europe, and the Far East.
She has received the highest professional recognitions in UK Higher Education, including National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, for her innovations in large research projects and strategic initiatives—such as developing a strategy to embed internationalisation in the curriculum in the UK and with partners in Europe, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Singapore. Monika’s research interests include social capital development, cross-cultural management, internationalisation of higher education, intercultural communication, and leadership and change management. Her publications include the Routledge co-authored book Building Intercultural Learner Relationships: Towards a Critical Pedagogy and a forthcoming chapter, “You Need to Slow Down”: Negotiating Leadership Identity in Higher Education. She also holds the title of Visiting Professor from Shandong University of Finance, China.
Lecture synopsis:
In “Through the Labyrinth: The Truth about How Women Become Leaders” (2007), sociologists Alice Eagly and Linda Carli use the ancient image of the labyrinth to describe the multiple obstacles women face on their path to leadership. This path is far from linear-gendered divisions of labour and societal norms still bias leadership opportunities against women.
While significant progress has been made in enabling women to lead and have their voices heard across industries and higher education, questions remain: Does women’s leadership still matter? What barriers persist? This lecture explores the evolution of women’s leadership and the role of empowerment, addressing how self-belief, agency, and power can sometimes reinforce existing hierarchies if structural barriers are ignored. Professor Foster will propose strategies for developing leadership identity and sustaining professional and personal impact, along with recommendations for higher education institutions to make leadership less of a labyrinth—and more of a shared, linear path for both women and men.
