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Organizational Interventions and Strategies to Enhance Female Leadership in Healthcare Sector: A Scoping Review of Recent Studies (2020–2025)

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: Background: Women comprise a substantial share of the healthcare workforce but remain underrepresented in leadership roles due to structural barriers, including the glass ceiling, exclusion from decision-making networks, and implicit biases. This scoping review examines organizational interventions and strategies designed to enhance women's healthcare leadership and proposes an integrative framework to guide organizational leadership practice and policy. Methods: Following Arksey and O'Malley's framework and PRISMA-ScR guidance, we searched Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed for English-language studies (2020-2025) reporting interventions to enhance female careers in healthcare sector. Twenty-three publications met the inclusion criteria. Results: Evidence was predominantly from high-income countries. Interventions were mapped into a three-cluster framework. Cluster 1 (capability-building) focused on developing leadership competencies and self-efficacy through mentorship, coaching, sponsorship, and structured leadership training. Cluster 2 (opportunity and networks) expanded access to career opportunities and influence via professional networks, digital platforms, leadership communities, and initiatives supporting male allyship. Cluster 3 (institutional transformation) targeted organizational context through inclusive culture change, intersectional approaches, and policy reforms aimed at removing structural barriers. Across studies, programs commonly reported gains in leadership skills, confidence, and career progression. However, recurrent constraints included unequal access to programs, limited institutional support, weak evaluation designs, and challenges to sustainability and scale-issues that appeared more pronounced in low-resource contexts. Conclusion: The three-cluster framework clarifies how leadership development programs, organizational strategies and interventions can be aligned to accelerate women's careers in the healthcare sector. For healthcare leaders and managers, it offers a pragmatic structure for designing integrated interventions that combine capacity-building, network expansion, and institutional reform. For policy-makers, the findings underscore the need for sustained institutional commitment and context-sensitive implementation, alongside stronger evaluation and evidence generation in low- and middle-income settings, including Central Asia.

Source: Journal of Healthcare Leadership

DOI: 10.2147/jhl.s587491

Authors: Zhanat Lyan, Tatiana Karabchuk, Gaukhar Niyetalina, Elmira Yeralina

Institutions: Turan University, United Arab Emirates University

Language: English

Topic: Gender Diversity and Inequality

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Gender equality, Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,320