Breaking the glass ceiling: Statistical evidence of the gender effect in higher education leadership

Abstract This study aims to explore the influence of female presidential leadership (gender effect) on the overall performance of universities in the United States. To achieve this research objective, data on the gender of university presidents from 1983 to 2022 were manually collected from 129 top universities in the USA. Using this dataset, a sample comprising two groups was constructed: a treatment group consisting of male‐to‐female presidential transitions and a control group comprising male‐to‐male presidential transitions. The hypothesis was tested through a difference‐in‐differences approach. The results of the study were also validated using parallel trend analysis. The results suggest that female presidents have a significant positive impact on university rankings. This means that female leadership is associated with improvements in university rankings, highlighting their potential contribution to the advancement of educational institutions and pursuit of excellence through policy decisions and leadership. Moreover, the difference‐in‐differences analysis results reveal that universities under the leadership of female presidents achieve higher rankings than those with male presidents, especially after presidential transitions. Thus, this study provides the first statistical evidence that female educators are more effective leaders in terms of university performance than their male counterparts.