Women’s way of leading—deaf led and community rooted

Deaf women's leadership challenges dominant models of authority by centering relational trust, cultural fluency, and community care. Based on survey and interview insights, it highlights themes of trailblazing, self-authored roles, intersectional barriers, and leadership bias. Deaf women reclaim leadership through language and identity as sources of visibility and power. Their experiences reveal systemic barriers such as sexism, audism, tokenism, intra-community critique, as well as sustaining values of resilience, mentorship and collective celebration, urges for investment in Deaf-led mentorship, and sustainable scaffolding.