Leadership Development Experiences of Women Leaders in State-Owned Enterprises in Indonesia

There has been an increasing trend of the women participation rate in the Indonesian labour market. However, the proportion of women in Indonesia who sit on the board of directors was only 6% out of the entire women work force. The Minister for State-Owned Enterprise (BUMN) Republic of Indonesia believes that women are as capable of being leaders as those of their male counterparts and thus, plans to multiply the number of women in the Director and CEO levels of BUMN. The importance of retaining and developing women leaders for organizations has been demonstrated in the literature review. Subsequently, this research aims to look at the composition of women leaders in BUMNs and explore the development experience of women leaders of BUMN to assess the aspects which shape them to be leaders. Nine women leaders from various BUMNs were interviewed to gain information on their development experience from the entry level until they hold the leadership positions. The research indicates the low ratio number of women in BUMNs management team although there is an optimism that the number would increase. Key points discovered in this research were experiential development programs done by the participants own initiatives; and BUMNs’ poor investment on leadership development programs towards women employees.