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Despite advancements in education and hiring practices, women are still underrepresented in leadership roles. Contributing to this challenge is the conflict between communal expectations for women and agentic expectations for leaders which can cause some women to doubt their leadership capabilities. While encouragement from women can build leadership confidence, aggression can weaken it. This convergent parallel mixed methods study explored the prevalence of female aggression among women leaders, the effect on leader efficacy, and response strategies. Women deans at doctoral granting universities were invited to complete an online survey that included the Negative Acts Questionnaire to assess aggression prevalence, the Generalized Leader Efficacy Questionnaire to measure leader efficacy, and a survey from the bullying literature to assess participant responses. Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique allowed participants to elaborate on responses with open-ended questions. Of the 635 women deans invited, 306 (48.2%) participated. Results showed that 68% of respondents experienced aggression from women. Closer analysis revealed law deans were more likely to report aggression experiences while applied science/business deans were less likely. Furthermore, nursing deans and women who identified as LGBTQ reported more frequent aggression than others. Greater levels of aggression were also reported when the aggressor was in a higher position or had the same experience level as the respondent. Findings include the most common forms of aggression and three theoretical constructs for what respondents believed contributed to the behavior. While leader efficacy was negatively affected at the time of the experience, no statistical difference was found in current leader efficacy between women who experienced aggression and women who did not. Many women who experienced aggression, however, felt it ultimately increased their confidence. Additional analysis revealed age had a mitigating effect on leader efficacy and that African American women reported higher leader efficacy scores than women of other races. The most frequent response strategies included internal responses, engaging others, confronting the aggressor, or leaving the position. Results from this study provide insight for how aggression may affect women leaders. Understanding how women experience and navigate through this could help individuals and organizational leaders better respond when impacted by this behavior. DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to women pursuing leadership roles. May the stories shared by the women who participated in this study help you throughout your journey. Challenge yourself to be patient with women who struggle with your leadership, remain committed to your ethics, and take care of yourself along the way. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process of earning a doctoral degree is a journey of both exciting discoveries and exhausting effort. This journey would have been a lot more difficult-and a lot less fun-if it were not for an extraordinary support system. I am incredibly thankful for the people who have encouraged and supported me over the years. First, I would like to thank my committee who have both challenged and encouraged me throughout the dissertation process. Dr. Fred Galloway has been an advocate from the first day I met him, throughout my coursework, and in conducting this research. I have never had a professor who was so committed to his students' success and I am thankful to have gotten to work with him over the past five years. Dr. Lea Hubbard helped shape me into a qualitative researcher and her persistent encouragement to "synthesize, synthesize, synthesize" truly strengthened this dissertation. Dr. Robin McCoy's support and optimism has kept me going through this process and has meant more than she can possibly know. When thinking about this program in its entirety, I also want to thank the other members of our cohort and all of the SOLES faculty and administration whose support and encouragement have made this process exciting and fun. I especially want to thank Dr. Nicki Schuessler whose friendship has been one of the greatest gifts of this program. This research would not be possible without the participation of 306 women deans throughout the United States. I know their roles require a tremendous amount of time and energy and I appreciate them taking the time to contribute to this important work. I also want to thank the women I have worked with who have supported me throughout my career and who have been wonderful role models for how women can

Women Experiencing Aggression From Women: A Mixed Methods Study of How Women Experience Aggression, How it Impacts Leader Efficacy, and How They Navigate Through it