Thesis Title Enhancing gender balance in nonprofit CEO positions: How women make it to the top. Abstract Women are significantly underrepresented in CEO positions in nonprofit organisations in Australia and worldwide, despite the high percentage of female employees in this sector. My research seeks to address this issue by identifying how women, as compared to men, make it to CEO positions in the nonprofit sector. I conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with male and female leaders of peak Australian nonprofit bodies, CEOs of very large Australian charities and executive recruiters to identify the individual and structural enablers and barriers to the nonprofit CEO position. Looking at the enablers and barriers, normative guidelines are being developed to enable more women to become nonprofit CEOs. The research project to date has identified novel nonprofit-specific enablers and barriers that determine the progression of women to CEO positions. This research intends to contribute to enhancing gender balance in CEO positions in the nonprofit sector and beyond. Biography Jennifer Kruwinnus is a current PhD student at The Centre for Future Enterprise and Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology. In her PhD she is researching how gender balance can be enhanced and how women make it to CEO positions in the nonprofit sector. Jennifer holds a Master of Business in Leadership and Marketing from The University of Queensland and a Bachelor of Science in Textile and Clothing Management from Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Jennifer has worked in research and teaching in Australian Universities and in the textile and clothing sector in Germany, China, and New Zealand besides volunteering in nonprofit organisations..
