THE ROLE OF WOMEN LEADERS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT: LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS, TEAM PERFORMANCE, AND ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS

This article examines how women leaders contribute to project management through leadership effectiveness, team functioning, and organizational outcomes. It combines a critical narrative review of peer-reviewed studies with descriptive analysis of publicly reported data from the Project Management Institute (PMI), Association for Project Management (APM), and recent empirical research. PMI reports that 20% of surveyed women and 23% of men held management roles in its 2022 survey; APM reports a fall in women project directors from 28% in 2023 to 18% in 2025 in its UK survey. A study of 3,500 Asian Development Bank projects found a positive association between women project leaders and efficiency ratings, while several other outcome associations were not statistically significant. The article distinguishes descriptive differences from causal effects, identifies limitations of cross-source comparisons, and proposes evidence-informed organizational actions without claiming to test a new causal model.