Dataset

In Bangladesh, it is customary for men to hold the highest leadership positions, with women relegated to submissive roles and required to obey the man's instructions. Additionally, IFC's study in 2022 disclosed that only 18% of women in Bangladesh occupy directorship roles in listed companies. It is a common misconception that women cannot lead whereas men are more suitable due to their inherent think managers think male quality. The question is how often women get the opportunity to play a leadership role in Bangladesh before we judge them. Moreover, how often do they get their colleagues' support to continue leadership if they get the opportunity to play the lead role and why can’t they sustain it? In reality, we are yet ready to give or accept female leadership in the name of these gender stereotypes we hold. It’s important to answer these questions from the perspective of the Leader Member Exchange Theory and Career Curve which have been overlooked by previous researcher specially in the Bangladeshi context.<b>Data Collection Procedure</b>Primary data: The data was collected through in-depth interviews with women and men working in different private organizations located in Bangladesh. A pilot study was conducted before sending final interview questionnaires to the participants. It helped the authors identify the weak points in the questionnaires and design better questionnaires to get better outcomes from the data. A pilot study was conducted on two female employees and one male employee.The primary target population of this study was female employees who were employed in the mid-level to top-level. The reason behind targeting these populations is primarily to identify the barriers they are facing due to gender in their mid-career that is troubling them to secure the top position and to know the experience faced by the top-level female employees when they lead in the male-dominated corporate sector.Then, this study secondarily targeted female employees who are working at the entry-level to know their leadership aspirations in the top position.Furthermore, to validate the findings of the study, the authors found the importance of cross-verification. Hence, this study also targeted male employees from the mid-level to the top level to understand their perception regarding gender stereotypes and female leadership in top management.This study applied face-to-face interaction in the office premises (it lets the authors observe the organization's working environment for females) and telephone researcher interviews by phone, mail, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. Before taking the interview, an appointment letter was forwarded to the interviewees with a brief description and interview questionnaire of the study. It took around 5 months to collect the data. These data were collected between May to September 2023.<b>Data Analysis Procedure</b>The data analysis process was carried out using Nvivo 14 software for the in-depth interview transcripts. Upon importing the data into Nvivo, a systematic coding strategy was employed to identify recurring themes and patterns within the dataset. The process of thematic analysis involved the development of codes that aligned with the core concepts discovered in the interviews. Project and concept maps were generated using Nvivo to visually illustrate the connections, providing a comprehensive view of the findings.<b>The main codes that were identified:</b> gender stereotype and female leadership, perception regarding women leadership, masculine perception of leadership, gender based discrimination in the promotion, result of biased perception. The software facilitated a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of the qualitative data, enhancing the depth and coherence of the research.