Academy of Strategic Management Journal Volume 20, Issue 2, 2021 1 1939-6104-20-2-727 BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN ZIMBABWE Daniel Chigudu, University of South Africa ABSTRACT This study sought to contribute knowledge of how women leadership operate within patriarchal constraints to sustainable economic development in Zimbabwe’s private sector. Women participation in leadership is increasingly becoming topical, not just for sustainable development but also given their opportunities for empowerment, expression, agency and emancipation. It appears that women in management are negatively affected by the context of socio-cultural tradition in their operations, and that to succeed they need to overcome barriers of patriarchy. The study explored ways of how this can be done in the business sector and move beyond the glass ceiling. Qualitative research was employed in the form of document analysis whereby documents were interpreted to give meaning and voice around women leadership particularly in the private sector in Zimbabwe. Factors historically affecting women leadership and how they deal with challenges of inequality, patriarchy and discrimination are complex manifesting in different levels of culture, social and institutional, personal identity (macro, meso and micro levels). Women need a paradigm shift that strikes a balance between their managerial business roles and their domestic commitments to effectively break the ‘glass-ceiling.’ There is very little known in this area except for the public sector whose statistics are not publicly available. The study contributes knowledge and adds value to women in business in Africa, academics, women organisations and policymakers. Keywords: Patriarchy, Barrier, Sustainable Development, Leadership, Private Sector. INTRODUCTION The world over, women represent a larger pool of managerial endowment that is available, but at high levels of managerial positions whether in public administration or business their presence remains rather unnoticeable (Rosener, 2009). It is further argued by Rosener (2009) that today; although women occupy more positions in management they do so at the lower and middle levels. Wirth (2001) observes that in the past few decades some women have been able to attain levels of education equivalent to their male counterparts. Regardless of these educational qualifications, most of the women are still relatively working in jobs that are lowly paying coupled with poor upward mobility prospects (ILO, 2004). Competent and qualified women see through the “glass ceiling” and can tell their ability to achieve what men have achieved, however they are prevented from breaking through by some invisible barricades (Wirth, 2001) Most of the determining factors for women leadership are located in how the macro-level, meso-level and micro-level individual elements interact among themselves (De Bruin et al., 2007; Henry et al., 2015). The interdependence of such factors is identifiable even as one distinguishes these different levels (De Bruin et al. 2007). How the positioning and specific