Abstract

Leadership and gender may well be two of the most complex and contested concepts of our time. It is no surprise, then, that the ways in which they intersect and are studied and written about are also complicated. In this chapter I have attempted to gather and synthesise the most recent thinking on the convergence of gender and leadership in rural areas across the developed world, beginning with how leadership is generally conceptualised, defined and enacted. It will become quickly apparent that theorising around rural leadership cannot be completely disentangled from the broader body of leadership literature; nor, as Skerratt (2011) argues, should it be, if we are to be faithful to the value and importance of rural communities in an increasingly connected world.