Empowering women leaders through online strategic leadership education

The Design-Based Research methodology, integrated with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, was employed across two iterative cycles. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, participant journals, focus groups, and validated leadership assessments. A Strategic Leadership and Management for Women course was developed, implemented, and refined across two iterations with 75 participants total (45 in Iteration 1, 30 in Iteration 2). Iteration 1 demonstrated statistically significant improvements across all leadership dimensions (p<0.001, Cohen’s d=0.89-1.45). Iteration 2 showed enhanced engagement with a 319% increase in content views and 50% increase in active users compared to Iteration 1. Cross-iteration analysis revealed improved peer interaction, sustained motivation, and stronger development of leadership identity through refined pedagogical approaches. Findings inform iterative leadership development programme design in higher education institutions, evidence-based approaches to course refinement, organisational diversity and inclusion initiatives, and policy development for gender equity in leadership through systematic intervention improvement and peer-supported learning environments. This research provides the first systematic two-iteration integration of Design-Based Research with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis for women’s leadership development, demonstrating how iterative refinement enhances educational interventions and offering both theoretical insights into leadership identity formation and practical intervention models for educational institutions.