While researchers have studied many aspects of females in the workplace the purpose statement for this study which followed a qualitative descriptive method and design was to explore how female nonprofit human services leaders describe their career journey toward executive leadership and how they overcame any social role challenges they may have encountered in the eastern half of the U.S. is not yet known. Social role theory provided a theoretical foundation to the study. Two research questions explored the experiences of female nonprofit leaders on their career journey, and how they overcame any social role challenges they encountered. Study participants were recruited via purposeful sampling and the UserInterviews.com data base. Braun and Clarke's six phase thematic analysis protocol were implemented to analyze the data. Study data produced 164 codes and 64 categories via 14 individual semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with six and three participants respectively. Three themes, namely, general challenges, social role challenges experienced and potential solutions to challenges, comprise study results concluding that female human services nonprofit leaders report that on their career journey to executive/CEO leadership they do encounter multiple social role challenges that negatively impact their career trajectory/optimization. Nonprofit human resource leadership may benefit from this study as they seek to ensure workplace equality. Potential solutions generated include adherence to transparent hiring/promoting practices, expanded flexibility in work hours/locations and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion training for nonprofit boards and executive staff. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]