Despite women's increased participation in academic employment patterns, a global gender gap on senior leadership in universities remains. This mixed methods study explores toxic leadership as a potential contributing factor to the gender gap on senior management levels in universities in South Africa. The Schmidt Toxic Leadership Scale (2008) is used to collect data for the quantitative component, while open-ended questions regarding women's experiences with toxic leaders guided the qualitative component. The quantitative findings suggest that the women surveyed experience high levels of toxic leadership. The qualitative findings advance understandings of women leaders' perception and experience of toxic leadership in the higher education landscape of South Africa. The triangulation of the findings reveals that the personal characteristics and behaviors of toxic leaders in universities conform with the literature on toxic leadership. The multiple toxic behaviors of leaders identified in this study could cause serious and enduring harm for women and universities in South Africa. Since toxic leadership has proven to lead to various distressing outcomes, a disconcerting conclusion of the study is that it impedes women's advancement. The article concludes with recommendations for future research and actions to mitigate workplace toxicity.