Amhara Leadership Academy

School of Leadership and Political Economy

Department of public policy and leadership Post Graduate

Program
Thesis proposal on the title of
Women's Participation in Leadership in Government Sectors; In
the case of Adet Town Administration
Advisor Name: Professor Girma Shimelis (PhD)

Prepared by:
Yifredew Mekonnen

ID NO-AMI140165ps

September 2023
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
 CHAPTER ONE-INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Globally, women are underrepresented in top leadership: for example, women hold just 17
percent of board directorships in the world’s 200 largest companies (African Development Bank,
2015). Several studies showed that all around the world, women's participation in leadership is
remains low. Even if equal participation of women in managerial positions and decision-making
processes is accepted globally, in reality, it remains low even in developed countries (Benedicta
2007).Different reasons prevent women from coming to managerial positions, including, socio-
culturalfactors, the lack of mentors and role models, and the lack of opportunity (Muhaiminul &
Nasira 2016). In many countries of Africa, traditions and cultural attitudes regarding women’s
participation in managerial positions have been associated with masculinity, and the belief that
men make better leaders than women in society is still prevalent and many women are part of
this system finding it difficult to dislocate from this culture and tradition. This leads to women
being disproportionately represented in managerial and decision making positions (Hirut 2014).
Similar to many African countries, the majority of women in Ethiopia hold few managerial
positions in the organizations.

1.2 Back Ground of the Study

In many countries of the world, women have either less participated or low represented in
higher-level managerial and leadership positions. Indeed, in many organizations, the proportion
of men appointed as a leader and decision-makers compared to women in similar positions is
highly skewed, with men overwhelmingly dominating the managerial positions. According to
UNDP (2015), women‘s low access to information and media, fewer employment opportunities,
and organizational barriers coupled with cultural factors reduce their managerial positions and

2
decision-making power.The arguments for women should participate equally with men in
leaderships are based on the recognition that their perspectives and ideas should be effectively
incorporated at all levels of decision-making, from the private to the public spheres of their lives,
and from the local to the global (Mbugua, 2007).

While women’s constitute half of the world’s population and have contributed significantly to
the well-being of human being, especially, women in many developing African countries
occupied few positions of power in political leadership sphere of social life (Birikti G/Michael,
2014). That is why the current women's movement on equality with regard to leadership position
has built on fuller understanding of the limits of previous deprivation of women’s situation and
trends that pave the way to set women’s decision-making as a core agenda. Being both broader
and more specific in its demand for equal rights, the women's movement of the last century
promoted unprecedented female participation at all levels of public life such as increasing
women’s participation in leadership positions, incorporating women’s on policy issues, and like.
The call for gender equality has contributed the issue to being included as specific agendas for
judicial and legislative actions. At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995,
countries/ governments emphasized that, “Women’ s equal participation in political leadership
and decision making is not only a demand for justice or democracy, but can also be seen as a
necessary condition for women’ s interests to be taken into account” (WCR report, 1995).
However, despite the widespread movement towards democratization, in most countries, what is
puzzling is that the women entering into political sphere is still slow as per June 2008 report,
women occupy only 18% of parliamentary seats around the world. Especially, the higher levels
in ministerial and other executive bodies, they have made little progress in attaining political
power in legislative bodies.

Women now hold only 10 per cent of the members of legislative bodies, which shows women’s
representation in political and leadership affairs are still at infant stage (UNDESA & UNECA,
2007). In third world nations for instance, women have always played five key roles –mothers,
producers (whether household or farm), home managers, community organizers and social

3
cultural activist (Meaza, 2009). Despite their large number and crucial functions, the division of
power between the male and female sexes as prescribed by most cultures assigns the subordinate
position to women. As a consequence, women have for long suffered various forms of
discrimination, inequality, exclusion and violence in third world nations. Especially, in African
nations women are regularly exposed to various forms of physical, psychological, sexual and
emotional violence. Ethiopia is one of the countries to be ratified International Conventions on
women's political empowerment, even prior to that of Beijing, but still there is a lot to do on the
promotion of women political participation and other gender related activities (Demstachen,
2012). While women in Ethiopia have constitutional rights of participation in political affairs,
their involvement is limited at all levels. For instance, according to a report of National Electoral
Board of Ethiopia, there were only 38% women parliamentarians in the House of People's
Representative (National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, 2015). Nevertheless, disregarding equal
participation of women in decision making, it will be less likely to achieve social, economic,
cultural and political goals of Ethiopia. The above mentioned statistical evidences also indicate
that Ethiopia finds itself among the lowest countries in Africa where it comes to raising the level
of women representation 97 in various sectors which include political leadership (EWLA, 2000).
Furthermore, the researcher to live in Adet town administration, north Gojjam, Ethiopia and seen
the necessary experiences regarding the participation of women in leadership positions. This is
inspiring the researcher to study on women’s participation on leadership position by taking a
case study area.

1.3 Statement of the problem

Ethiopia is one of the countries which signed the international declarations affirming the legal
rights and equality of men and women. In addition to this it has incorporated such a point in the
Constitution in Article (9) which states that “All international agreements ratified by Ethiopia are
an integral part of the law of the land” (Constitution of the FDRE, 1995, p. 79).

4
The nationwide policy on women which is formulated in 1993 aimed to address gender in
equality in the social, economic and political aspects and to create strategies & policies on
gender issues of the country particularly on women`s empowerment. However, the practice
implies low participation of women especially in leadership positions. For instance, women
leaders’ representation in the was as follows: Federal parliament 27.8%, Ministerial level 13%,
State Ministers 8.3%, Commissioners 25% and Ambassadors 12.7%. Even though, Ethiopian
government had issued different legal frame works that can help women to have equal access in
leadership activities, things set back in implementation. Similarly, the situation of women in
Adet town administration is not much different from those of women in many parts of Ethiopia.
Women in Adet town administration have been subjected to various forms of gender-based
discrimination under traditional customary rules and practices which in many ways have had
impacts on economic, political, and social status of women in the town. The under representation
of women and their low participation in general and in the leadership in particular is caused by
several factors, social-cultural, institutional, and individual factors. The success of attaining the
outcomes of women’s active participation depends on those factors that hinder women from
taking leadership position.

In addition in Ethiopia, women constitute 71.3% of the clerical and fiscal types of jobs. On the
other hand, the administrative and professional jobs category is only 25% and 18% respectively,
which indicates middle and top managerial positions are overwhelmingly dominated by men
(Federal Civil Service Commission, 2015). This widest gender gap is most evident in managerial
positions and public staff that their proportion has not been proportional to the size of the
population. Several studies were conducted to spot factors influencing women’s participation in
leadership and management but their findings are inconsistent. Bullough (2008), concluded that
unfavorable organizational and social factors have a negative influence on levels of women’s
participation in positions of leadership and management. Furthermore, Shin&Bang (2013,
indicated that socio-cultural and organizational highly explained women’s low participation in
managerial positions. Beyond this, Elsi (2013), stated that women’s participation in a managerial
position is highly explained by organizational factors but this contradicts the findings of Shin
&Bang (2013), who conclude that socio-cultural factors have the highest contributor to women’s

5
participation in managerial positions. The studies conducted in Ethiopia also resulted in mixed
results. Birikitie (2014), identified educational gap, socio-cultural attitude, organizational culture,
and company recruitment and promotion practice as the main factors that hinder women’s
participation in management positions in Ethio-Telecom. On the other hand, the study of Gojjam
and Manjit (2015), showed that stereotyping, patriarchy, lack of supportive system at work, low
academic qualifications, and role model women the as a major factor that determines women’s
participation in leadership and management positions in the selected public higher institution in
the Amhara Region. Furthermore, Nigistie (2019), concluded that lack of academic
qualifications, overburden of domestic responsibility, and lack of confidence and experience as
the major obstacles to women’s participation in leadership in Ethiopia. This indicates that
previous studies conducted in the area of factors affecting women’s participation in managerial
positions are inconsistent, inconclusive, and need further investigation.

As stated above, the majority of women in Ethiopia hold low status in the society. They have
been denied of equal access to education, training and employment opportunities and their
involvement in policy formulation and decisionmaking processes has been limited. Nevertheless,
in Ethiopia women constitute about 50% of the population and contribute a significant role to
subsistence production (Sosena and Tsehai, 2008). However, they are subject to gender
discrimination in every aspect of their life than any other women in any part of the world in
political, economic, social, cultural and legal aspects. They do have less access to schooling and
employment (Sewunet, 2001).Though women play a vital role in the community by taking care
of social activities, they do not enjoy the fruits of their labor and suffer from political, economic,
social and cultural discrimination. The aforementioned problem, in turn, directly and indirectly
hampers women’s participation in leadership position. Knowledge about factors that contribute
to the low participation of women in social, cultural, economic and political spheres can help to
increase women’s participation in decision making.

As far as leadership is concerned, both men and women are expected to participate in. However,
studies have shown that women are underrepresented in leadership position. (Thornton, 2012, pp,

6
13) Even though, women make up half of the adult population, and often contributed much more
than their share to society, inside and outside the house, they are frequently excluded from
position of power. This situation has affected women in many ways and results violation of their
rights (Thornton, 2012). The low participation of women in any aspect of life has become an
issue in all over the world (Thornton, 2012). Furthermore, we can assure this fact by taking
women’s leadership position in Adet town administration, the place where this research was
conducted. According to the data obtained from Adet town administration civil service
department 2016 annual report that currently there are 73 leaders. In the town administration
there are totally 73 leader positions. 12(16.43%) of the positions are handed by women while the
61 (83.57%) position are predominantly occupied by men. From the above facts we can say that
the participation of women in leadership position is less. Women are underrepresented even
though they constitute half of the population. The underrepresentation of women in leadership
position of any kind affects women negatively in many aspects: economically, socially and
psychologically. This result in poor contribution for development, in equality of women and
men, depression and de motivation of women for work, absence of role models for women etc.
Thus this study tries to find out the factors that affect participation of women in leadership
position in northGojjam zone particularly in Adet town administration

1.4 Objective of the Study

1.4.1. General objective of the study

The main objective of this research is to assess women’s participation in leadership positions
in the Adet town administration.

1.4.2. Specific objectives of the study

1. Describe the current status of women participation in leadership.

2. To examine the socio culture factors that effect on women leadership
involvement.
3. To assess the personal factors that influence women leadership participation.

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1.5. Research questions

1. To what extent women participation in leadership?

2. How does socio culture factors that affect women leadership involvement?
3. What are the personal factors that influence women leadership participation?

1.6. Significance of the study

It is true that women have been stereotyped and considered as dependent, acquiescent and
ungifted of leadership qualities. As a result, they are highly ignored from leadership positions
and their contribution to the country development in every aspect has been neglected. Nowadays
the women in the world, jointly with the governments, are in opposition to struggle for the
consideration of equal opportunity of women’s ‘participation in different global activities such as
social, economic, political, etc. Hence the researcher believes that the findings of the study:

 Create awareness among different level of town administration and their stakeholders
about the importance of involving women’s in leadership positions.
 Stimulate the concerned bodies to give attention to the involvement of women’s in
leadership positions in the town administration.
 Become a base for other scholars who would like to conduct further study on this issue.

1.7 Delimitation of the Study

In order to make the study easily managed, the researcher delimited it to investigate the women’s
participation in leadership positions in the Adet town administration. Geographically this
research limited on Adet town administration government office only. Not includes NGOs and
other institution.

1.8 Definition of key variables

Participation: The term is use in this study to refer to the provision of equal opportunity to
women to take part in the leadership and decision-making in the Adet town administration. It
implies quantitative and qualitative participation of women in leadership position.

8
Leadership: The influence an individual has, whether directly or indirectly, on followers or
observers from his community or society (Rost, 1993).

Management: Management refers to the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and

efficient manner through planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling organizational
resources (Daft, 1999).

Woman: Female aged 18 years of age and above. Gender: Gender refers to the personal sexual
identity of an individual, regardless of the person's biological and outward sex.

Gender equality: This refers to equal opportunity and outcomes for women and men. It involves
the removal of discrimination on grounds of a person’s sex in process of claiming political
leadership.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This section broadly reviews literature on the previous related studies significant to the study
topic. It discusses in detail the factors that influence women’s participation in leadership position
and some of the strategies that have been projected to improve their situation. It also outlines the
theoretical, empirical review and conceptual frameworks.

2.1 Theoretical review

2.1.1. An Overview of Leadership

Leadership: is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be
done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to
accomplish shared objectives (Yukl, 2010). Leadership has gone through many theories and
study approaches to reach its today’s status. These theories include trait (skills) theory, the
behavioral approaches, contingency (situational) theory and the lately introduced
transformational and transactional leadership theories (Ibid). The trait approach was one of the
earliest systematic attempts to study leadership. It emphasizes attributes of leaders such as
personality, motives, and skills (Yukl, 2010). This theory essentially says that leaders are born
with certain traits or characteristics that make them leaders (Bertocci, 2009). In other words, a
person is born either with or without the necessary traits for leadership. According to Bertocci
(2009) the behavioral approaches stressed that leadership can be studied and learned. That means
it can be thought in terms of the manner in which the leaders actually behave as observed by
subordinates. Task behaviors facilitate goal accomplishment while relationship behaviors help
subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, situation in which they find
themselves. The main purpose of this approach is to explain how leaders combine the two kinds

10
of behaviors to influence subordinates in their efforts to reach a goal (Farahbakhsh, 2006).
Situational (contingency) theory emphasizes the importance of 10 contextual factors that
influence leadership process. The major situational variables include the characteristics of
followers, the nature of the work performed, the type of organization and the nature of the
external environment (Yukl, 2010). In other words, it emphasizes the interactions among leaders,
subordinates and forces within the organization. Transformational theory- maintains that
leadership is a process by which leaders and followers raise each other to higher levels of
morality and motivation. Leaders inspire their followers to transcend their own self-interests for
the good of the organization. Transactional leadership theory assumes the subordinates motivated
by money and simple rewards that dictate their behavior (Ibid). In general, from these, we
recognize that no single theory holds a definitive view of leadership.

2.1.2. Meaning and Concept of Leadership

There is no universal definition of leadership. Leadership is the process of encouraging and

helping others to work enthusiastically toward objectives (Davis, 1989). It is the human factor
that helps a group identify where it is going and then motivates it towards its goals. Without
leadership, an organization would be only a gathering of people and machines, just as an
orchestra without a conductor would be only musicians and instrument. Early research tried to
identify the traits that differed between leaders and non-leaders, or between successful and
unsuccessful leaders: Some studies focused on personality factors, like intelligence, ambition,
and aggressiveness; others examined physical characteristics like height, build and attractiveness.
However, no consistent agreements that are stable across groups and tasks have immerged
despite continued attempts (Ibid, 2005). Leadership behavior i.e. the way leaders engage in their
activities or perform their role as a leader, and antecedents of behavior has been widely studied.
It has been found that personal direction of leaders is associated with pattern of leadership
displayed by individuals (Bass, 2008). Leadership literature has identified different styles of
leadership based on leader’s orientation towards task and people (Mitra, 2008). Transactional
leadership behavior is associated with the leader being more tasks oriented and with low
consideration towards people. Transactional leadership is characterized by behavior associated
more with the “agentic attributes” (Mitra, 2008). While transformational leadership behavior is
associated with the leader having high consideration of people. It is characterized by behavior

11
focusing on relationship and consideration of people and is associated with the 11 “communal
attributes” of feminine gender. Communal behaviors’ at work include being concerned with the
welfare of others (i.e., descriptions of kindness, sympathy, sensitivity, and nurturance), helping
others, accepting others’ direction, and maintaining relationships (Ibid). This indicating that
gender characteristics impact on leadership behavior. Thus it could be influenced by the gender
identification i.e. how individuals identify with characteristics attributed to males or females
based on gender. People who see themselves as having more feminine characteristics are likely
to exhibit the transformational leadership behavior. Hence, for this study the definition of
leadership as a process of encouraging and helping others to work actively toward objectives is
considered since the meaning of leadership is taking into consideration as facilitator
(transformational leadership style) not as a power (transactional leadership style)

2.1.3. Leadership and Power

Power refers to ability to control in such a situation (circumstances) when other human beings
must obey and do what the duty requires. Power is the ability to impose one’s will in social
relations despite any resistance and without reference to basis of this opportunity. Political power
is a definite aspect in relations between large social groups (Eba, 2012). The exercise of political
power is related to needs, interests which are complied with and implemented in social groups.
The term “politics” refers to the exercise of power. It is used to describe the key interests of
social groups, citizen participation in state duties and also to characterize the main directions in
the operation (economic, national, social, cultural etc.) of the State and parties (Murnieks, 2003).
Leadership can be defined organizationally and narrowly as the ability of an individual to
influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the
organizations of which they are member (Yukl, 1994). Organizationally, leadership has a direct
impact on the effectiveness of costs, revenue generation, service, satisfaction, earnings, market
value, share price, social capital, motivation, engagement and sustainability. Leadership is even
used as a universal means for any social problem. Leadership exists only in relationships and
perception of employees involved (Yukl, 1994).

2.1.4. Leadership and management

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Naturally there is a great distinction between leadership and management. Leadership:
Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that
reflect their shared purpose (Rost, 1993). Management: Attainment of organizational goals in an
effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling
organizational resource. Leadership is sometimes said to be about people whilst management is
talked about in terms control and creating predictable results. Unfortunately, management is
today regarded by some as being a lesser skill than leadership. The reality is that mangers must
also lead people and so leadership of a kind is needed at every organizational level (Kotter,
1990). However that neither is better than, nor a replacement for, the other and that: the real
challenge is to combine strong leadership and strong management and use each. Management is
about the control process, which ensures that lapses in performance are spotted and corrected
through feedback. Managerial processes therefore must be as close as possible to fail-safe and
risk-free. The leadership contribution is to motivate, inspire and energies people by satisfying
basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, control over
one’s own life and an ability to live up to one’s ideals. Good leaders motivate people by making
the vision relevant to the particular group, supporting the employee with coaching, feedback,
role-modeling and by recognizing and rewarding success. Adair (2002) used the original word
meanings to emphasize this: leading is about deciding direction, coming from an Anglo-Saxon
word meaning the road or path ahead; knowing the next step and then taking others with you to
it. Managing is a later concept, from Latin 'manus', meaning hand, and more associated with
handling a system or machine of some kind. This same notion of looking outwards or inwards is
captured (Bennis,2002).

2.2. Current Status of Women in Leadership

Though women’s educational attainment and participation in the workforce have continually
increased, their advancement to leadership positions has been slow (Federal Glass Ceiling
Commission, 1995). Women’s underrepresentation in managerial positions in business is not
specific to a particular country or industry. Several studies in different countries show that the
increase of women in managerial positions is not proportional to the total number of the work
force and their representation in top-level managerial positions (Caralyst, 2012).Furthermore,
their study revealed that women held 14.3% of executive officers positions at Fortune 500

13
companies, while more than one-quarter of the companies had no women executive officers.
Similarly, of the FTSE 100 companies, women held only 15% of board seats and 6.6% of
executive positions in 2012 (Sealy and Vinnicombe, 2012). This shows that women’s
participation in leadership positions is very low and not proportional to their number.

In Ethiopia, the participation of women in various positions is very low. Although they represent
49.8% of the Ethiopian population (CSA, 2017), and contribute mainly to food production and
others, they have not shared the fruits of development equally with their male counterpart. They
experience multiple forms of deprivations such as longer working days, women-specific ill
health, and low levels of education relative to men, lack of adequate representation in leadership
and decision-making positions (Sosena&Tsehai, 2008). In Ethiopia, gender-based discrimination,
lack of protection of basic human rights, violence, lack of access to productive resources,
education, and training, basic health services, and employment are widespread (NCTPE, 2003).
Women experience lower socioeconomic status in general and hence are marginalized from
making decisions at all levels. Nonetheless, women are poor in terms of access to resources, as a
survey conducted by the Central Statistical Authority (CSA, 2017) showed that women account
for less than half (43%) of the total employees in the country. Considering the percentage of
female employees from the total number of employees by employment type, the highest was in
domestic activities (78%), followed by unpaid activities (59.3%). In other types of formal
employment, the percentage of female workers is less than 35.9% (CSA, 2017).On the other
hand, the survey showed an over-representation of female workers in the informal sector. About
58% of working women work in the informal sector whereas the percentage of working men in
the informal sector was 37.7 %. Furthermore, women make up 25%, and 18% of the
administrative profession and scientific job categories, respectively, indicating that top and
middle-level positions are overwhelmingly dominated by men (Federal Civil Service
Commission, 2005). This concentration of women in the informal sector positions has
implications for their earnings. In this regard, the survey showed four out of ten women civil
servants earn Birr 300 a month compared to two out of ten men (Federal Civil Service
Commission, 2005).

2.2.1. Determinants of women’s participation in leadership positions

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There are many factors listed in different works of literature as the main determinants of the low
participation of women in leadership positions. Women's educational level is improving in many
parts of the world today in which women are outperforming men and thus women do not lack
competence or know-how when it comes to demanding positions. Nevertheless, the number of
female leaders is low in many parts of the world. According to Mayer, Caruso &Salovey(1999),
Stereotyping related to women managers is still prevalent in a lot of organizations: women
managers lack the commitment and purpose required to make it to the top levels. The under-
representing of womenhurt organizational performance, employee morale especially women
employees, and the overall economy. As a result, organizations lose the opportunity to capitalize
on the skills and talent of a portion of their workforce. Further, when employees perceive a lack
of women in top management, they may form ideas about the implicit values and culture of the
organization, such as it is discriminatory in its hiring and retention practices. There are so many
reasons that hinderwomen from moving to a top managerial position and from those factors some
of the key reasons are described as follows.

2.2.1.1 Personal Factors

Women’s lack of confidence to succeed often leads to making decisions that affect their career
prospects. The sense of diminished self-efficacy is often shaped by the social context in which
there are limited role models and highly gendered professional stereotypes and notions of
leadership. Among the personal factors that hinder women’s participation in a leadership
position the following are the major ones: Double burden; Women are improving their
professional opportunities, yet are still responsible for the majority of the chores and care giving
duties, also known as the double burden syndrome. This syndrome is particularly experienced in
the African and Asian regions, which reflects the responsibility for both work and household
(McKinsey, 2007). Self-Confidence: A major problem relates to women’s confidence, in both
the beliefs in their abilities, as well as in the capability of communicating confidently. For
example, a study amongst MBA women shows that while the majority of women consider
themselves equally capable as their co-workers, the majority of men consider themselves more
capable than their co-workers Eagle (2003). In an environment where the behaviors expected are
still male-dominated, female-specific communication can be interpreted negatively. Gender Bias
and stereotypes: Unfortunately, women do experience a strong gender bias when being evaluated

15
for promotions on both their level of performance as well as their potential impact. Studies
within professional groups show that women have significantly worked harder to be perceived as
equally competent as men (Lyness&Heilman, 2006). Moreover, unfortunate assumptions are
sometimes made about women’s ambitions and abilities.out to work in the employment market.
Managing these different occupations and their consequent responsibilities is not an easy task for
anyone(Willis, 1991)

2.2.1.2 Socio-cultural factors

According to Shin &Bang (2013), societal level forces and policies perpetuate assumptions and
stereotypes which present challenges to women in leadership roles. Legislation and policies
related to employment equity, human rights, access to affordable daycare, and reproductive
rights have a profound impact on the ability of women to advance in the workplace. Social norm
driven by media perpetuates gender stereotypes by using images to reinforce gendered notions of
leadership, often presenting men as “experts”. Stereotypes are further perpetuated when female
executives are portrayed as anomalies. Media images show women in the home and as younger
than men, which communicates and reinforces perceptions of female professional incompetence
and unsuitability for a leadership position. Pervasive stereotypes present women as lacking the
‘right stuff’ to be leaders, especially in the traditionally male-dominated domain such as business
and politics. A significant social feature resides in the double if not triple responsibilities of
women: In most countries, women are perceived to have primary responsibilities as wives and
mothers. But in many cases, either as a result of a preference for personal development or out of
sheer economic necessity, women also goout to work in the employment market. Managing these
different occupations and their consequent responsibilities is not an easy task for anyone(Willis,
1991)

2.2.1.3 Organizational Factors

Organizations’ internal culture and structure affect women's career possibilities and participation
in various managerial positions. According to a survey published by the Global Gender Gap
Report (2020), a masculine/patriarchal corporate culture is the main barrier for women to rise to
senior management positions. Many companies are still considered to prefer the masculine way
of leading and performance. A study by Talouselama (2013) indicates that the most significant

16
obstacle to women in their career development and their advancement to leadership positions is
the male-preferring business culture. Organization policy, organization culture, and perception of
the management towards the advancement of women in higher roles are some of the factors
under organizational factors that hinder women’s advancement to managerial positions. Most
organizations in the business arena are reluctant to invest in women employees, as they perceive
women may quit the job and they have fewer promotion opportunities, despite having the high
coordinating ability (NiluferAzeez&Priyadarshini, 2018). Several studies indicate that gender
bias in recruitment, succession planning, promotion, and evaluation prevent women from
advancing to managerial positions. Oakley (2000) indicated corporate practices as a major
barrier to women’s career advancement. In addition, according to Fagenson (1990), corporate
culture is described as a fundamental reason for women’s absence from management and
leadership positions in that it restricts women’s career development andinhibits women’s entry
into and advancement in the workplace. Furthering, Jabeen& Mirza (2011), identified the major
organizational factors that impede women’s participation in leadership positions include gender
stereotyping, unfair recruitment and assignment, limited training opportunities, lack of women-
friendly policies, lack of flexible work arrangements, absence of women from decision making
bodies and lack of networking and mentoring opportunities.

2.3 Parental influences

According to McNair& Brown (1983), a perceived parental encouragement or discouragement

has a greater impact on the aspirations of children and is the primary significant predictor of
occupational expectations for both genders. Several studies reported a positive relationship
between the encouragement given to children by their parents and the children's educational and
occupational aspirations as well participation in leadership and a negative relationship between
discouragement of children by their parents and the children's educational and occupational
aspirations participation in leadership (Alexander andEckland, 1975; Hauser, 1972; Hout&
Morgan, 1975; Kandel& Lesser, 1972; Wilson &Portes, 1975). There is some evidencethat boys
receive more parental encouragement than girls and that is more effective for boys than girls
(Hout& Morgan, 1975).

In any society, individuals play some roles, and one of such is the role of a leader. Usually a
leader is the one who bears the biggest responsibility; it is the most powerful role in an
17
organization. The most common opinions about leaders are that they deal with everything and
give directions: leaders have power, all the gains and pursuing an objective is only an object of
interest of a leader. Other employees are called followers, even if they are leaders of a lower
group or fulfill some duties of a leader. The concept of leadership involves relationships deeply
rooted in social settings (Bryman, 1996) requiring leadership theory and research to integrate
leader attributes and behaviors within contextual aspects of leader emergence and effectiveness
(Yukl, 2006). According to the feminist theory, which beliefs in equality of men and women
there are so many factors that hinder women from advancing to leadership position (Nzomo,
1995) and from those factors some of them are described as follows Top positions are suitable
for men not for women. Accordingly the role of women is to be mothers, care givers and
nurtures. Qualities associated with top level administration, namely leadership, intellectual
achievement, competence, independence and competition are for men (Hoobler, 2011). The
emergences of stereotypes, which lead to belief that women and men are different, have blocked
women carrier development including leadership. Socio cultural factors are society’s perception
which are constructed gender based role is very serious in preventing women from leadership
position. A research finding in Kenya, revealed, that women is occupying a small percentage of
senior leadership position due to the impact of socio-cultural factors (OSSREA, 2004) A
significant social feature resides in the double if not triple responsibilities of women: In most
countries, women are perceived to have primary responsibilities as wives and mothers. But in
many cases, either as a result of a preference for personal development, or out of sheer economic
necessity, women also go out to work in the employment market. Managing these different
occupations and their consequent responsibilities is no easy task for anyone man or woman
(Willis, 1991). In relation to this, as the study conducted by Netsanet (2013), confirms that the
negative attitude of organization who hire women take the main share of becoming barrier to
women participation in school leadership. Some organizations, when they select employees for
managerial positions, because of negative stereotyping, use selection criteria that completely
exclude women from the competition and favor the participation of men. According to the study
stereotyping, i.e. assuming that male leaders are ‘better’ than female leaders and women are
‘inferior’ to males, were also the major negative stereotyping barriers that marginalized women
not to become leader in the organization. Gender stereotypes can be described as the
characteristics, attitudes, values and behaviors that society specifies as appropriate for the

18
particular gender. The differences may have arisen not just from biological differences but also
from sex role socialization during childhood and the way in which men and women develop
psychologically. Genderstereotypes have consistently demonstrated that men are generally seen
as more agent and more competent than women, while women are seen as more expressive and
communal than men (Ginige, 2007). Women are not the same as men; they have particular
biological functions that make them different, which in turn make their work experiences
different. To this end, treating men and women the same has effectively created a systemic form
of indirect discrimination for women. Mbugua (2007) asserts that pregnancy is a workplace issue
that starts well before conception and ends long after birth. It is impossible to separate pregnancy
and family responsibilities. In Ethiopia context Eleny (2013) conducted a study on the factors
that affect performance of women manager in Ethiopia ministry of civil service. The finding of
the study indicates that the major factors which affect the performance of women leadership in
ministry can be recapped as; personal structural and cultural factor, This are reflected through
socio cultural attitude, legal barrier, absence of enabling environment, lack of right educational
back ground, lack of skill and self-confidence and conflict between career and family
responsibilities or over burden of family responsibility are the major one.

19
 CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Population and Sampling Design

The target population for this study is female employees and leaders of Adet town
Administration. There are 129 female employees 12 female leaders in the public sector of the
town. The researcher will be use purposive sampling method. So the study will be contains all
129 employees in the public sector of the town. Likewise, there are 12 female leaders in the
town. Since the population of female leaders is too small the researcher uses census (purposive)
sampling was employed to take the required respondents of the part sampling. Thus the sampling
size will be all 12 female leaders. Consequently, there were 129 respondents form two cluster.

A quantitative research approach and cross-sectional survey design will be utilized to examine
the women’s participation in leadership positions at Adet town administration. The study will be
employed an explanatory type of research. The population is all female employees of Adet town
administration. 371 permanent employees are working in the selected area. Among the 371 staff,
129 employees will be select as a sample by purposive sampling.

3.2. Measurement and variables

A self-report scale measure was used ranging from Likert scale “1” Strongly disagrees and “5”
strongly agree for all the constructs of the study. All scales were adopted from previous studies.
The independent variables of this study were factors affecting women’s participation in
leadership position dimensions of personal factors, socio-cultural factors, organizational factors,
and parental influences. The dependent variable of the study was women’s participation in
leadership positions. This study will be employ measures that are adopted from previous studies.

3.3. Data Collection Methods

The questionnaires (Both closed ended and open ended) were used as an instrument of data
collection. For this study two types of self- administrating questionnaires were used to collect
relevant information from female participation in leadership position and process owners.

20
Questionnaire will be prepared and distribute to female experts. In this study the questionnaire
were used to extract data embedded deep in participants mind or their attitudes, feelings or
reactions. The questionnaire consist both closed and open ended questions in order to collect the
necessary information from the participants. Responses collected through questionnaires were
summarized, coded, classified and then fed into a computer and analyzed using statistical
packages for SPSS Version 20 Software.

Procedures of Data Collection and consents from the participants

In this study, principles such as those of consent, and anonymity were adopted. The prospective
participants chosen for this research will be asking for their consent to participate in the survey.
Details such as the investigator‘s credentials, the purpose of the study, the procedures to be
follow, a confidentiality statement, the rights of the participants, and the researcher’s contact
information will be disclose. All prospective research participants were fully informed of the
procedures and risks involved in the research and relied on to consent to participate.

In addition, prospective participants will be inform that their responses will be used to derive
statistically valid trends and that the information gathered will be securely store and will be used
only for academic research. Personal information was limited to that necessary for conducting
the research. But before this, permission has been requested from the town Mayor office. The
Mayor office wrote a “to whom it may concern letter” for other Adet town administration
officers. After the Adet town administration officers check the letters, they will be allowed me to
collect the required data. Following this, the researcher will be contact employees and asking for
their consent to participate in the study. All employees will be contact voluntary to participate in
the study. Then, the researcher will be distributing my questionnaire. A cover letter with a clear
objective of the study will be type on the questionnaire.

21
 3.4. Method of Data Analysis

After the collection of the necessary data it is editing, coding and classifying according to pre-
defined criteria. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques will be employed. That
information gathering using closed ended items is organizing and analyzing using quantitative
methods and qualitative analysis also uses to explain data obtain through interview. The
questions are categorized into several groups, where each group of questions will be analyzing
separately to indicate and explain the factors which affect women participation in leadership.
Descriptive statistical tools such as percentages, mean, standard deviation and frequencies for
data collection through questionnaires, whereas description of finding will be uses for data
collection through interview. Descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze the demographic
information collected from the respondents. Furthermore, correlation and multiple regression
were utilized to examine the determinants of women’s participation in managerial positions.
Responses were analyzed through the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 23.

22
 3.5. Budget and time table

3.5.1. Budget

Activities Budget Remark

Pepper and stationary 5,000.000

Internet cost 6,000.000

Transport 5,000.000

Data collectors 10,000.000

Other unexpected expense 5,000.000

Total cost 31,000.000

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 3.5.2. Time table

Activities Sept. Oct. Nov. December Remark

1. Selecting topic 

2. Preparing proposal 

3. Proposal defense  Based on

university
program
4. Data collection  

5. Preparing final draft 

6. Final report  Based on

university
program

..

REFERENCES

24
Eleny T., (2013). Assessment of Challenges and Opportunities Facing Women Managers in Federal
Public Sector. Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

FDRE, (1995). The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia

Ginige, K., Amaratunga D. & Haigh, R. (2007). Gender Stereotypes: A Barrier for Career Development
of Women in Construction. Built environment education n conference. University of Salford: Growe,
Hoobler J. (2011), women’s under representation in upper management: New insights on a
persistent problem organizational dynamics 40, 151-156.

Mbugua, W. (2007). An investigation of factors influencing women progression to leadership

positions in Kenya, Kenyatta University.

Netsanet, W. S. (2013). Challenges and opportunities of women to be leaders in selected

Governmental secondary schools of Addis Ababa.

Nzomo, M. (1995). Women in top management in Kenya. Nairobi, African Association for Public
Administration and Management.

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