Journal de l'économie mondiale

Challenges and Prospects of Women's Participation in Leadership Positions; a Case in, Ethiopia

Abstract

Fuad Beshir

This study aimed to investigate the prospects and challenges of women's participation in various leadership positions in south Wollo zone of Ethiopia. To achieve this objective a descriptive and explanatory design type research was employed. Both simple random and purposive sampling was taken to select the respondents from 26 public offices of the administration where employees and office leaders were included in the study with which data were collected through a survey questionnaire and interview. For this study, 225 valid observations were employed and data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 and analyzed data were presented in the form of tables using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, T-Test and exploratory factor analysis. The finding revealed that women's participation in leadership was found to be low which might be attributed to challenges of socio-cultural settings and community attitude, lack of skill and capability as well as access to education and space for undertaking leadership roles. Apart from the challenges, opportunities were also identified supported by no significant differences among the respondent’s gender and the existence of a positive attitude toward women's involvement in leadership and participation to assume positions in the study area. To this end, the study recommended that capacity building through training and development, encouraging and involving women in various leadership forums and improvement and widening of the existing opportunities should have to be put into practice to strengthen their participation in various leadership positions.