Contributing Factors for Under-representation of Women in the Leadership Positions of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia
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Date
2015-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) is the largest financial institution and one of the major
employers in Ethiopia. Although the number of both female and male employees of the bank
increased over time, the representation of women in leadership positions remained limited.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate factors contributing to
underrepresentation of women in leadership positions of the CBE and to further suggest
remedial action for improving women’s participation in the leadership positions of the Bank.
This study was guided by gender organization system theory which assumes that women’s
advancement to organizational leadership is influenced by the interaction of their own gender,
organizations and the broader system that shapes values, attitudes and behaviors of people in
organizations. Descriptive survey was adopted for the study involving both quantitative and
qualitative techniques. A total of 200 respondents from the target population were sampled;
where 100 female and 40 male managers were selected purposively and 60 non-managerial
female employees were sampled using snowball sampling technique. The required data was
collected using questionnaires and interview. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and
percentages were used to analyze the data.
The study identified societal, organizational and personal factors that contribute to the
underrepresentation of women in the leadership positions of CBE. In general, the study revealed
that societal belief regarding gender roles; over burden of women by household responsibilities
and lack of role models of successful women leaders were the most important constraints, among
others, that hinder women advancement to leadership positions in CBE. This study indicates that
given such top factors which are holding women from promoted to the leadership positions of
CBE, establishing integrated effort and strategies that affect change at the individual,
organizational and societal levels is crucial in order to improve women’s participation in the
leadership positions of the Bank.
Key words: Gender, leadership, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, underrepresentation, GOS
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Keywords
Gender, leadership, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, underrepresentation, GOS