Women’s Underrepresentation in Management Positions: Evidence from Ethiopia

Abstract

In the Ethiopian Public Sector, although the presence of women professionals considerably improved in the last two decades, women remained underrepresented in the management positions. In addition to external barriers that women face, their own aspiration that they have towards management positions also explain this underrepresentation in management positions. This study initiated with the objective of investigating the existing difference in aspiration towards management positions between men and women professionals. The total of 312 usable questionnaires was collected form professionals randomly selected from 13 federal public service organizations and for the purpose of analysis AMOS version21 software was employed. The study result depicted that though there was no statistically significant difference between men and women in their desired aspiration, men has greater enacted aspiration than women towards management position. In addition, Men had more management position congruence than women. And the effect of self-management position congruence on enacted aspiration is fully mediated through desired aspiration for both men and women professionals. And this indirect effect of self-management position congruence on enacted aspiration was stronger for men than for women. Hence, the study recommends that the public sector and stakeholders should work on changing Women’s low perception about their compatibility with management position in order to enhance their low engagement in behaviors and actions to peruse their desired aspiration to management positions.

Keywords: Desired Aspiration, Enacted Aspiration

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-13-02

Publication date:May 31^st 2019