CHALLENGES CONTRIBUTING TO THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITION: THE CASE OF COMMERCIAL BANK OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

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 challenges contributing to representation 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 114 respondents; 94 female respondent who hold managerial position and 20 female , who do not hold managerial position were distributed from the target population were sampled; a total of 93 questionnaires where 73 were managers and 20 were non managers were returned and were selected purposively and using snowball sampling technique respectively. The required data was collected using questionnaires and interview. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the data. In general, the study revealed that societal belief regarding gender roles; over burden of women by household responsibilities and lack of education are the most important constraints, among others, that hinder women advancement to leadership positions in CBE. This study indicates that given such challenges 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.