CHALLENGES OF WOMEN MANAGERS AND WOMEN EMPLOYEES WHO ASPIRE TO BE IN MANAGERIAL POSITIONS: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY AGENCY

Abstract

Women comprise more than half of the world’s population. They occupy important roles in the society. Despite their numbers, women are still facing discrimination and are expected to be dependent. But, they have shown that they can take up management roles and succeed as men. Because of different barriers, women’s participation in management was unimaginable. But with the ever increasing access to education and number of women joining the work force, the phenomenon has been going through changes. But still women face challenges to attain managerial positions and also to advance to top management if they get to achieve managerial positions. It is no different for women managers in Ethiopia and the case organization Ethiopian National Archives and Library Agency. This study was designed to assess the challenges faced by women managers and who aspire to be managers in Ethiopian National Archives and Library Agency. The methodology used to carry out the research was descriptive in nature. Both primary and secondary data were used for this study. A convenience sampling technique was employed to select a convenient sample with two groups, the managers and the employees group. In assessing the challenges faced by women managers and women who aspire to be in managerial positions, the study emphasized on and tried to address the four major research questions: how women managers perform their managerial responsibilities what challenges women managers and women who aspire to be managers are facing, and the strategies implemented to enhance women participation in management The gathered data were processed via SPSS 19 and analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and mean). The interpretation of the results indicated that the major challenges face by women managers and women who aspire to be managers are work life/social life imbalance and lack of recommendation from seniors. Recommendations to speed up the improvements of working environment in the organization and for the future generations of managers were suggested such as developing flexible work arrangements and environment and so on.