Women’s Perceived Participation in Leadership Position and the Perception of Academicians in Ethiopian Higher Learning Institutions

Abstract

Given the fact that the involvement of women in leadership position is minimal, The objectives of the study is to assess the participation of women in leadership position in selected higher learning institutions as well to compare the level of agreement to the barriers  identified gender wise . To do so descriptive and explanatory research design and mixed research approach was applied. The questionnaires were randomly distributed to a sample 383 men and women academicians of four public universities found in Addis Ababa. In depth interview was made with gender focal persons and women office holder academicians while secondary data was gathered from the human resource management of the universities. The finding of the study shows that the participation of women in leadership position is minimal though improved from time to time.to this end personal,   Institutional and traditional barriers are believed to contribute to the perceived participation of women in leadership position. The result of the Mann-Whitney U test shows that the perception of men academicians toward the factors affecting women’s participation in leadership position is significantly different from the perceptions of the women counterparts.