Barriers To Women’s Participation In Leadership Positions: Evidence From Hawassa Industrial Park, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study explores why women struggle to reach leadership roles at Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) and Ethiopia  textile manufacturing facility. Women make up 89% of the parks 28,948 workers however you can not see them in supervisory or management roles. We looked at employment records, workplace circumstances and how the organization works to figure out what is stopping women from moving forward. Our findings indicate numerous interrelated issues like  managers favoring men for supervisory positions and  women being excluded from professional networks and  conflicts between work demands and family responsibilities  and deficiency in leadership training possibilities. HIP built to generate 60,000 jobs and serve as a model for Ethiopia industrial future but the fact that there are so few women in leadership roles goes against its goals of removing gender imbalance in leadership. Women in the workforce deal with a lot of problems at once. For example, biased promotion processes, lower pay and high levels of stress at work that affect 59.3% of workers and anxiety that affects 79.8% of workers. This research provides  light on gender barriers in developing country factories and suggests practical solutions such as setting clear targets for women in leadership, creating mentorship programs, offering management training designed for women that  needs and implementing family friendly workplace policies. Not only would break this invisible barrier help individual women but it would also help the whole industrial park do better and help Ethiopia reach new development goals.