Barriers to women career progression in Kenya’s Civil Service

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the barriers to women career progression and the coping strategies employed by women managers in Kenya’s civil service. The study therefore assessed whether gender stereotype, social cultural beliefs, organization structures, family responsibilities and individual characteristics act as barriers to women career progression. The study also looked at the coping strategies employed by executive women in their career progression. The study adopted a descriptive survey design to collect data from 326 women in middle and senior management levels in Kenyan civil service. Data was also gathered from Human Resource Managers. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the ministries with the highest and those with the lowest women representation. A total of 15 ministries were selected forming 30% of the total ministries. Stratified sampling was used to get the population of women in various job groups and random sampling to get the respondents. Only women were considered for this study and not men because theresearcher was interested with the perception of women which differs with that of men as far as career progression is concerned. Self-developed questionnaires were used to collect data from women in management and interview guide from Human Resource Managers. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics by means of SPSS, a statistical software package. The findings of the study revealed that women’s career progression in ministries is hampered by gender stereotype, social cultural beliefs, organizational structures and individual characteristics. In all the ministries consulted respondents agreed that the barriers are still prevalent in the organizations. These women yearn for ideals such as equal treatment and organizational support that would promote them into the organization’s top posts by merit. The study recommends an effective cultural change and policy shift at the national level to redress the gender imbalance in career progression for women that currently exists. Civic education should be conducted from the grass root on that there is no difference between girls and boys at the early stages of child development. It should be inculcated in the minds of men and women that what a man can do, a woman can do better. There is also need for change in Kenyan organizations to provide and encourage work environment where women can develop and realize their full potential. This study has added new knowledge by bringing out clearly the concept of mentoring which is a new phenomenon in developing countries like Kenya. It has also provided evidence on barriers to women career progression in Kenya’s civil service.