Abstract:
Affirmative action programs are one of the measures governments take in order to bring gender
equality work places. However, its implementation faces various challenges though the
degree varies from country to country. The objective of this study is to investigate knowledge
and attitude of public service servants towards affirmative action provisions for women
employees. Thus, employing cross-sectional survey design a total of 356(male=200 and
female=156) employees working in public service offices in Gondar city administration were
taken as samples of the study using stratified random proportional sampling technique. Data
were collected using pilot-tested preestablished standardized scales adopted from previous
studies. After cleaning and sorting out the collected data, it was analyzed through the use of
statistical software; SPSS version 24. Specifically, frequency, percentage, mean standard
deviation, independent samples t-test and one way ANOVA were used to analyze the data.
Finding show that 57.58% and 52.24% of the respondents of the study had poor knowledge
and attitude towards affirmative action provisions for women employees in the study area
respectively. Findings also show that there is statistically significant mean difference in the
knowledge of public servants across sex (t (354) = -24.77, p<0.001), age(F (2, 353) =
656.673, p<0.001), education background (F (2, 353) = 438.071, p<0.001) and work
experience (F (2, 353) = 664.554, p<0.001). Findings also revealed that there is statistically
significant mean difference in the attitude of public servants towards affirmative action
provisions for women employees across sex (t (354) = -25.11, p<0.001), age (F (2, 353) =
930.980, p<0.01), educational background (F (2, 353) = 626.627, p<0.01) and work
experience (F (2, 353) = 923.436, p<0.01). Finally, it is recommended that Gondar city
public sector department in co-operation with other stakeholders need to increase the
awareness of public servants as well as help them to develop positive attitude towards
affirmative action measures for women employees using different strategies including
electronic media like radio and television, workshops and panel discussions.
