KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF PUBLIC SERVANTS TOWARDS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROVISIONS FOR WOMEN EMPLOYEES: A CASE OF PUBLIC SECTOR BUREAUS IN GONDAR CITY

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.