Abstract:
Women face multi-faceted challenges to participate in management position due to different
factors. The purpose of this research is to examine women's possibilities to advance to
leadership positions. This thesis is based on the fact that there are less female leaders than male
leaders, both in the country and ethiotelecom in the region at Bahirdar. The objective of this
study is assessing the factors affecting women’s participation in management position in selected
ethio telecom Company at Bahirdar region. It also aimed to examine the major barriers that
hinder women’s participation from leadership and to evaluate the impact of gender gap in
managerial position. In order to meet these objectives, qualitative research methods were used.
The data was collected by interviewing and conducting questionnaires for top management
position of the region to explore the current gender practices in the region and assessing the
factors for low representation of women in managerial position. Consequently, probability
stratified sampling was used to select the respondents and discussants of the study. The findings
showed that women are highly underrepresented in higher level positions due to some factors
such as educational gap, socio- cultural attitude; organizational culture and regional
recruitment and promotion practice are the major ones. Due to this woman are unable to get
role model and less confidential for the position. Thus, in order to minimize the existing gender
gaps in decision making place, the region needs to implement affirmative action at managerial
level, giving quota number for women at entrance stage as well as clearly needs to set the
criteria while assigning employees at managerial positions
