Abstract:
Women account for half of the world population. They play significant role in the economic,
social and political spheres of the sociality. However, in most countries, specifically, in
developing countries, women are highly underrepresented in leadership positions. The objective
of this study was to investigate the effect of personal, sociocultural and organizational factors on
women employees’ participation in leadership positions in public sector organizations. Thus,
adopting an explanatory research design a total of 356 employees were selected from all public
sectors organizations using stratified random sampling technique. Data were collected using
pilot tested closed ended questionnaire adopted from other sources. Data analysis were
undertaken using statistical software, SPSS version 20. Specifically, frequency, percentage,
mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were used to
analyze the data. Findings show that women employees did not adequately participate in
leadership positions of the public sector organizations. Women’s participation in leadership
positions has statistically significant negative relationship with personal factors, organizational
factors and sociocultural factors The overall regression model shows that all factors was
significantly affect women employees’ participation in leadership positions.Finally, it is
recommended thatthe public sectors administration in general and leaders and managers of
respective sector office in particular are recommended to address women employees’ personal
factors such as lack self-confidence through taking appropriate measures such as arranging
assertiveness, communication and leadership trainings.
