MINOR PAPER ONE

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study

In the global sphere, women have become the engine of economic development. Accomplishing sex assorted enterprises in ventures is of basic significance to improving business performance. In any case, women stay under spoke to in business, especially at senior administration levels. Women once in a while accomplish executive management positions or fill in as individuals of senior company boards. However, women have progressively surpassed men as far as tertiary education accomplishment. While much advancement has been made, women remain underutilized despite speaking to a dynamic and proficient pool of ability.

In the United States of America, Hurley and Choudhary (2016) pointed out that the work power investment rate was recorded at 33.9 percent in 1950, developing colossally during the 1970s and 1980s and arriving at 57.7 percent by 2012. As indicated by the United States Department of Labor (2017), breaking down the U.S. work power interest rates from 2015, being the latest accessible insights, the pace of complete ladies in diminished to 56.7, with projections to drop to 55.8 percent in 2024. Men in correlation spoke to 69.1 percent in 2015, while the projection for 2024 will be at 66.2 percent. Other than these insights, ladies have just made moderate headway in securing top administration positions in the realm of business, which is being reflected in an investigation by Hurley and Choudhary expressing that “women CEO’s of Fortune 500 organizations make up just 5.2 percent of the all-out CEO’s in 2015” (2016, p. 251). “a major hindrance that keeps ladies from climbing the company pecking order past a specific point” is confirm “drastically in the measurements on the level of women in senior administration positions in enormous organizations” (2000, p. 321). All around, female Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) are very uncommon in enormous associations.  Even though females make up 40 percent of administrators in the United States, ladies hold just 0.5 percent of the most generously compensated administration positions in the biggest enterprises, as Oakley (2000) calls attention to. The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission (1995) uncovered in their discoveries, that among the top 1000 modern firms and the 500 biggest U.S. companies of assorted types as positioned by the Fortune magazine, 97 percent of ranking directors are white and an expected 95-97 percent of ranking directors are male. In correlation, the level of female ranking directors is positioning from a high of 8 percent in Belgium to 0.3 percent in Japan (The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995). Obviously, “female CEO’s are special cases as opposed to the standard,” voiced Hurley and Choudhary (2016, p. 250) while in reality their examination features that “solitary 24 of the CEO’s of Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 organizations in 2015 were women.” When investigating the database from Fortune 500 (2017), out of the 500 organizations, just 55 CEO’s are females in 2017.

The progression of women has been a focal point of enterprises for more than 25 years, yet the proportion of ladies in top employments has remained essentially unaltered in the previous 10 years. Truth be told, in some significant associations, early advancement has offered a path to a slow down or decay. This persevering nonappearance of sexual orientation balance and different appearances of decent variety at senior levels in Canadian enterprises is not a “women’ issue.” Rather, it is a serious burden. Besides, it is one that ought to be of worry to all Canadians, regardless of whether they know about this unevenness or not. There has been an ongoing spate of articles about ladies in business – or more to the point, about women not in the matter of driving business. It is very much recorded that senior administration jobs and board positions keep on going to men’s overall businesses.

Although ladies comprise 48 percent of the workforce and more than 50 percent of college graduates, their essence tumbles off the stepping stool rather rapidly as jobs become progressively senior. In particular, just 36.5 percent of lower-level administrators are women; under 18 percent are top officials; under 14 percent are on sheets, and a negligible 6 percent are CEOs of North American organizations. The number of board places that have gone to ladies in the previous 3 years has expanded by an animating 0.2 percent. As Catalyst, a 50-year-old association concentrated on advancing sexual orientation decent variety and the headway of ladies calls attention to, if this pace of progress in senior administration and board jobs proceeds, we will have equality before this present century’s over!

From one perspective, the information unmistakably demonstrates that, despite cases in actuality, women have not advanced in the last while. Along these lines, there is no compelling reason to burn through our time on round and futile contentions about “level playing fields” and “equivalent open doors for women.” On the other hand, in any case, this pattern is upsetting and mirrors a practically cliché protection from change. Throughout the previous 20 years, corporate pioneers and sheets have been caught up with “tallying women” and “social event verification” rather than opening their senior groups to enter from various sources. Our ongoing discourse and involvement in various associations, including pharmaceutical, innovation, banking, accounting and consulting associations, uncover that these remaining parts valid. If advancement and development are genuine objectives, slowing down strategies, for example, checking can be viewed as perilous. Truth be told, this unending exchange about the business benefit of expanding the cooperation and headway of women in our associations at all levels is itself a huge hindrance to progression.  as Ivey teacher Alison Konrad has found in her examination, the mentalities towards women held by men moving on from business college today are equivalent to they were 30 years prior, similar to the distinctions in pay even among MBA’s.

In the private sector, Africa performs well on the worldwide stage, with a higher rate than normal of women’s official advisory group individuals, CEOs, and board individuals. At the executive committee level, African women hold 23 percent of positions, contrasted and a worldwide normal of 20 percent. At the CEO level, they hold 5 percent of positions, contrasted and 4 percent universally, making Africa the top-performing locale close by the United States. At the board level, African women hold 14 percent of seats contrasted and a worldwide normal of 13 percent. Portrayal changes impressively, be that as it may, across areas and businesses inside Africa. For instance, in Southern Africa, 20 percent of board positions are held by ladies, contrasted with the 14 percent normal on the mainland in general. In North Africa, the figure is 9 percent. Contrasts are more noteworthy still when assessed by industry. In the 55 organizations that took an interest in our study, 29 percent of senior administration positions – characterized here as official counsel individuals and their immediate reports – are held by ladies. Social insurance and pharmaceuticals have the most noteworthy offer with 39 percent Heavy industry slacks, as may be normal in a part that customarily depends on its workforce on engineers – who are still practically all men10 – with only 9 percent.

In Kenya, women account for half of the total population and therefore ought to have a substantial part to play in the country’s pursuit of global competitiveness (United Nations Statistics, 2017). However, the numbers of women in senior leadership roles in the Kenyan corporate arena, both in the public and private sectors, remain dismal. According to statistics from the International Labour Organization (2015), women in Kenya hold only 44 of the 462 board seats of the 55 companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and that those with female board members are majority-owned by multinationals. Further, a report published by the Commonwealth in 2015 reflects that women hold very few Kenyan private-sector leadership positions and less than a third of the head of department positions in state corporations (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2015). Women presently constitute a large majority share of employees in the private sector. Yet women are still underrepresented in private enterprise leadership.

In Kenya especially in the private sector, the senior positions are mostly occupied by men. The representation of women greatly diminishes as they move up the corporate ladder in many corporate businesses in Kenya. This study will thus answer the question of what are the factors that affect the participation of women in leadership positions in Kenya?

• Statement of the problem

Although women constitute a large majority share in the private sector in many parts of the world, they are still underrepresented in the participation of leadership in the private sector administration. In most developing countries, there has been a promotion of gender equity in all aspects of life. Kenya has always strived to achieve gender equality since its independence in 1963.

According to Bart and Lambert (2014), the statistics on women in top leadership hide an important issue that women leaders use most of their time working rather than networking while in today’s market the reality of the matter is that the value derived from networking cannot be overstated. Women’s Participation in corporate leadership is a critical tool for empowering individuals. This is because participation in both business and corporate leadership empowers individuals to participate in formal business structures and processes, where decisions regarding the use of societal resources are generated. In Kenya, women are under-represented in corporate and business leadership.

The factors behind gender disparities in leadership are many and complex. They include economic, social and cultural factors. Although women form the majority in many organizations such as the private sector, they remain few in administrative positions. The study, therefore, sought to assess the determinants of women participation in leadership positions in the private sector, Kenya

• Objectives of the Study

To achieve the purpose of the study, the following objectives will be addressed

1. To determine whether the social-economic status has any influence on the level of women participation in leadership positions in the private sector Kenya.
2. To identify the influence of cultural beliefs, values, and practices on the participation of women in the leadership of the private sector in Kenya.
3. To determine if gender roles influence women’s participation in the private sector in Kenya.
4. To determine if women’s perception of themselves as an influence on leadership in the private sector in Kenya.
   • Significance of the study

The findings of this study will be significant in several ways. The findings may, therefore, influence future policies and practices on the appointment of women to leadership positions in the private sector. Secondly, the findings may assist in the identification of characteristic which pushes women away from leadership positions hence measures to empower women to enable them to take up leadership positions. The study is hoped to provide useful suggestions to the private sector to further foster gender balance in the appointment of leadership positions. The study may form a basis for further research on women’s leadership.

• Conceptual Framework

  Independent Variables                                                                        Dependent Variab

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0       Leadership

Eagly (2007) assessed the complexities of female authority for situational scholars. They contend “highlights, for example, cultural qualities, the way of life of the association, the idea of the errand, and the attributes of the adherents decide the setting of the circumstance and in this manner the suitability of specific kinds of leaders. The field of medicine was a specific setting once in a while looked into. Females in 9 places of authority were really valuable to women’s wellbeing concerns. In an investigation of ladies in the field of scholarly medication, Carnes, Morrissey and Geller (2008) watched an interconnectedness between women leaders in scholastic medication and improvement in ladies’ medical problems. Research on women’s issues was in the front line, which it might not have in any case been, spare having ladies in places of administration. Another use of setting incorporated the recognizable proof of qualities that were esteemed.

Skrla (2000) in research into on school administrators, indicated study members utilized types of opposite talk. Socialized female characteristics qualities that had regularly been marked as shortcomings were renamed as qualities. Frequently in chatting with the overall population, the word administration is equal with the word power. A fascinating differentiation would be in the case of being a leader implies that one has power, or having power implies that one is a leader. At the point when sexual orientation is applied to the idea of administration, this adds another layer to the idea of intensity. In her presidential activity, Chin (2004) talked about what administration as strengthening from a women’s activist viewpoint implies: advancing women’s activist standards and arrangements, changing authoritative societies to be more sexual orientation evenhanded, and enabling ladies as women’s activist leaders. She likewise attested “ladies stress arranging and sorting out work and an empathic methodology while putting less accentuation on the need to succeed at all costs” (p. 7).

Research on women who self-select influential positions concentrated on one explicit factor that may impact a lady’s choice to take on an influential position: the nearness of a pioneer model (Carbonell & Castro, 2008). Northouse (2007) referenced that leaders become good examples to their followers. This is clarified through the idea of transformational administration. “Transformational authority makes a culture where representatives feel engaged and 10 urged to openly talk about and attempt new things” (p. 190). Turning into a good example one may probably have a premise in the good examples with which one recognizes. In an investigation urging ladies to recount to their accounts, one member saw that as the leader attempts to make the future, she should reliably assist devotees with seeing how they fit into that future (Grady, Curley, & LaCost, 2008). This thought of participation with regards to authority was additionally found in an examination directed by Drago-Severson (2009) in which she associated cooperation and initiative. Using talk was additionally inspected by crafted by Wilkinson and Blackmore (2008) who proclaimed that “it is in the talk that force and knowledge are consolidated” (p. 130). These methodologies help us to build ladies’ situations as leaders.