Examining the barriers and gender backlashes of women’s pathway to leadership in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Kenya

• Autor(a) principal: Flöttmann, Julia
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/23056
• topic: Gender equality; Women in leadership; Kenyan SMEs; Gender backlash; Stereotypes; Gender roles; Workplace bias; Igualdade de género; Mulheres na liderança; PMEs quenianas; Reação de género; Estereótipo; Papéis de género; Preconceito no local de trabalho

Gender inequalities and the underrepresentation of women in senior management positions in companies were the motivation for this thesis. The three research objectives aimed to assess the status quo of gender parity, examine institutional factors, and explore the sociocultural barriers that impact women’s pathways to leadership in Kenyan small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Ten semi-structured interviews with founders and managers of Kenyan SMEs were undertaken via Zoom call. The findings show that women face substantial prejudice regarding their skills and leadership abilities. The research also identified institutional factors that impact on women’s participation in the workplace. Participants reported that governmental enforcement to execute laws and policies around gender equality and discrimination are very weak. Additionally, the study found that the few women who are at the top are left out of decision making, either because of exclusion from situations where informal decision-making takes place or because women experience dismissal in senior-level meetings. Finally, the research highlighted sociocultural factors as being a large barrier for women attaining and remaining in leadership roles. The subordination of women in society leads to male domination in the workplace. Traditional gender roles require women to take sole responsibility of managing the household, which holds them back from focusing on their career. This study also confirmed the existence of gender backlashes. Sexual harassment was frequently cited as being a common occurrence and women felt this risk increased if they took on leadership positions, which represents yet another barrier to achieving equality in Kenyan SMEs.