The Effects Of Women Empowerment Programmes On Women Leadership In Public Sector Organizations: The Case Of The Ministry Of Agriculture

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of women empowerment programmes on women leadership in public sector organizations drawing on the data collected from the Ministry of Agriculture in Tanzania. Thus, the study is built upon three key themes, namely the reasons why women are under-represented in leadership positions at the Ministry of Agriculture, the level of awareness of women empowerment programs at the Ministry of Agriculture by women employee, and the role played by other stakeholders at the Ministry of Agriculture in ensuring that women empowerment programs are fully realized. A mixed-method approach was employed to generate data through survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews, from a sample of 90 respondents, i.e. 70 questionnaire respondents and 20 interview informants. The data from interviews and questionnaires were triangulated through documentary reviews. The quantitative data were analyzed through Social Science Statistical Package (SPSS), version 20 while qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. The analysis revealed that women are underrepresented in leadership positions in the Ministry of Agriculture. This follows from the absence of empowerment programmes in the ministry. Stakeholders within the ministry have not played their roles to ensure that women empowerment programmes are fully realized in the ministry. Other limiting factors include institutional barriers, lack of legally binding documents like internal circulars and policies which can easily be used by stakeholders as a yardstick against employers who are intentionally do not want to appoint women in leadership positions regardless of their academic qualifications and other required skills. The other limiting factors include institutional barriers, gender discrimination, and the education system which favors men to pursue science subjects and women forced to study social science (Arts) subjects, lack of women empowerment policy, lack of political will, lack of readiness to most women as they are committed with other family matters and hatred among women. Eventually, the system produces few women scientists in the agriculture sector who could have the potential to lead in the ministry’s technocratic positions.