Gender stereotypes and Work Place Biases against Female Employees in Public Organizations: The case of Ethiopian Ministry of Labour and Skill, Addis Ababa, Ethio

Abstract

This study was intended to examine gender stereotypes and work place biases in Ethiopian ministry of labour and skill employees. The study employed mixed research approach. Out of the total 202 female employees, 134 of respondents were involved in this study. Appropriate data was concurrently collected through survey, interviews and FGDs. Quantitative data was collected using questionnaire while qualitative data was obtained by means of scheduled interviews and guidelines that constituted open-ended questions. Quantitative data was edited, coded and entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version of 23 and analyzed accordingly. The qualitative data was duly transcribed, edited, coded, and categorized into different themes and analyzed thematically. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and means were computed to present results and discussion of the study. Gender stereotypes and work place biases against female employees in the work place is becoming development agenda and simultaneously untapped area of research concern. Despite considerable efforts made by the government to provide affirmative action in some regards and various supportive services women employees are suffering gender stereotypes and biases challenges in work places. This study reveals that there was the existence of gender stereotypes against female mainly manifested into ability, acceptance, and feminine barrier in the study organization. A tendency to perceive women not to take up all kinds of typically male tasks, challenging work is more important to men than women, and women are less capable of learning mathematical and mechanical skills than men were taken as the first three gender stereotypes with a mean of 4.90, 4.67, and 4.66 respectively. In addition, a grand mean of 3.15 indicates the existence of gender biases in the study area. Salary increment they were lost because of gender, discrimination in getting access to scholarship or sponsorship because of gender, and the co-worker does not treat them differently because of gender were affirmed as the first three precedence issues with a mean of 4.31, 4.02, and 3.96 respectively. The study recommends that as far as the issue of gender is cross-cutting issue, concerned bodies should be integrated to ensure gender equality, enhancing awareness creation at all levels, empowering women to participate in formulating and implementing women-tailor policy on their issues to realize long lasting gender equality in organization.