Challenges Faced By Women In Pursuit Of Employment And Advancement In Africa

Cultural and societal beliefs that contribute to an unequal job market

Africa is a  state where the patriarchal system is still predominant. Hence, men are perceived to be the head of the house. This results in some job roles being seen as just meant to be done by men. 87% of the men in Africa hold the belief that the basic role of women is to be housewives. Their roles are to stay at home and take care of the house and children while their husbands go to work.  In studies carried out in the Arab world, Africa is one; it was found that only one in every four men believes in gender equality and equal work rights for men and women.Women participation in the labor force in Africa is still quite low at 22.4% compared to the 75.3% in men.The role of women in the workplace in Africa is not as significant as it should be (Omair 2008, p 110). The gap in educational and skill level in men and women in Africa is small thus it does not explain why there is a considerable gap in labor force participation. Women’s skills and abilities in Africa are being underutilized. Only 40% of the women work in the public sector, and the number is continually decreasing. Therefore, this means there will be fewer opportunities for employment of women. The formal private industry is not a better option for them as it not a big employer of women. Most women have no choice but to get employed in the informal private sector or unpaid family work but they are not protected by legislation and provisions of worker’s protection rights. As of 2010, about 43% of female workers were employed in the agricultural sector in activities such as farming, fishing, and hunting. On the other hand, 23% of women were employed in professional occupations and 14% as technicians (Boserup, Tan, and Toulmin 2013). 

There are various challenges women in Africa face before they get into employment and while looking for work. First, most women have the belief that their place is to be at home. It has been ingrained in them through the different generations that this is right and thus they see no problem with being housewives. Many African women finish their higher education and then choose to settle down. Therefore with this kind of mentality, most of them will not even pursue their careers or those that do will feel out of place (Mostafa 2003, pp. 252-266). The next challenge is that there is a saturation in the professions that most of the women choose to pursue. Occupations such as clerical and secretarial work are mainly done by women thus there are few available opportunities in the job market. Therefore, many women will lack employment because there are not enough positions to fit all the women who are applying for them (Langsten and Salen 2008, pp. 283-305). Another challenge is that most of the working conditions, especially in the private sector, are not conducive for married women. These women often look for jobs that will match their needs after marriage and need to be compatible with their responsibilities in marriage. For example, most jobs in the private sectors require employees to commit long hours, and this is not convenient for married women as it will affect the time they could use for their domestic work. Thus this limits the number of places where they can look for jobs as most of them will not want to put their marriage in jeopardy (Hutchings, Lirio and Metcalfe 2012, pp. 1763-1787).

Educational challenges and discrimination women face in male-dominated fields

Also, another challenge is that the public sector is decreasing its rates of employment. The public sector has been historically known to be the largest employer of women in Africa. With this decrease, it means women will lack a large number of opportunities for employment. It limits the places they can apply for jobs. In Africa, there are few labor policies which support them when they are employed. Women in the workplace will not get things like maternity leaves which is an inconvenience to them. The maternity leave in Africa was just increased from three months to four months which is not long enough. Hence, as most employers will not provide more extended periods, women ill have limited options for gaining employment. Thus many women will choose not to get employed as they are not protected by these policies (UNICEF 2006).

Also, there are no laws to protect women in the workplace in Africa from sexual harassment. When women are sexually harassed, the offenders are practically let go, and they do not face the consequences of their actions. Thus women do not feel safe at work in most places they apply in. Another challenge is that when they are applying for some roles, the interviewers will not have faith in employing women to fulfill such tasks. Some positions are viewed as traditionally meant for men such as managerial jobs. Hence women will not get the job or will have to jump through extra obstacles to get them (Marmenout and Lirio 2014, pp. 144-166). At times, when getting interviews, many women report that they are asked for sexual favors so that they can have an advantage. These situations make women feel scared when they are applying for different positions as they do not want to face similar situations. Finally, there is a negative perception of women who work in Africa. People feel that they will not make good wives as they prefer career over taking care of their families. Thus, most women will not want to risk being negatively perceived in the society which might hurt their chances of getting married (Sidani 2005, pp. 498-512). 

Women in Africa face various educational challenges when they want to pursue their dream careers. Some of these challenges include; as most women in Africa decide not to continue with their jobs after their higher education, most of the lecturers have a terrible attitude towards those in school. These teachers feel that the women are wasting resources because they will get married. It affects how they treat those who want to pursue their careers after school. Thus they do not get encouragement to go and take on their dream careers (Tlaiss and Kauser 2010, pp. 462-496). Sometimes the careers that women prefer or see as their dream jobs are ones seen as being for men. Men mainly do the courses one take so that they can achieve this. Hence many women will do a course that many women do so that they can have an opportunity at employment. Female enrolment is typically high in courses traditionally seen as appropriate for them. Thus most women will not get their dream career as it is classified in fields like engineering and medicine which is seen as appropriate for men (Hyde 2013).

Issues of balancing personal and professional lives, the pay gap, and the lack of employment protection for women in Africa

The next challenge women face in education is that most lower class families pull their female children out of school after they get their basic education and seclude them. They see this as a good thing as men prefer marrying women who are secluded than those exposed because of their higher education pursuit. Hence the number of women enrolled in tertiary institution decreases because of this, and this will limit women from getting their dream careers (Gallant and Pounder 2008, pp. 26-33). Another issue is that as there are few women in fields such as engineering and medicine most women will lack people to look up to if this is their dream careers. Thus with few or lack of role models, women will lack the motivation to pursue them because they will see this as a sign of there being little to no room for success if they do so (Assaad, Levison and Zibani 2010, p 76). Another issue is that as there are few women in courses like engineering, they get discriminated against by their male peers. The women get sexual comments from fellow male students, and they are afraid to participate in class and ask questions for fear of them getting ridiculed (Romani 2009, pp. 1-8). 

Once the women in Africa get employed and have gotten through these difficulties and obstacles, they are now are faced with issues in advancing in their careers. There are few opportunities for women to advance their careers as most people hold the view that these opportunities should be given to men before women. For the women to get these advancements like being promoted the face various challenges and one they get promoted they will face more difficulties. Some of the obstacles include; the view in Africa is still to give more opportunities to men than women. Hence, when an opportunity for promotion comes up, men who are not even as qualified as the women will get the opportunity first (Burke and El-Kot 2010, pp. 42-60). Next, managers tend to promote those who they view as one of them so that they can hit the ground running. Their view is that if they promote someone in their circle, they will have no problem with the job and will not need additional help. Most managers are men hence affecting the chances for women. The next challenge is that traditionally some view women as not capable of filling some roles like being managers. They see this role as being meant for men. Therefore, women will not get the opportunity of proving themselves due to such assumptions. The women have to work three times as hard to prove themselves capable (Aguirre et al. 2012).

 Next women have to balance their work life and personal lives giving enough for each. Most of the time one part suffers and thus it is a bit impossible. As most of those in charge are men, they do not understand this and will expect women who also have to fulfill domestic roles such as cooking and cleaning to commit the same time as a man who has no other responsibilities. Hence women with children will mostly be overlooked during promotions as their bosses see that they cannot fulfill their roles because their children will take up most of their time. Another challenge is that women no matter their position do not get equal pay to men. They may do the same duties, but women are paid less. Thus many women feel discriminated against. They also have a hard time negotiating pay rises as the bosses feel that they are not as valuable as men (Ross 2008, pp. 107-123).

Evidence of the challenges women face in the pursuit of their careers can be seen in various news articles. An example is an article in The Guardian titled “The struggle for equality in Africa ” by Baher Ibrahim (2010). It talks about women not seeing the need for employment as it has become the norm for their role to be that of housewives. There were protests against there being a female judge, and even women were against this. Another article in Africa  Independent titled ” 87% of African men believe women’s basic role is to be housewives: study ” by Hend El-Behary (2017) shows that most men view the role of women as that o taking care of their homes. They do not see the need for employment for women. Thus this affects the chances of women pursuing careers. 

Conclusion.

In conclusion, even though there are advancements in the right of women getting any job they want some countries like Africa this is not the case. They still face various challenges in the pursuit of their work, and thus this results in few women even having employment. There is still a significant difference between women and men in the country as women are not equal to men.The concept of equality although much emphasized from various quarters, does not seem to exist. Women in the country continue to encounter discrimination at their places of work as their male counterparts get  promotions to higher positions at their expense. With this trend, more women are likely to shy away from pursuing their careers.Therefore more needs to be done to encourage more women to take pursue their careers.promotion of workplace gender equality in the country needs to be prioritized.Efforts should be put both by employers and the government in order to promote gender equality and save women from workplace discrimination. It needs to start by changing the perception of society towards women who are educated and have jobs thus this will push towards women in Africa being viewed as equal to men. 

References

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