Challenges that contribute to low participation of women in educational leadership at government primary schools, Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges affecting women’s participation in educational leadership. The participants were 106 teachers and 24 school leaders. The respondents were selected using stratified random sampling, purposive sampling and comprehensive sampling methods. The findings from the study revealed that the perception of school leaders and teachers was high towards women leaders’ ability, skill and leadership competence. Despite their ability and competence, women are still largely underrepresented in the leadership of primary schools. There were several challenges at the self-image, organisational and societal levels preventing qualified women from ascending to junior positions in primary schools. At the self-image level, challenges such as women still acknowledging the world as masculine, women’s fear of balancing professional work and family responsibility, fear of success in achievement, lack of mentor and role models, reluctance of women to hold position of power, lack of awareness and knowledge of organisational culture were found to be deterring women from taking up leadership positions. In addition, cultural challenges such as cultural and religious sentiment with regard to women inferior to men, male prejudice reflecting stereotype women as less acceptant than men in society, misconception of the society about women’s roles, girls and boys being socialised by different roles and expectation in the society were seen as major hindrances of women’s participation in educational leadership in the study area.   Keywords: Educational leadership, challenges, contribute, participation, primary school.