Cogent Social Sciences (Jan 2021)
Women and Ethiopian politics: Political leaders’ attitude and views on women’s effectiveness
Abstract
In the assertion of democracy, good governance, and development, there needs to be a fair and equitable representation of all members of the community in the political process of the country. Besides, women’s involvement in political leadership is imperative for the prevalence of democracy and good governance in the country. Accordingly, women’s participation in the legislative and executive leadership of the country can be determined by the attitudes and views of the society in general and political leaders in particular. The political leaders as the members of the society may not have different attitudes toward women’s involvement in the political leadership process of the particular country. This study was conducted for measuring the attitude of men and women political leaders toward women’s effectiveness in elected, appointed, and policy-making positions of government bodies. Accordingly, this study used independent sample t-test and chi-square test to measure the attitude of political leaders toward women’s participation and effectiveness in Ethiopian political leadership. It is found out that there was statistically a significant difference of attitude of political leaders toward the importance of women’s participation in elected and policy-making positions at p = 0.000, which is less than 0.05 of significant level. Comparatively, women political leaders have favorable attitude toward the relevance or importance of women’s participation in elected and policy-making positions than their counterparts. These emanate from the patriarchal political socialization and political culture that favor men’s involvement and domination in the productive activities including politics and leadership. Thus, the concerned government bodies should work on men in general and political leaders in particular so as to modify their attitude in the way that favors women’s participation and successfullness in the political leadership process of government bodies.
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