Women narrating their experiences of being employed within a managerial position: A qualitative study

Abstract

Management appointments do not represent gender equality, even though men and women are given equal opportunity. Social conventions and laws have supported male-dominated workplaces. This qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual study used a phenomenological technique to examine women's management experiences in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. The intended audience was managerial women. Purposive sampling, unstructured individual interviews, and inductive topic analysis were used. Trustworthiness was determined by credibility, transferability, reliability, and confirmability. Promoting autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice was ethical. This study found workplace gender bias, male resistance to female leadership, gender intimidation, and a non-supportive work atmosphere. These data may help create workplace recommendations for women in managerial roles.

Keywords: {'name': 'Experiences, Women, Employed, Stereotype, Bias, Management.'}

Authors & affiliations

Imogen Mashazi
City of ekurhuleni

George Nkabinde-Thamae
City of Ekurhuleni

Angie Ndhambi
City of ekurhuleni

Virginia  H Williams
City of ekurhuleni

Irene Kearns
University of the Witwatersrand

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