Women Career Development: A Study On Enablers And Barriers To Senior Leadership Positions

Abstract

Women have struggled to gain their deserved place as senior organizational leaders, despite promising legislative frameworks and programs to eliminate gender disparities in the workplace. This paper is designed to comprehend the obstacles that stop women from assuming leadership positions and the driving forces behind their motivation for professional success. The writers thoroughly reviewed the academic and government (grey) literature on women's career development while considering Ghana's enablers and hurdles to senior leadership positions. The evaluation was arranged topically and concentrated on predetermined and newly emerging subjects, such as enablers and barriers to career development, gender, and leadership career development. The following academic databases were searched: Google Scholar, Springers, ScienceDirect, Emerald, ProQuest, Sage, and Web of Science. Keywords such as leadership roles, career development obstacles, facilitators, and others were used. It is revealed that social networking, personal considerations, work-life imbalance, and perceptions of women leaders by subordinates are the primary obstacles to women's professional advancement. On the other hand, continuous family and mentor support, a shift in employers' perspectives, and women leaders' capacity for leadership were found to be the driving forces behind career advancement for women leaders.