Gender Equality within HR Practices in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Human Resource Management (HRM) may be considered as a tool to improve gender equality by citing equal opportunities as a key of Personnel policy focusing on developing people, valuing diversity, and enabling the promotion of equality to be linked to the achievement of organizational goals (Linda, 1998). The recruitment and selection process could be affected by several factors leading to inequality between men and women for occupying top managerial positions, such as the societal factors including gender role stereotypeand the organizational factor including the male dominated organization and discriminatory organizational culture.
 This paper will focus on gender equality in recruitment and selection process mainly in the scope of top managerial opportunities based on the case study of USEKthat benchmarks international best practices and that aims to be considered as the leader institution in Lebanon and region for enhancing the empowerment of women and improving women's career advancement.It will study to what extent gender role stereotype and organizational culture, policies and practices affect Women's career advancement for top managerial positions in Lebanese Higher Education Institutions. Through primary and secondary collected through surveys and interviews, the paper will demonstrate:first,if the recruitment and selection process for top managerial positions could be affected in advance by gender bias and organizational culture; second,if the existence of gender equality policy in the workplace could be an efficient solution to avoid gender discrimination and prejudgment within all HR practices.