Muslim Women Leaders as Agency Executives in Mindanao: Their Capabilities and Challenges

Abstract

In recent years, women’s participation in political, economic and social fields has been practiced and promoted in both developed and developing countries. Today, women have become active participants in global pressing issues and perform bigger role in development. As to gender equality and women empowerment as mentioned by Ballescas (2015), the Philippines is the only country in Asia among the top 10 countries in the world that ranked high in terms of gender equality. This study venture to examine the capabilities and achievements of Muslim women leaders in Mindanao by delving into the leadership capabilities of these Muslim leaders as well as the problems encountered in government leadership. As a descriptive quantitative study, the paper identified the capabilities of Muslim women under eightfold functions of management. There were two sets of respondents. Census and purposive methods are the sampling techniques. Results of the study revealed that women Muslim leaders perceived themselves as evidently exhibiting to a large extent all the eight functions of effective leadership. The subordinates as respondents perceived their Muslim women leaders quite good as evidently performing to some extent all the eight functions of leadership. Muslim women leaders believed highly of their leadership capabilities and the subordinates have a favorable perception of their Muslim women leaders. Perennial problems include habitual tardiness and absences and subordinates' lack of initiatives. On the other hand, building good human relations with subordinates results in the achievement of the goals of the organization.