SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN CAREER ADVANCEMENT IN THE GHANAIAN CONTEXTUAL SETTING

Abstract

Women's career advancement has still been a topic of interest in Sub-Sahara Africa. To meet women's professional development requirements and remain competitive, organisations must pay attention to what makes them thrive. Career development involves a series of stages that occur over time, characterised by diverse concerns, themes, and tasks. There is, therefore, the need to document efforts to develop women managers and professionals and get a better understanding of the factors that positively influence women's progress in organisations. This paper reviewed the socioeconomic factors that influence women's career advancement by analysing existing literature to identify factors that facilitate or hinder the advancement of women’s careers. These factors, including stereotyping, biases, preference for family and work-life balance, male-dominant cultures in firms, the glass ceiling effect, lack of training and development opportunities, and their exclusion from networking, are significant impediments to career advancement claimed by women. Other factors such as organisational and government policies, supportive work environment, top management commitment, organisational support system, mentoring, networking, training and development, and organisational culture contribute to women's career advancement. In addition, interventions such as women-specific counselling sessions are held to address work-life balance. Interventions that would contribute to women-specific career advance theories were also identified. The critical issues that emerge from the review about hurdles to women's career advancement and variables that promote their advancement have been highlighted in this study. It is clear that many women who advance to senior positions acknowledge the obstacles posed by attitudes, and stereotypes and tactics have to be put in place to overcome them.