Assessment on the problems of female staff at Jimma University

Abstract

Women's participation in all spheres of life has become significant. In Ethiopia, although their contribution in economic, social and political spheres is considerable, the existing situation does not seem to explicitly endorse this idea. This study is therefore, meant to identify gender related problems of Jimma university (JU) female staff and contribute to the formulation of a plan to alleviate the problem. The study is a crosssectional
investigation through quantitative and qualitative study methods using questionnaires and focus group discussion respectively, conducted on the university community (staff, academic and administration in both sex). The data are organized and analyzed using basic statistical methods and chi-square test. The result indicated the most frequent problems such as:
attitude of the society against females, work overload, lack of assertiveness, political and economical inequality, and fear against the success of gender equity. Significantly high rate (64.3%) of females believed that there existed gender discrimination currently (p<0.05). Most females and males agreed on equal participation of women in all positions except at the time of pregnancy, on the need of special attention to women both at working place
and at home. Educating female staff in continuing education as well as upgrading their qualification at work site was found the basic solution suggested.

Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences Vol. 1 (2) 2006: pp. 1-22