Women and leadership: unseen barriers hindering women's access to leadership positions

To identify hidden gender-related barriers that hinder women’s access to high leadership positions in the Georgian ministries and to propose recommendations to enable reducing these barriers.Design/Approach/Methodology: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with employees of Georgian ministries. The interviews were transcribed and the transcripts were thematically analysed.Settings: Five Georgian ministries based in the capital of Tbilisi.Findings: Despite the high percentage of women working in the Georgian Public Sector, they are under-represented in upper leadership positions. This study showed the presence of gender-related hidden barriers that are mostly not recognised or acknowledged as barriers. The interviews identified five primary themes: masculine work culture that celebrates presenteeism; lack of transparency in promotion and career progression; gap of confidence in women participants; contrasting understanding of leadership and what is required to be a leader; and unclear understanding of the term “gender equality” and the benefits of gender balance. Each theme includes several sub-themes explaining the findings.Conclusion: Although women comprise a significant percentage of employees in the Georgian public sector, they occupy limited high leadership positions. Identifying the barriers that are either not recognised or acknowledged enables addressing them through strategies that support women's access to public sector leadership positions. These findings have implications for individual employees and public sector organisations in Georgia as will allow to address the issues related to gender barriers by implementing relevant policies and organizational practices.