Affirmative Action Policy in Bridging the Gender Gaps in Governmental Institutions of Ethiopia: Implementation, Successes and Challenges

Abstract

This research addresses the knowledge gaps by examining i) the relationship between socio-demographic variables and the implementation status of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps, ii) the successes of affirmative action policy, and iii) the challenges facing the implementation of affirmative action policy. To examine these objectives, this research draws on a sample of women (n= 113) from the Dabat district’s civil service sectors, using binary logistic regression, multiple linear regression, and the Chi-square test. The findings demonstrate that affirmative action policy did not close the gender wage, education, and administrative position discrepancies without the discrimination of demographic variables such as age, education, religion, and level of income. In contrast to other groups, unmarried women with diplomas and 5–10 years of work experience still encounter gender gaps due to high levels of discrimination. The implementation of affirmative action policy has also been unsuccessful in bringing psychological change in governmental institutions (97.3%, χ 2 = 75.4***, df = 1), which was higher than the predicted proportion of 40%. The effectiveness of affirmative action policies as a source of cognition, however, increased. Besides, affirmative action policy implementation in governmental institutions was also often hampered by a lack of follow-up training, the absence of a monitoring and evaluation process, and the lack of training for women and institution leaders. The findings of the current study have policy implications. They can help mitigate the difficulties of this policy in closing the gender gaps in governmental institutions by providing information for micro, meso, and macro-level intervention initiatives.

Keywords:

• success
• impediment
• affirmative action policy
• gender gap
• implementation status

Public interest statement

It is obviously known that Governments worldwide aim to protect, improve, and equalize the living conditions of citizens. However, they are faced with serious issues, such as gender discrimination. To reduce the problem, many have attempted to define and understand affirmative action from different perspectives based on their location. In Ethiopia, the Marxist Leninist-oriented Derg administration launched the notion of affirmative action or the equity act in the 1960s to promote equality among the population of Ethiopia. After the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democracy Party (EPRDF) overthrew this government in 1991, the new government implemented a variety of reforms to the existing system, including gender equality in the new constitution in 1995 (Article 35:3). However, the affirmative action policy did not bring gender equality in public institutions. This research focuses on the implementation, successes, and challenges of this policy in bridging the gender gaps in governmental institutions in Ethiopia with a special focus on the Dabat district.

1. Introduction

Governments worldwide aim to protect, improve, and equalize the living conditions of citizens (Alothman & Mishra, 2014; see also Bandura, 1986). However, they are faced with serious issues, such as gender discrimination (Rulof et al., 2010). To reduce the problem, many have attempted to define and understand affirmative action from different perspectives based on their location (Kurtulus, 2015). For instance, affirmative action, known as employment equity in Canada, is known as reservation in India and Nepal. At the same time, it is described as positive discrimination in the UK, a policy that supports the underprivileged segment of society affected by the prejudices in a certain culture (Krings et al., 2007). However, affirmative action is a controversial concept worldwide (Yasin, 2013). While some progress has been made regarding clarification of the diversity of viewpoints on affirmative action abroad on both the constitutional and philosophical fronts, the debate continued to intensify in the early nineties, with critics and advocates bitterly divided as ever (Guillaume, 2015). Similarly, a wide range of arguments has been provided by opponents and proponents of affirmative action since its inception. The debates on affirmative action revolve around issues on the necessity of the program, the selection of the target group, and the fairness/unfairness of the program (Sharma & Nisar, 2016; Shepherd, 2014)

Proponents have argued for affirmative action to eliminate discriminatory practices that enable disadvantaged groups to be the best-qualified candidates for the position (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2010). It also aims to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination and achieve employment equity through the elimination of all employment barriers against persons through active measures to ensure equal opportunity (Alothman & Mishra, 2014; Catherine & Chege, 2013; Krings et al., 2007; Sowell, 2004). Moreover, other scholars such as Anderson (2004) opine that the advantage of the implementation of affirmative action is that employees become less vulnerable to direct and indirect discriminatory practices, setting gender and race as the main criterion for recruitment and selection procedures (Landsberg,).

On the contrary, opponents contend that affirmative action is concerned with equity. Still, in practice, such policies have turned out to be ways of producing relatively minor benefits for a few and have become major problems for society in many countries (Sowell, 2004). Scholars have also stated that affirmative Action must achieve equal employment opportunities without lowering standards and unduly hindering the career aspirations or expectations of current organizational members who are competent in their jobs (Swanepoel et al., 2000). Besides, Roy (2018) advocates that equal opportunity means individuals are recruited and selected, promoted, and treated on objective criteria having regard to relevance, aptitude, potential skills, and ability (See also, Sowell, 2004; Swanepoel et al., 2000). Indeed, affirmative action can cause reverse discrimination and could violate the principle of merit (Yasin, 2013).

Hence, while the proponents and opponents of affirmative action share a common identity at some level, this should not obscure the deep rifts that set them against one another. For example, while both are in general agreement with the notion that sexual identities and differences should not prejudice the previously disadvantaged, the agreement breaks down when the issue is whether such differences should be considered in support of policies that favour the previously disadvantaged (Abraham et al., 2015; Romero et al., 2019). The opponents of affirmative action proclaim that there should be equal treatment, irrespective of gender. They argue that preferential treatment of the previously disadvantaged is as bad as the preferential treatment of males. Supporters of affirmative action also argue that equal treatment may result in the perpetuation of existing inequalities. While the preferential treatment of males would intensify such inequalities, favoring the previously disadvantaged would promote the elimination of gender-based inequalities in the workplace (Catherine & Chege, 2013; Krings et al., 2007)

Historically, the Marxist Leninist-oriented Derg administration launched the notion of affirmative action or the equity act in the 1960s to promote equality among the population in Ethiopia (Yasin, 2013). However, in 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democracy Party (EPRDF) overthrew this government. The new government implemented a variety of reforms to the existing system, including gender equality due to its socio-economic ideology (Amdeberhan, 2007). To accomplish this, the government created and adopted a new (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia [FDRE]) constitution in 1995, which considered gender equality and stated that:

The historical legacy of inequality and discrimination suffered by women in Ethiopia taken into account, women, in order to remedy this legacy, are entitled to affirmative action. The purpose of such measures shall be to provide special attention to women so as to enable them to compete and participate based on equality with men in political, social, and economic life as well as in public and private institutions (Article 35:3).

However, the disability background of affirmative action is absent from this constitution and other national legacies compared to other developing countries (Fitsum, 2017). Today, Ethiopia has internationally negotiated and accepted the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, which is the Maputo Protocol, Beijing platform for action, the Women’s Policy (1993), Millennium Development Goals (2000), National Policy on Women (1993), a National Action Plan for Gender Equality (2006) and the Women Development and Change Program Implementation package (2006) are among the various policies and strategies that directly focused on speeding up equality between men and women (Megersa et al., 2014).

No matter what affirmative action policies declare discriminatory perceptions within governmental institutions, the cumulative effects of the past discrimination happened in all parts of institutions in Ethiopia (William, 2015). For example, more than half of women were not encouraged to actively participate in education and politics (Amdeberhan, 2007; William, 2015) in Ethiopia. Existing data shows that only 32% of permanent government positions were occupied by women in this country (Ministry of Women Affairs of Ethiopia, 2014). Among these, 78% of women employees concentrated on routine and low-paying jobs such as clerical and manual jobs, and 12% on administrative positions, while the remaining 10% of women occupy professional jobs (Adamu & Mekonen, 2014). Invariably, despite the principal goal of affirmative action policy which is to bring equality between men and women by increasing the share of employment for females in districts such as Dabat district. There were no fundamental changes that bridged gender gaps in governmental institutions in the administrative sector, education, and remuneration (Dabat District Women and Child Affairs [DDWCA], 2017).

According to Dabat District Civil Service Office [DDCSO] (2016), there was a total of 583 employees, of which 202, that is (34%) of them were female workers. Of the 34% of women, only 6 institutions have been managed by women out of a total of 40 institutions in the district. This indicates that women’s managerial positions were less than a quarter of the total number of decision-makers (DDCSO, 2015). The raw data obtained from the Finance and Economic Development Office of Dabat district (2015) further depicted that the numeric differences in educational qualifications were also observed. For example, female employees with first degrees account for 25% of the entire staff, which was far below the percentage of men with similar credentials. Past and present political leaders have given less attention to affirmative action and the lack of awareness in relation to executing rules and directives of affirmative action policy, affirmative action policy in turn has not bridged gender gaps in terms of management positions, education, and wage (International Labor Organization [ILO], 2002; Ethiopian Ministry of Workers and Social Affairs [MWSA], 2010). These challenges have prevented the desired outcome that aimed at bringing equality among female and male workers in governmental institutions (Ayenalem, 2011; Fitsum, 2017).

From the abovementioned discussion, little research has been conducted on the successes and challenges of affirmative action in bridging gender administrative positions, education, and wage gaps in governmental institutions. This issue informs us to pay more attention to studying the successes and challenges of affirmative action policy. Although understanding the situation of gender gaps has been the focus of a growing body of research in the Western context, too little is known about the state of affirmative action policy to reduce gender gaps in Ethiopia, particularly in the Dabat district. Besides, small bodies of literature that do exist have numerous gaps that warrant further investigations: First, little attention has been directed towards exploring the extent to which the current affirmative action policy has been accepted and implemented in Ethiopian governmental institutions as intended. As a result, little is understood about the possible challenges of affirmative action in bridging gender gaps in governmental institutions, which needs further investigation.

Secondly, little research has been devoted to investigating the current state of practice in terms of the success of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps in governmental institutions. Available bodies of research on the issue are limited, and most focus on the knowledge and attitude of civil servants toward affirmative action provisions for women in Ethiopia). Moreover, the limited available research focuses mainly on a single issue, such as perspectives on gender and development in Ethiopia (Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]) and the gender equality status of Ethiopia in the global context reflections (World Bank, 2019). Only a few researchers also used success as an indicator of the implementation of affirmative action from the gendered perspective (e.g., Krings et al., 2007), but not including challenges. Evidently, this research presented scanty information on the general aspects of affirmative action policy, including its success and challenge in Ethiopian governmental institutions. In addition, the evidence demonstrates that affirmative action policy has yet to be successfully implemented as an anti-discriminatory policy in a range of circumstances, including ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, wage, education, and administrative position Therefore, this study has taken an initiative to address discrimination in different forms in governmental institutions. Moreover, the third existing gap shows that the variables that have been identified in the previous research as important for predicting the relation of respondents’ demographic characteristics to the gender gap were rarely evaluated simultaneously. Therefore, the current study aimed to fill these gaps by identifying the features and attention of research focusing on the success, implementation, and challenges of affirmative action policy to bridge the gender gaps in governmental institutions of Ethiopia. To address this objective, Social Identity Theory developed by Tajfel (1978) has framed the current study in order to understand how social categorization, social identification, and social comparison that occurred in governmental institutions bridged the gender gaps in Ethiopia.

2. Method

2.1. Study area

The current study was conducted in Dabat District in North Gondar Administration Zone, Amhara National Regional State, Northern Ethiopia, which is located 840 km from Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. The total population of the Dabat district is 23,856, with 9,773(41%) men and 14,083(59%) women (Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency, 2013). The governmental institutions of the Dabat district are structured into four institutional pools with 19 public sectors. So, this study was conducted in these institutional categories in the Dabat district, which serve a catchment of 583 civil servants in these sectors. These sectors have tried to implement the policy of affirmative action in bridging the gender gaps in governmental institutions enabling them to compensate, participate and compete based on equality with men on political, social, and economic issues.

To examine how affirmative action policy helped female service employees compete with men in all socio-economic contexts, this study used the social categorization, social identification, and social comparison categories found in Tajfel’s (1978) social identity theory. The employees organized themselves into male and female groups to obtain the benefits of the affirmative action policy to close gender gaps. As a result, this policy emphasized the similarities of employees within the same group and the differences between service employees within separate groups (social categorization). The female and male service personnel who identified as group members after classifying themselves according to gender identity are aware of the affirmative action policy in closing the gender gaps in public institutions (see also, Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Hence, these groups develop emotional attachments to their memberships and the ways in which affirmative action policy eliminated their disparities (social identification). Following this, women compared their identities to those of men in terms of the implementation, successes, and difficulties of affirmative action policy standing in closing the gender disparities (social comparison).

2.2. Respondent and questionnaire

To address the objectives of the research, the current study utilized a cross-sectional research design. A cross-sectional study design was approached because a sample of individuals has been selected from Dabat district governmental institutions of both sexes contacted at a particular point in time to obtain simultaneous information using the independent variable of affirmative action policy on the dependent variable of bridging the gender gap in governmental institutions in Ethiopia (Oslen, 2014; Hemed, 2015; Mann, 2016). To conduct such a cross-sectional study design, a quantitative research method is further utilized since it is aimed at assessing the policy of affirmative action and whether it bridges the gender gap in governmental institutions in Ethiopia based on statistical or numeric data analysis (Creswell, 2014; see also Ahuja, 2010). Specifically, the present study employed a survey design that provides a quantitative or numeric description of the implementation, success, and challenges of affirmative action policy in bridging gender gaps by taking samples from the total employees in the Dabat District (Creswell, 2009).

The number of employees who benefited from affirmative action in promoting gender equality is quantitatively presented. The primary data collection tool used for the current study was a questionnaire that assisted the researchers to access the implementation, success, and challenges of affirmative action policy in the study area (Creswell, 2009). The questionnaire was adopted from Workshops on Global Health Workforce Strategy-World Health Organization and Ethiopian National Action Plan-The United Nations (2020). The questionnaire was first written in English and then translated into Amharic (the local language). The Amharic version was administered to the respondents as it could be difficult for them to understand the English version easily, and it has the demographic background of the respondents (age, gender, marital status, level of education, level of income, religion, occupational area, and years of experience). The translated questionnaire also entails questions related to the association between socio-demographic variables and the implementation of affirmative action policy in bridging gender gaps, the success of affirmative action policy, and possible challenges facing the implementation of affirmative action policy in governmental institutions. The questions focused on the main points while considering all respondents. Issues such as clarity (question has the same meaning for all respondents), phrasing (short and simple sentence, only one piece of information at a time), and sensitive questions (keen attention to approaches in formulating questions that were embarrassing to respondents) were also put into consideration. The questionnaire comprised close-ended questions as a standardized (pre-coded) set of questions, and a fixed range of responses will result in rich and comprehensive data. Moreover, responses generated from close-ended questions are easy to compare and tabulate since only a few categories of responses are involved.

The quantitative sample size was selected from the entire employees in public institutions of Dabat District using Kothari’s formula (2004). The formula for sample size is $\mathrm{n}=\hspace{0.17em}\frac{{\mathrm{z}}^2\mathrm{p}\mathrm{q}+\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{d}}^2}{{\mathrm{d}}^{2\hspace{0.17em}+}\frac{{\mathrm{z}}^2\mathrm{p}\mathrm{q}}{\mathrm{N}}}$, assuming the sample size is equally distributed across the groups, where Z stands for a confidence level of 95%, the critical value is 1.81, p is the estimated characteristics of the study population (0.5), q is one minus from the study population, which is assumed to be equal across the groups, d is the difference, N is total service employees (583). First, the present study computed the sample size required for each worker in the governmental institutions of the Dabat district by using the above formula which yielded a required sample size of 116. However, the response rate was 113(97.4%). A proportionally stratified random sampling technique was used in this study because this sampling technique captured key population characteristics in the sample and obtained reasonably precise estimates for all subgroups (Creswell, 2009, 2014; Creswell et al., 2003) with the heterogeneous nature of the population with different sectors such as the Communication Office, Women, and Children Affairs Office, Security Administration Office, Youths and Sports Office; Trade and Transport Office, Finance and Development Office, Tax Revenue Office, Agriculture and Rural Development Office, Environmental Protection and Land Administration Office, etc. Intrinsically, the current research splits the population of interest into seven strata based on age, gender, religion, marital status, level of education, level of income, and occupation areas, while simple random sampling was used to obtain 19.9% (116/583) of samples by proportionally selecting from each stratum leading to the desired sample size.

2.3. Measure

Demographic Information

Respondents’ age, gender, religion, types of occupation area, marital status, and educational status. level of income and years of experience were surveyed.

The Implementation of Affirmative Action Policy

The implementation of the affirmative action policy developed by Kamwi (2005) was adapted and used in this study as it is considered to provide a contextual understanding of the study area. The implementation of affirmative action policy is measured based on the designs that correspond to the accomplishment of objectives and achievement of the desired results through recruitment, selection, and training (refers to a planned effort to facilitate the learning of job-related knowledge, skills, and behavior by employees), transferring, development (involves acquiring knowledge, skills, and behavior that improve employee’s ability to meet the challenges of a variety of existing jobs or jobs that do not exist) for promotion and rewards to narrow gender wage, education, and administrative position gaps. Based on this orientation, the current study developed six items for the implementation of affirmative action policy to bridge the gender gaps in governmental institutions (Elbers & Bucharest, 2019). The developed items include, but are not limited to the following questions: “Does affirmative action policy narrow the gender wage gap in your institution?”, “Does affirmative action policy fill the gender education gap in your institution?”, and “Does affirmative action policy address the gender politic gap in your institution?” These questions offered the following response options using the following dichotomous variable: 0 = no, 1 = yes. The Cronbach alpha of these dichotomous variables was α .81.

The success of Affirmative Action Policy

Successful and unsuccessful ratings were examined. The success of affirmative action policy comprised five questions in terms of participation, a source of cognition, psychological change, decision-making, and awareness creation. For example, “Have you ever participated in the process of affirmative action policy enactment?’, “Do you believe that affirmative action policy brought a psychological change in bridging the gender gaps? The questions offered the following five-point Likert scale: 1 = not at all, 2 = a little bit, 3 = somewhat, 4 = quite a bit, and 5 = extremely. The Cronbach alpha of the five-point Likert scale items of the questionnaire was α .82.

Challenges of Affirmative Action Policy

The following are some of the major drawbacks of affirmative action policy in governmental institutions: inability to provide consecutive training, ineffective women empowerment and women decision-making model, lack of awareness of political leaders on the subject matter, lack of consistent training for women and institution leaders, limited ability and skills to develop a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and so forth. The developed items contained the following questions: “Does lack of consecutive training affect the implementation of affirmative action policy? “Does the inability to develop monitoring and evaluation mechanisms hinder the implementation of affirmative action policy? Etc … The questions offered response options using the following scale: 0 = no, 1 = yes. The Cronbach alpha for this questionnaire was α .79.

2.4. Data analysis

The data collected from different primary sources were recorded, edited, organized, analyzed, interpreted, and presented concerning the research questions. A questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools in SPSS version 20. More specifically, a socio-demographic variable of the respondents has been analyzed using descriptive statistics to investigate the frequency distribution of each socio-demographic variable (see, Gupta, 2004; Jackson, 2012; Lans & Van Der Voordt, 2002).

Binary logistic regression was used to test the relation between the implementation of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps (the gap between men and women across wage, education, and administrative position was Coded as 1 while “not” is coded as 0 as they face a challenge of affirmative action policy) and socio-demographic variables. The gender gap and the socio-demographic variables were entered into the regression model and then were checked for exp(B) to ascertain 95% of the confidence intervals (CIs) for the odds ratio of the predictor’s contribution to the equation. The socio-demographic variables used were age, religion, marital status, level of education, occupation area, monthly income, and years of experience.

The success of the affirmative action policy was analyzed using a Chi-square test. A chi-square (χ²) statistic is a test that measures how expectations made by the respondents that affirmative action policy bridged the gender gaps compared to actual observed data (or model results). This test also included a comparison between observed results with expected results. It can also be used to examine whether a discrepancy between expected and observed data is the result of chance (Moore et al., 2013). The authors utilize a contingency table to analyze the data. A contingency table (also known as a cross-tabulation, crosstab, or two-way table) is an arrangement in which data is classified regarding two categorical variables: successful or unsuccessful and their outcomes. The categories for one variable appear in the rows and the categories for the other variable appear in columns. The authors calculated the Chi-Square statistic and compared it against a critical value from the Chi-Square distribution to assess whether the observed cell counts were significantly different from the expected cell counts.

Lastly, challenges facing the implementation of affirmative action policy were analyzed using multiple linear regression in inferential statistics. It is used to predict the value of a dependent variable based on the value of independent variables. Before analysis, the authors checked the variables had to be measured at a continuous level (they are either interval or ratio variables or ratio variables in SPSS). In this case, the current study measured the implementation of affirmative action policy as the accomplishment of objectives and achievement of the desired results. In the beginning, the authors entered the variable implementation of affirmative action policy as the dependent variable and inability to provide consecutive training, lack of awareness of political leaders on the subject matter, lack of training for women and institution leaders, and so forth independent variable. The author selected stepwise as the method. The default method for multiple linear regression is “Enter”. That means all variables are forced to be in the model. Data analysis was performed by using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics version 22).

3. Result

3.1. Demographic background

Table 1 reveals that most of the respondents were aged between 31 and 60 (60.2%), females (51.3%), Orthodox Christian followers (76.9%), single marital status (50.4%), diploma holders (47.8%), workers who have served in the administrative pool (28.6%), earn a low income below US$100 per month (65.5%), and 5–10 years of experience (45.1%).

Table 1. Respondents’ Socio-demographics (N = 113)

Demographics Variable	Categories	Frequency (%)
Respondents’ Age	18–32 33-44 45–60	45(39.8) 42(60.2) 26(23)
Gender	Male Female	55(48.7) 58(51.3)
Religion	Orthodox Christian Muslim Others	87(76.9) 26(23.1) 0
Marital Status	Married Single Divorced Widowed	40(35.4) 57(50.4) 14(12.4) 2(1.8)
Level of Education	Primary school and below (< 8) High school Diploma First degree and above	15(13.3) 22(19.5) 54(47.8) 22(19.5)
Occupational Area	Communication pool Administrative pool Agriculture pool Civil service pool	26(23) 38(28.6) 31(27.4) 18(15.9)
Level of Income per Month	Low (below US$100) Medium (US$ 100–200) High (above US$200)	74(65.5) 27((23.9) 12(10.6)
Years of Experience	Below 1 year (ref) 1–5 years 5–10 years Above 10 years	6(5.3) 47(41.6) 51(45.1) 9(0.77)

Source: Sample Survey, 2018

Associations between socio-demographic variables and implementation of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps

As presented in Table 2, the unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios described the association between the respondents’ socio-demographic variables and the implementation of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps in the governmental institutions of Ethiopia. The result shows that respondents between 33 and 44 years and Orthodox Christian followers assured affirmative action policy is not implemented to bridge wage, education, and managerial position gaps in governmental institutions. Besides, the unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio for those who were single female workers was 5.67 and 4.85, respectively. Therefore, the unadjusted and adjusted odds of the implementation of affirmative action policy not bridging wage, education, and managerial position gaps for single female workers are 5.67 and 4.85 times compared to married female workers. Furthermore, females who had diplomas were over two times more likely not to bridge wage, education, and managerial position gaps by affirmative action policy than respondents who completed secondary school and the first degree in an unadjusted odds ratio (UOR) of 7.34 (95% CI = [6.89, 8.75]) and more than three times in adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 6.78, (95% CI = [5.67, 7.63]).

Table 2. Binary logistic regression analysis of the association between the socio-demography variable with implementation of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps

Demographics Variable	Gender gap
	Unadjusted OR(95 CI)	Adjusted OR(95 CI)
Age 18–32(ref) 33–44 45–60	1.00 4.79(3.83–6.21)*** 3.14(2.55–4.15)***	1.00 3.34(2.71–4.11)*** 3.21(2.23–4.54)***
Gender Male(ref) Female	1.00 5.76(4.91–7.51)***	4.82(3.79–5.99)
Religious Orthodox Christian(ref) Muslim Others	1.00 0.75(0.45–0.87)*** 0.45(0.33–0.56)***	1.00 0.56(0.48–0.77)*** 0.34(0.27–0.49)**
Marital status Married(ref) Single Divorced Widowed	1.00 5.67(4.07–6.48)*** 0.67(0.49–0.97) 0.37(0.27–0.41)***	1.00 4.85(4.01–5.35)*** 0.45(0.38–0.58) 0.71(0.59–0.98)
Level of educationPrimary school and below (< 8)(ref) High school Diploma First degree and above	1.00 3.42(3.11–4.49)*** 7.34(6.89–8.75)*** 3.42(3.11–4.49)	1.00 2.87(2.56–3.99)*** 6.78(5.67–7.63)*** 2.87(2.56–3.99)***
Area of occupation Communication pool(ref) Administration pool Agriculture pool Civil service pool	1.00 7.23(6.77–8.01)*** 6.23(5.77–7.03)*** 2.19(2.01–3.33)	1.00 6.94(6.03–7.98)*** 5.72(5.11–6.67)*** 2.32(1.98–3.45)
Level of income per month Low (below 3200 Birr [US$ 100[) Medium (3201–6400 Birr [US$ 100–200) High (above 6401 [Above US$201)	1.00 3.74(3.51-.3.92)* 1.01(0.78–1.12)***	1.00 2.81(2.62–2.90)*** 0.97(0.78–1.05)**
Years of experience Below 1 year (ref) 1–5 years 5–10 years Above 10 years	1.00 1.07(0.88-.1.21)* 1.01(0.78–1.12)*** 0.45 (0.39–0.79)***	1.00 2.01(1.79–2.35)*** 1.97(1.46–2.21)** 0.57(0.39–0.71)***

Note. Ref = reference category; CI = confidence interval. **p< .05. ***p< .001

Area of occupation was also one of the strong predictor variables of implementing affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps in the governmental institution. For example, the female workers who worked in the administration pool had over seven times more probability not to bridge wage, education, and managerial position gaps by affirmative action policy than the workers who worked in the communication pool and three times more than in civil service pool workers in a UOR of 7.23, (95% CI = [6.77, 8.01]) and AOR of 6.94, (95% CI = [6.03, 7.98]). In the area of income level, the “Medium” income group is seen to be at greater risk than both the low and the high groups from 3.74 UOR (95% CI = [3.51, 3.92]) to 2.81 AOR (95% CI = [2.62, 2.90]). Finally, respondents who had 1 to 5 years of work experience appeared to be more vulnerable in bridging gender income, education, and managerial gaps compared to those who had below 1 and above 10 years of work experience in a UOR of 1.07, (95% CI = [0.88, 1.21]). Thus, affirmative action policy is not implemented in bridging gender gaps in governmental institutions for unmarried youngest women with low work experience in the administration pool.

3.2. Successes of affirmative action policy

As shown in Table 3, a one-sample chi-square test was conducted to assess whether the affirmative action policy was successful or unsuccessful in workers’ participation, source of cognition, psychological change, decision-making, and awareness creation. The results were found to be significant, X²(1, n = 113, p < .01). As a result, the implementation of affirmative action policy has been unsuccessful in bringing psychological change to bridge gender gaps in governmental institutions (97.3%, χ 2 = 75.4***, df = 1), that was greater than the hypothesized proportion (40%). However, it became more effective as a source of cognition (18.6%), approximately the same as the hypothesized proportion.

Table 3. Chi-Square test on the success of affirmative action (N = 113)

	Unsuccessful	Successful
On participation	86.7% (98)	13.3% (15)	χ 2 = 44.6***, df = 1
As a source of cognition	81.4%(92)	19.6%(21)	χ 2 = 60.1***, df = 1
On psychological change	97.3%(110)	2.7%(3)	χ 2 = 75.4***, df = 1
On decision-making	92.9%(105)	7.1%(8)	χ 2 = 79.8***, df = 1
On awareness creation	90.3%(102)	9.7%(11)	73.3***, df = 1

***p < 0.001

3.3. Challenges facing the implementation of affirmative action policy

As can be seen in Table 4, the lack of consecutive training, with other controlling predictors, was predicted as a challenge to affirmative action policy significantly (b = 0.347, t = 3.038, p = 0.004). The standardized beta value, 0.347, indicates that an increase of one standard deviation in the predictor (lack of giving consecutive training) will result in a change of 0.347 standard deviations in the implementation of affirmative action policy. Similarly, the absence of developing a monitoring and evaluation mechanism also predicted the implementation of affirmative action policy. It predicted the implementation of affirmative action at b = .785, t = .022, p = .064. The standardized coefficients show that the lion’s share of the variance from positively predicting variables is taken up by the absence of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism. Lack of training for women and institution leaders frequently is also another variable that positively predicted the implementation of affirmative action policy (b = .072, t = .900, p = .436). The absence of capacity to implement the policy also negatively predicted the implementation of affirmative action policy (b = _.251, t = 2.027, p = .002).

Table 4. Challenges facing the implementation of affirmative action policy

Demographics Variable	Unstandardized Coefficients		Std. Coefficient	T	Sig
	Β	Std error	Beta
Lack of giving consecutive training	−.08	.076	0.347	3.038	.004
Absence of capacity to implement the policy	−.040	.055	−.251	2.027	.002
Not to be effective to empower women and make the decision-makers	−.082	.093	−.009	−.057	.879
Not to provide female workers specially designed and moral boosting training	.042	.068	.071	.263	.004
Lack of awareness of political leaders on the subject matter	−.045	.073	−.059	−.589	.454
Lack of training for women and institution leaders frequently	.053	.063	.072	.900	.436
Lack of awareness in relation to executing the rules and directives of affirmative measures framework	.075	.085	.070	.080	.325
Absence of developing a monitoring and evaluation mechanism	−.037	.045	.785	.022	.064

***p < 0.05

Hence, lack of giving consecutive training, absence of developing a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and lack of training for women and institution leaders frequently were significant challenges facing the implementation of affirmative action policy in governmental institutions in more probable.

4. Discussion

The current study provides insight into the implementation, successes, and challenges of affirmative action policy in bridging gender wage, education, and managerial position gaps in governmental institutions of Ethiopia in the case of Dabat District, North-West Ethiopia. Theoretically, affirmative action policy can bring equal opportunities between men and women regardless of gender, age, education, religion, types of occupation, level of income, and years of experience, which has arisen out of institutions’ continued exploitation of women (Almaz, 1991; Ayenalem, 2011; Kalev et al., 2006; Mersha, 1998). Besides, affirmative action has incredibly been significant in keeping up workers’ fundamental rights at the workplace, showing that it merits more mental focus from decision-makers and other indicative policies for women. At first glance, the policy of affirmative action in governmental institutions is formulated as simple and comprehensive as possible, taking into consideration bridging the gender gaps.

However, in practice, it has not yet bridged education, wage, and managerial position gaps in the study area. The implementation of this policy further becomes problematic in the discrimination of gender in governmental institutions. The result of binary logistic regression shows that all respondents of the research responded that affirmative action policy did not put into practice bridging the gender gap in governmental institutions in Dabat District. However, the respondents who were between 33 and 44 years, Orthodox Christian followers, single female workers, diploma holders, and medium-income groups but worked in the administration pool paid more attention to affirmative action. This finding indicates that though affirmative action policy is used to tackle the discrimination against women, it has not yet been implemented in the governmental institutions properly to fight against discrimination based on gender, level of education, income, marital status, types of occupations, religion, and experiences. Although there is a deficit in the budget to fill the interests of all employees, women are still faced with systematic discrimination based on their demographic characteristics, especially women employees above 33 years old with diploma holders. This gender stereotype against women further hinders women employees’ promotion and recruitment for leaders and managers.

A wide range of studies has supported this finding, especially for disadvantaged groups. They were more likely to be exposed to multiple discriminations at the workplace. For example, ILO (2010) assured that the current issues with multiple discriminations had worsened by the leadership crisis at the workplace, which has highlighted the injustices experienced by the most disadvantaged segments of society. There have been negative repercussions in employment, including lower pay and benefits and reduced funding for government programs for education and retraining. People from disadvantaged groups are more likely to be laid off during this crisis, including young people, racialized/ethnic communities, migrant workers, people with HIV/AIDS, older workers, people with disabilities, and women (see also, Uccellari, 2008). This finding is also supported by Andrew’s (2016) findings that revealed that the discrimination of workers based on age, marital status, and level of education started from the formulation of affirmative action policy. However, other studies have argued against this novel finding. They found that the diploma holders who served in agriculture sectors with more experience often benefited from affirmative action policy than the workers who have degrees and above (Ayenalem, 2011; Kalev et al., 2006). These results conclusively show that underprivileged groups dealing with inequality at work frequently experience discrimination on multiple grounds concurrently (Uccellari, 2008). Additionally, the form of discrimination at work is impacted in both a qualitative and quantitative manner by these various realities of exclusion and inequality (ILO, 2010; Sheppard, 2011; Uccellari, 2008). The potential of affirmative action policy was not shielded from any legal, social, economic, or political restrictions, which led to the exclusion and inequities of the disadvantaged groups who were significantly exposed to any forms of discrimination in the workplace (Asafa, 2021).

The current study’s findings also emphasized the successes of affirmative action policy in governmental institutions. The Chi-square test affirms that affirmative action policy was not productive in bringing psychological change among employees to bridge the gender gaps in governmental institutions. In contrast, it became more often effective as a source of cognition. However, the present study found that creating awareness about affirmative action policy is not adequate to bridge the gender gaps unless bringing psychological change among employees in governmental institutions. This is because most organizations have different ways of addressing issues relating to diversity through affirmative action. Their efforts to moderate managerial bias through diversity training and evaluations have not been effective. In the efforts made so far, affirmative action policy has not been successful in bridging the gender gaps in the institutions only through cognition, rather the sense of stereotype, stigmatization, and discrimination has to be minimized. That means awareness creation without the change of feelings about equality is elusive, as well as an unworkable endeavor to narrow the gender gaps in governmental institutions. The fundamental assumptions of Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986) provided support for the discovery of how changing a source of cognition may have an impact on managers and service employees and help close the gender wage, education, and managerial position inequalities in governmental institutions. He contends that people’s opinions of gender equality and inequality are influenced more by external than internal forces. According to this approach, a triadic combination of behavioral, personal, and environmental factors helps explain why gender gaps are closing. Personal variables include instincts, impulses, traits, and other unique motivating forces. In contrast, environmental elements indicate the influences of governmental institutions in the context of where gender discrimination is practiced. This theory also claims that affirmative action policy (reinforcement) may force individuals to reconsider their perceptions about gender disparities in governmental institutions. This could help close the wage, education, and managerial discrepancies between men and women in public services.

The last result of the current study found out is the challenges that facing to the implementation of affirmative action policy in Ethiopia. Many gains have been registered in women’s empowerment and rights, but experience with affirmative action programmes locally and abroad has revealed certain challenges, problems, and constraints. This review of the challenges and constraints facing affirmative action lie important lessons for Dabat District (the study area). Human (1991) asserts that it is not automatic that an affirmative action policy will meet with success once implemented. Failure can have severe repercussions for the respective institutions. Such failure can be attributed to the large degree of confusion related to the implementation details of affirmative action in the Dabat district.

Despite increasing visibility and political mobilization, the challenge of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gap continues unabated. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to address women’s rights explicitly. While Ethiopia is closely associated with the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, which is the Maputo Protocol, the Beijing platform for action, the Women’s Policy, Millennium Development of Goals, National Policy on Women, a National Action Plan for Gender Equality and the Women Development and Change Program Implementation package, gender gaps have not been bridging in governmental institutions of Dabat district. This may have resulted from attitudes and practices related to affirmative action in governmental institutions that persisted in discrimination and gender inequality in the Dabat district and placed them as challenges to affirmative action policy.

In terms of attitude, the pressure of sociocultural factors employed in governmental institutions affected women employees to be empowered in the decision-making process. In turn, affirmative action was not compensated for the backwardness of women and was not appropriate means for society to discharge its obligation to those previously disadvantaged in governmental institutions. Moreover, the presence of stereotypes in governmental institutions reflects expectations and beliefs about female workers’ academic fitness and managerial positions perceived as different from one’s own. That means female workers have lesser likely to hold managerial positions in governmental institutions. This is due to patriarchal structures and attitudes which prevail in all places and affect the lives of females in the community.

In practice, multiple linear regression reveals that lack of giving consecutive training, absence of developing a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and lack of training for women and institution leaders frequently were significant challenges facing the implementation of affirmative action policy in governmental institutions in more probable. Even though there are a plethora of encounters that hinder the implementation of affirmative action policy in governmental institutions, a lack of training and control mechanisms of affirmative action policy to promote, transfer and recruit for positions were put in place of the main challenges of affirmative action policy with comparing to other repressor variables; in turn, this happening may daunt a problem for the implementation of the policy in different institutions. Not only is the presence of abusive intervention in affirmative action policy by the government, but also a lack of budget and motivation from the workers and focal persons manifest problems stacked against the execution of the policies in governmental institutions.

However, other scholars argued against affirmative action policy that enables women to hold managerial positions based on group characteristics rather than individual qualifications, potential, or ability. Consequently, unqualified women are selected over better-qualified men. In this regard, Maphai (1992) cautions that the filling of positions by unqualified appointees leads to incompetence, inefficiency, and lowering of standards. Thomas (1992) also argued that the presumption of men or female presence is explained only by preferential treatment means that female workers are under constant pressure and government assistance to prove their worth (See also Innes et al., 1993). This leads females to doubt their qualifications and ability, resulting in a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence. This resultant pressure and self-doubt have been described as a female syndrome (Carter, 1991). The disadvantaged groups are, therefore, not expected to excel but to merely meet the minimum standards because of special preference granted through affirmative action (Innes et al., 1993).

5. Policy and practice implications

The need to include public policy is apparent in governmental institutions. However, researching affirmative action policy balancing the perceptions of gender gaps is available to bring equality and justice to service organizations. The study has four major policy and practical implications that can help affirmative action policies succeed in their implementation and overcome obstacles such as how to address gender gaps in governmental institutions. First, the present study found that affirmative action policy did not close the gender wage, education, and administrative position gaps without the discrimination of demographic variables such as age, education, religion, and level of income. In contrast to other groups, unmarried women with diplomas and 5–10 years of work experience still encounter gender gaps due to high levels of discrimination. To reduce these problems, advocate for regulation of gender affirmative action and management policy to ensure its mandates would be followed by leadership in public sectors. The intersections of leadership, gender mainstreaming, and gender affirmative action and management policy have further ensured increased institutional competency to reduce gender wage, education, and administrative position discrepancies based on income, education, and position gaps in each governmental institution, respectively.

Accordingly, the practical contribution of the present research is that it provides much-needed empirical evidence on how gender mainstreaming and gender affirmative action interact in reducing gender and socio-economic disparities in service employees in governmental institutions. Recounting in depth the activities of the governmental Institutions will allow policy-makers, trainers, consultants, and others to design initiatives, tools, and actions based on what the service employees and leadership do, where they are now in terms of their practice, and what they think they should be doing. Training and skills to work within systems with multiple partners are essential to carry out these activities to implement affirmative action policy as well as in mitigating gender discrepancies in any socio-economic status in service institutions.

Second, this study also found that the implementation of affirmative action policy has also been unsuccessful in bringing psychological change in governmental institutions. The effectiveness of affirmative action policies as a source of cognition, however, increased. The policymakers and leadership will develop and put into action a wide range of institutional challenge mitigation approaches to reduce the problem of psychological change in closing gender gaps and increase affirmative action policy as a source of cognition. They will also monitor how each process owner performed its supportive role in bringing about gender equality. Additionally, the policymakers will implement a joint policy on public policy, gender affirmative action, and management policy to extensively incorporate the psychological challenges of service personnel and the source of cognition on gender concerns in public sectors.

The third policy implication of the current study also involves that lack of follow-up training, the absence of developing monitoring and evaluation procedures, and the absence of training for women and institution leaders were all significant challenges to the implementation of affirmative action policy in governmental institutions. In this case, policy intervention will be offered for this finding by paying special attention to the challenges of management in bridging the gender gaps in governmental institutions. Furthermore, the policy is needed for change agents to improve their qualities and numbers and afford to access specialized support services to those whose voices are marginalized in governmental institutions. In practice, an evidence-based program enacted by policymakers, evidence-based policy design and development, and incorporating inclusive and culturally specific responses to the challenges of affirmative action policy in public institutions may inhibit the challenges of gender gaps in governmental institutions. Given that, the current study suggests that micro, mezzo, and macro-level interventions would be needed for leadership, affirmative action policy, and service employees to have a dynamic set of ideas that are useful for making positive changes in institutions and public policy.

At the micro-level, the one who has a problem with gender inequality will be reinvigorated to report their cases to their respective police officers and the process owners of the institutions. Failure to report their cases tortuously affected the institutions to combat the gender gaps. At the messo level, women will establish their networks and use their associations to fight against the gendered wage, education, and managerial gaps in governmental institutions. This association may have benefited them in negotiating and finding common ground on gender equality. Moreover, leadership and policymakers can set up alliances with social service agencies and civil society organizations to decrease the gaps in institutional affirmative action policy to widen the understanding of affirmative action policy and gender equality. At the macro level, the Ethiopian Ministry of Civil Service should draft strategies to understand how and why affirmative action policy faced challenges in bridging the gender gaps in governmental institutions. Precisely, this ministry has a huge responsibility to review national and local legislation and change policies and procedures of governmental and non-governmental organizations that create a conducive environment for those whose voices are marginalized.

5.1. Limitation

Until recently, affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps in developing countries has received very little attention. A wide range of research included in this study has faced several limitations. These limitations can be seen in two categories: methodological weakness and the theoretical definitions of variables. The literature or articles used by the current paper suffered from many methodological weaknesses. For instance, samples in the previous studies were generally quite heterogeneous in terms of gender gaps and affirmative action policy. In addition, some previous studies were not able to show the sampling techniques to select the final respondents in the study areas. Each of these approaches has limitations that must be well-thought-out when selecting participants, collecting data, and interpreting the findings. For example, the intersection of affirmative action policy and gender discrepancies in public sectors misses a large proportion of women with disabilities who were perpetrated by gender (non-gender)-based and disability (non-disability)-based violence in these studies. Besides, the previous studies also paid only attention to recruiting participants based on NGOs working with gender mainstreaming. However, they miss family, friends, or service providers, including personal assistants who are not intimate partners.

In the case of theoretical definitions of variables, analyzing the growing body of research on gender equality is predominantly multifaceted due to the different definitions and perspectives of affirmative action policy across the world. For example, affirmative action referred to as employment equality in Canada, reservations in India and Nepal, and positive discrimination in the United Kingdom is a practice and policy that aids the disadvantaged group of society that is impacted by biases in a particular culture (Krings et al., 2007). This data demonstrates how controversial affirmative action is on a global scale (Yasin, 2013). Besides, the majority of affirmative action policy studies haven’t included women with a disability while trying to examine the connection between gender and affirmative action policy. However, it is possible to understand better how public policy and women with disability interact by including gender in disability-focused affirmative action policy research in governmental institutions. As tried to illustrate the potential limitations of the previous articles included in the present research, the current study has also limitations. For example, the present research may be limited to access only in the Dabat district in Ethiopia, which would not provide overall findings across the globe.

5.2. Conclusion

The findings of this study highlight important facts on the implementation, success, and challenges of affirmative action policy in bridging the gender gaps among the workers who worked in governmental institutions of Ethiopia. The current study found that affirmative action policy is not implemented in bridging gender gaps in governmental institutions for unmarried youngest women with low work experience in the administration pool. The current study can conclude that the affirmative action policy has been unsuccessful in bringing psychological change. Still, it became more effective as a source of cognition to bridge gender wage, education, and managerial position gaps in governmental institutions. Our findings warrant further qualitative research to develop an in-depth understanding of the factors and social elements for bridging the gender gap. This research also recommends that future research study why the unadjusted and adjusted odds of the implementation of affirmative action policy did not bridge wage, education, and managerial position gaps for single female workers with a low level of educational achievement. To put it all together, this study’s findings have significant implications for the policymakers to modify affirmative action policy by involving the stakeholders to bridge the gender gaps in governmental institutions.

Ethical approval statement

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for my respondents, such as male and female workers, head of institutions, and the interviewees for their valuable contribution and encouragements throughout this article. It might not be possible to reach here without their commitment and punctuality though they were over occupied.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

Notes on contributors

Nahom Eyasu Alemu

Nahom Eyasu Alemu (Mr) has been a lecturer of Sociology at the University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Deakin University, Australia. His research focuses on police responses to violence and crime against communities and emphasizes advancing societal systems through collaborative roles and multidisciplinary endeavors.

Morolake Josephine Adeagbo

Morolake Josephine Adeagbo is a social scientist, with research interests across the intersecting themes of violence, gender studies, intersectional and feminist research, emotionality, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, maternal health, adolescence, sexual and reproductive health, and qualitative methods.

Atsede Muchie

Atsede Muchie is currently an employee in the City Administration of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her work and research focus on the role of public policy in managing gender disparities in governmental institutions.

Yeshiwas Tigabu

Yeshiwas Tigabu (Mr) has been a lecturer of Sociology at the University of Gondar. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Ghent University, Belgium. His research pays special attention to internally displaced women in Ethiopia