ABSTRACT
The study was carried out on assessment of the impact of gender role on job performance of female employees in Benue State Government Secretariat. the specific objectives of the study were to examine the perception of gender role of women in Benue state government secretariat, to highlight the factors that inhibit the performance of female employees in the area of study, and to ascertain if gender role affect the job performance of female employees in Benue state government secretariat. the feminist theory was applied in the study to show the exploitation of women by men in the work force and the demeaning gender roles ascribed to women which inhibit their performances. Data is collected through the questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS Version 20. The study reveals women do not occupy very high positions in the organization due to a long held tradition of patriarchy, and that gender roles have a significant impact on the performance of women at work. The factors revealed to account for variations in the job performance of women are; lackof willingness on the part of women, lack of self
esteem, social seclusion and domestic engagement, exclusion of women in decision making and work description scheme. It was concluded that even in the 21st century, women were still relegated to the background. On the basis of this recommendation was made in the areas of enlightenment ad sensitization about female education, introduction of gender based advocacy campaigns, training and re-training of female staff, and that particular job positions should not be for the exclusive preserve of men.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study – – – – – – –
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – – –
1.3 Research Questions – – – – – – –
1.4 Aim and Objective of the study – – – – – –
1.5 Significance of the Study – – – – – – –
1.6 Scope of the Study – – – – – – – –
1.7 Definition of Terms – – – — – – – –
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction – – – – — – – – –
2.1.1 The Concept of Gender and Gender Differences – – –
2.1.2 Effects of Gender Role, Discrimination on Job Performance – –
2.1.3 Organizational Culture and Gender Role – – – –
2.2 Theoretical Framework – – – – – – –
2.4 The Feminism Theory – – – – – – –
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction. – – – – – – – – – –
3.1 Research Setting – – – – – – – – –
3.2 Study Population and Size – – – – – – –
3.3 Sampling Procedure – – – – – – – – –
3.4 Methods of Data Collection – – – – – – – –
3.5 Method of Data Analysis – – – – – – – –
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSION OF FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – – –
4.2 Data Presentation and Interpretation – – – – – –
4.3 Discussion of Findings – – – – – – – –
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.0 Introduction – – – – – – – – –
5.1 Summary – – – – – – – – –
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – –
5.3 Recommendations – – – – — – – –
References – – – – – – – – – –
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the Study
Job performance has been described as an accomplishment of assigned duties in accordance with organizational guidelines subject to the normal constraints of reasonable utilization of available resources (Jamal, 1984). Effective job performance has positive effects on both an organization and its employees. For the organization, it is a means by which it ensures production, economic growth and survival. Similarly, effective job performance provides the employees with economic gains, security, social status, family and social prerogatives, medical benefits and recreational and educational opportunities (Adana, 1986).
Having a job has always been a crucial factor in Nigerian society as individuals are identified by their occupations. A person’s job reveals his/her personality, and it influences the nature of interactions he/she has with people. It largely determines the individual’s social status, affiliation, economic status and self-concept. Job therefore offers a lot of benefits to organizations, individuals and the society at large. However, at times individuals are usually denied the opportunity of securing jobs due (o gender or personality factors. For instance, Uwe (1999) observed that in Nigeria women are marginalized while men are given greater opportunities to advance. She stressed that women are hindered progressing through discrimination on the basis of gender, early marriage and childbearing. Consequently, they are denied sound education, job opportunities and are incapacitated generally by the society. Women therefore become less exposed or experienced and less competent in areas that need high degree of skills, intelligence and extensive training such as engineering, medicine and astronomy.
Stereotype and gender discrimination could be responsible for unequal and low representation of women in public and private organization in Nigeria. For instance, only few women were found in highly professionalized careers such as medicine, engineering, law, accounting and architecture. Okolo (1985) noted that in 1982 out of 8,350 lawyers in Nigeria only 1005 (12.04%) were women and out of 204 high court judges in 1983 only 12 (3.94%) were women. Awe (1990) observed that in Nigerialess than 5 per cent of hank managers were women and less than 4.5 per cent of them were below the level of middle manager while just 1 (One) per cent of them were middle and divisionalmanagers. The Abstractof Statistics (AAS., 1997) indicated that in 1992, only 45,881 females against 145,448 males were in the service of federal ministries in Nigeria. In (1993, the federal civil service employed only 47,426 females as against 149,645 males. In 1992/93 academic session, 80 female professors as against 1,315 male professors were in Nigerian Universities.
Umar (1996) explained that in any traditional Nigerian community it is believed that the place of the girl-child and subsequently women, is the lichen or at home and she is socialized into accepting her traditional roles of bearing and rearing children and of maintaining the welfare of the family. Thus, women are seen as weaker sex who could not perform at equal level with their male counterparts. They are denied opportunities to display their talents and potentials Uwe (1999) warned that a group that is stigmatized as lazy or incompetent may not be hired by employers of labour even if they have the necessary qualifications and abilities.
Divergent views have been expressed on the issue of gender performance at work. Broverman, Brovermen. Clarkson, Rosenkrantz and vegal (1970) conducted a study on the sex role characteristics of mature, healthy and socially competent adults. The study indicated that both men and women agreed that competence was more characteristic of healthy male respondents than healthy females. Healthy women were different from healthy men because they Were submissive, less independent, less adventurous, less objective, more easily influenced, less aggressive, less competent, more emotional, more Concerned about their appearance and more prone to having their feelings hurt. Similarly Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) observed gender differences between boys and girls in four major areas viz:(a) verbal ability (b) visual and special ability; (c) mathematical ability; and (d) aggressiveness.
Hartman (1988) investigated the impact of occupation and sex on sex role-stereotyping. Among the findings of the study are that high job performance was perceived to be more related to masculine than feminine gender and that men were seen as more powerful than women.
Similarly, good performance was also viewed as more related to men than women. However, Champion, Kurth, Hastings and Harris (1984) noted that many of the characteristics that were associated with being male or female reflect cultural beliefs and practices rather than fundamental differences. They noted that people were taught gender roles at early stage of their lives and these roles reflect the status or position that they are expected to play. This assertion was supported by Uwe (1999) who found that male and female workers did not differ significantly in their vocational orientation within the realistic, investigative, enterprising and conforming vocational groups. Also, Scheresky (1976) studied personality characteristics and skills of subjects in different occupations. The study revealed that the prestige level of various personal characteristics, including gender, associated with occupation were frequently cross-culturally stereotyped. Similarly, Knudson (1982) studied whether women trained in management were as assertive and as competent in their jobs as men with similar training. The results of the study indicated that women were as assertive as men and performed equally well on their jobs as their men counterparts.
Another factor that could be employed to determine the suitability of people especially job seekers or employees is behaviour pattern. Behaviour pattern is the classification of people into Type A and Type B groups using their behavioural characteristics. Type A is a behaviour pattern characterized by a sense of time urgency, a desire to achieve more in less time, a high need for achievement, insecurity (e.g. low level of confidence) and general hostility (e.g aggressiveness). On the other hand. Type B behaviour pattern is characterized by unaggressiveness, confidence, being easy going and less competitiveness (Andrew and Szilagyi, 1981).
The work family interface is a unified relationship that people experience between their work and other life roles.
Work family conflict arises when pressures from work becomes incompatible with those from family domains (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Conflict arises when employees extend their efforts in satisfying their work demands at the expense of their family demands or vice-versa (Carlson et al 1995). It is therefore a form of friction in which role pressures from work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respects. This implies that conflict occurs when participation in a competing family activity or when stress has negative effect on behaviour within the family domain (Friedman et al, 1996).
Although work-family conflict is challenging for women and men in all career paths, not much work has been done to emphasize its effects on the job performance of female employees in Nigeria. With responsibilities for multiple roles in a patriarchal society such as Nigeria, female employees are more likely than men to experience work-family conflict involving incompatible demands. (Wiltord, 2003). There are several characteristic aspects of employment in that impact on work and female gender roles. For instance, female employees facing review for promotion are expected to demonstrate high levels of competence in cutting edge research and publishing the outcomes in high impact factor journals (Finkel and Olswang, 1996). A lot of time is spent in this aspect coupled with the multitude of job responsibilities that must be managed on a daily basis which range from being a teacher, adviser, editor, consultant to being a committee member etc. Such multiple responsibilities that do not overlap create a sense of dissonance (Holton and Sonnet, 1996).
Traditionally, in Africa as well as in Nigeria, females are subordinated to social, religious, cultural practices and belief of the society, this inhibits female participation at all levels and in all spheres of development process, including ascending into occupying and performing gender role in work place, which could be very herculean due to gender socio-cultural practice and beliefs (Abolade, 2014).
Despite the Nigerian constitution guaranteeing equal right for male and female citizens, Nigerian women are still marginalized and face peculiar obstacles that impede their full participation in public life (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2009). A report by the national population commission (2004) indicated that Nigerian women have a lower social status than their male counterpart; they do not measure up in virtually all areas of development which includes access to education, employment opportunities, resources, leadership, and political power. Nigerian women have been marked 12th on the low human development index among 174 countries (UNDP, 2000). Even when women acquire specialized high education, they are sometimes prevented by social, cultural or economic barriers from taking jobs or occupying positions that will use the valuable skills they have acquired. Women are biologically different from men based on the gender roles, though there is conflict about the nature and consequence of this difference, the manner in which gender relations are defined in the workplace often mirror the division of labour is the home and even in the work place where roles are based on gender relations that women are subordinated and decimated against
at all levels, gender differentiation as well as segregation exists between men and women in the society, the difference in gender role in the society has profound implication on women’s contribution and participation to national development (Cole, 2004).
The united nation decade for women, which took place between1975-1985, provided a spring board for raising and creating public awareness on women performance in the workplace and gender sensitive issues in the world. World conferences have also provided opportunity for discussion on many issues concerning men and women in the society. Women involvement in the economic production enterprise had contributed to economic and social development of the society, the fact that we agitate for gender participation implies a problem of segregation in the society between men and women folks, it is no doubt that gender differences and subordination do exist in the society (Cole, 2004). Women have made some remarkable progress in the areas of economic development and empowerment; they have contributed in making the society to function without difference and subordination based on gender division (keite, 2001).
1.2 Statement of the Problem Over time, the contributions of women in organizations have often been ignored. The world of a woman is characterized by events that make for her decreased job performances no matter how hard she tries to adapt (Lansky, 2005). Gender role makes the marginalization of women in their places of work possible; this is due to the fact that a woman has to combine the responsibilities of work with home making (Lansky, 2005). This leads to stress and strain on the part of the woman but which she must cope with to perform as her male counterpart. There is always social pressure on the women to perform as their male counterparts, yet her performances are limited by her gender role of home making (Adam, 2003). Society has not looked critically at the consequences of the gender role of women, how demanding they are, compared to that of men; this is possibly why her expectations of women is relative to those of men. These notwithstanding, women in work places have excelled above men despite this gender limitation (Adams, 2003). Women have increasingly been identified to be the brain behind the growth and excellence, their world have been creased inherent of obstacles, although some women have not been deterred by this trend yet others have been limited in performance by these gender roles, it is against this background that this research attempts an analysis of gender role and job performance of female employees in Benue State Secretariat.
- Research Questions The following specific objectives have been formulate to guild the study.
- What is the perception of female employees on their gender roles in Benue state secretariat?
- What are the factors that inhibit female employees from effective performance in Benue State Secretariat?
- Does gender role affect the performance of female employees in Benue State Secretariat?
- Aim and Objective of the study
The specific objectives of this study are:
- To examine the perception of gender roles of women in Benue State Government secretariat.
- To highlight the factors that that inhibit the performance of female employees in Benue State Government secretariat.
iii. To ascertain if gender role affect the job performance of female employees in Benue State Government secretariat.
- Significance of the Study This research is expected to contribute significantly in the area of policy formulation that will bridge the gap between the gender role of men and women. Also worthy of note is the expectation that the research will bring to light the disparity in the gender role of men and that of women insociety. Also, this research will inevitably be of theoretical significance by adding to the stock of existing literature in this particular area of study. The research shall also arouse in women the desire to achieve greater performance by bringing to literal light women who have risen in the midst of men despite the limitation of their gender roles. Recommendations shall be made that will be of practical significance and as such a practical step towards addressing the limitation of the gender roles of women. Above all, this research is carried out as fulfillment of the basic requirements to the award of a B.Sc. in sociology Benue State University, Makurdi.
1.6 Scope of the Study The scope of the study is restricted to Benue state secretariat Makurdi. The study centers on gender role and job performance of female employees, because of the economy of the area, the area is selected for this study of fair population of female employees in the area, which can be used to make comparative generalization about job performance of female employees in Makurdi secretariat and the nation at large.
1.7 Definition of Terms
Gender: Refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society to consider appropriate for men and women.
Women: Refers to the state of being a pedantic, literal minded and also women are female child adolescent used to identify a female human, regardless of age.
Job performance: It is defined as an industrial and organization psychology, the branch of psychology that deals with the workplace, it is also part of human resource management.
Employee: Refers to an individual who work part time or full time under a contract of employment whether oral or written, express or implied and has recognized rights and duties.
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