Complexity of African Women's Empowerment: Case study of "Linguers" from Walo

Authors

  • Abdou Karim Gaye Practitioner-researcher Specialization in Leadership and Management Harvard Business School Boston-Massachusetts-USA MS in Human Services Management Franklin University-Columbus-OH-USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7578842

Keywords:

Women's empowerment, Feminist leadership, Linguer of Walo, Patriarchy, Behavioral change.

Abstract

The article argues the effectiveness of policies regarding African women's empowerment programs. It focuses on social norms barriers, particularly the patriarchy. The paper’s main objective is to highlight the people's side of change in the women's empowerment processes. The experimentation was done through the case study of the "Women-Action-Development" organization, from the Walo region in Mauritania. The article used the exploratory research method due to the lack of relevant data on the target population. The comparison between the results of the two distinct leadership styles, presented in the article, showed a significant gap in favor of the leadership that used emotional intelligence in its approach. In fact, a difference was made in both quantitative and qualitative performances. Besides, the case study revealed alarming behaviors among members of the organization, called "Linguers". The analysis of the global result has allowed the formulation of a general hypothesis, which affirmed that traditional feminist leadership has a deficiency in influence capacity to overcome barriers to African women's empowerment. In addition, five specific hypotheses were deducted from the comment on observed behaviors. They are related to the effect of positive emotion on changing attitudes, the attractiveness of intrinsic motivation based on values, the impact of gender discrimination on the mindset of women who are victims of a patriarchal system, and the power of focused communication in social behavioral change.  In sum, the article sets the foundation of a feminist leadership that promotes the use of positive psychology variables to ensure African women's empowerment with regard to the particularities of their respective social norms.

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Published

2023-01-21

How to Cite

Gaye, A. K. . (2023). Complexity of African Women’s Empowerment: Case study of "Linguers" from Walo . International Journal of Economic Studies and Management (IJESM), 3(1), 58–75. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7578842