Examining the Dearth of Women in Bahrain's Banking Sector Management

This dissertation investigates the underrepresentation of women in top management positions within Bahrain's banking sector (BBS). It examines the current situation, the reasons for needing more women in leadership roles, and the barriers hindering their advancement. The research employs both real-time and secondary data collection methods, including a literature review of 20 articles covering topics such as women's leadership, institutional performance, economic growth, conservative decision-making by female CEOs, and the glass cliff/ceiling theory. The study also addresses the current status of women in Bahrain's banking sector and the influence of feminism. The research methodology includes a qualitative approach, utilizing questionnaires and analyzing data to provide recommendations for increasing women's representation in Bahrain's banking sector at all levels.

Running head: WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
Dearth of Women Representation in the Top Management in the Banking Sector in Bahrain
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
Abstract
While working in the banking or financial sectors, female employees faces several obstacles
on the basis of professional as well as social perspective. Several factors can be responsible
for the shortage of women executives in BBS (Bahrain Banking Sector). The aim of this
research is to find out the dearth of Women Representation in the top management of the
Banking Sector in Bahrain while analysing the real time and secondary data collection. The
research objectives of this research have been made as per the aim of the study while aligning
the scope of the study with it. It has been found that there is a need for diversity within the
board members and this can only be done by inducing female executives into the managerial
positions. Reports suggest that a company is more likely to undergo a failure when it
undergoes a crisis. Increasing of the cultural and the social awareness and promotion of the
participation of the women in all the management positions to increase the opportunity of the
women to lead the banking and the financial sector. The development of the sustainability of
the women in the Bahraini financial sector needs the continued concern of the authorities for
the effective development of the mechanisms that encourage women employment and
accelerating development in the career that enables them to take up the challenges of
leadership position.

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Table of content
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................4
Background of the study..............................................................................................................4
Rationale of the study..................................................................................................................5
Research aim................................................................................................................................6
Research objectives.....................................................................................................................6
Research questions.......................................................................................................................7
Structure of the study...................................................................................................................7
Literature review........................................................................................................................8
Introduction..................................................................................................................................8
Women Leadership and Influence on Institution Performance and Economic Growth:.............9
Female CEOs and Chairwomen are more conservative:...........................................................12
Female Leaders and Glass Cliff and Glass Ceiling theoretical aspects.....................................13
Women’s current situation in the Bahraini Banking Sector in Bahrain:...................................17
Feminism:..................................................................................................................................21
Summary:...................................................................................................................................23
Literature gap:............................................................................................................................26
Research methodology.............................................................................................................27
Method outline...........................................................................................................................27
Research onion...........................................................................................................................27
Research philosophy and justification.......................................................................................28
Research approach and justification..........................................................................................29
Research design and justification..............................................................................................29
Research strategy and justification............................................................................................30
Data collection method..............................................................................................................31
Questionnaires:..........................................................................................................................31
Sample size................................................................................................................................32
Data analysis method.................................................................................................................33
Ethical consideration.................................................................................................................34
Summary:...................................................................................................................................35
Data collection and findings.....................................................................................................36

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Data presentation.......................................................................................................................36
Data analysis and Findings........................................................................................................42
Conclusion and recommendation.............................................................................................48
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................48
Linking with objectives.............................................................................................................50
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................51
Limitation..................................................................................................................................52
Future scope of the study...........................................................................................................53
References................................................................................................................................54
Appendix..................................................................................................................................61

4WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
Introduction:
Background of the study
In this era of modernization, it is highly crucial to incorporate female representation in
the higher post in order bring prosperity in the business as well as equality in the society.
Gender diversity can be considered as a major leadership concern and it is related to the
allocation of the economic resources and human talents. Gender diverse workplace imposes
positive impact not only on the organization but also encourages the society to be
progressive. According to researchers, hiring a demographically diverse workplace has the
potential to enhance the financial performance of the organization. Several advantages of a
gender-diverse team can be pointed out. Considering the fact that men and women posses
different points of view, market insights and ides, incorporating both mal as well as female
members in a team provides the team with better problem solving skills that in turn leads to
superior performance of the organization. Apart from that, a gender diverse workplace has
been found to provide an easier access to the resources that includes various sources of
information and credit and wider industry knowledge. Not only that a workforce which is
gender diverse, allows the company to serve an increasingly diverse consumer base.
While the above mentioned factor are the chief advantages of recruiting female
employees along with male employees, several positive impact on the society can also be
pointed out. Survey demonstrates that countries with more gender diverse companies
demonstrate progressiveness and independence of women compared to countries where
women are no allowed to lead a professional life. It has been found that gender diversity in
the boardroom is lower in the Asian and the Pacific nations in comparison to Europe and
North America. Among all the countries across the world, 22 countries in the Middle East
and north of Africa ranks lowest when it comes to gender equality. In some parts of the

5WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
Middle Eastern countries like Bahrain, women are not allowed to work and lead a
professional life. Even in this era of modernization there prevails a backlash against the rights
and freedom of women. In Bahrain, only 36.3 percent of the women lead professional life.
Lack of women employees in the Bahraini organization can be considered a major reason
behind the deficit off women managers and executives. The gender diversity in the
boardroom is lower in the Asian and the Pacific nations in comparison to Europe and North
America. It is also important to note that the differences in the gender differences in the cross
country are related to the supply of the female leaders are all related to the economic demand.
The supply of the female leaders, on the other hand, is measured by the infant survival,
wages, labor participation and equality in education.
Rationale of the study
Considering the fact that there exists a huge difference in the behavior executed by
men and women, several researches has been conducted on the gender based behavior
variances among the male and female employees in the workplace. It has been found that
gender diversity in the audit committee impose impact on the earning management of
banking sectors. On the other hand, the total number of Bahraini employees in BBS is
14,678, which is 37 percent of the total number of employees. Out of them, the percent of
female Bahraini employee is just 25 percent o the total workforce. Only 8 percent female
employees have manage to acquire executive level of BBS and the rest 92 percent is acquired
by male executive officers. Researchers have stated that banks which are led by female
managers have less likely to undergo failure compared to banks that are being led by male
managers. The conservative decision making of the female executives can be considered as a
major reason behind this. Thus it can be clearly understood that employing female employees
in the executive position will be highly beneficial for the banking sector of Bahrain.

6WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
Considering the fact that enhancement in diversity of thoughts leads to better problem solving
ability, it can be understood that during crisis, a gender diverse leadership will be able to
provide a better support. Besides that, it has been seen that a socially diverse workplace with
a diversity of ethnicity, race, gender and sexual orientation are caable of being more
innovative compared to a homogeneous group. Especially when it comes to the banking
sector, it has been found out that banks with female executives have evidenced higher profit.
Moreover, during the time of decision making it has been seen than women managers takes
more conservative decisions that are capable to prevent bank failure compared to male
executives. Several factors can be responsible for the shortage of women executives in BBS
(Bahrain Banking Sector). While working in the banking or financial sectors, female
employees faces several obstacles on the basis of professional as well as social perspective.
Research aim
The aim of this research is to find out the dearth of Women Representation in the top
management of the Banking Sector in Bahrain while analysing the real time and additional
data collection to explore the topic carefully. Apart from that, another aim of this research is
to formulate suitable recommendations for the organisations involved in Banking Sectors in
Bahrain that can help to increase the number of women employees in banking sectors for
both ground level and upper management level positions.
Research objectives
The research objectives of this research have been made as per the aim of the study
while aligning the scope of the study with it. The research objectives are described below:
 To find out the current situation in the BBS in terms of women’s representation in the
high-profile positions and Executive Boards

7WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
 To find the cause behind the requirement of women in the high-profile positions and
Executive Boards
 To find out the barriers that impeded women’s effort to reach top management positions
in the BBS
Research questions
(1) What is the current situation in the BBS in terms of women’s representation in the
high-profile positions and Executive Boards?
(2) Why do we need women in the high-profile positions and Executive Boards?
(3) What are the barriers that impeded women’s effort to reach top management positions
in the BBS?
Structure of the study
1.Introduction
2.Literature Review
3.Research Methodlogy
4.Data presentation
5.Analysis and interpretation
6.Conclusion and Recommenation

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Literature review
Introduction
In this era of modernization, it is highly crucial to incorporate female representation in
the higher post in order bring prosperity in the business as well as equality in the society.
According to a survey, only 4.5 female employees working in various Bahrain sectors have
managed to reach the position of CEO (Alsebaie 2015). Hence, the research problem is the
shortage of female representation in the top position of Bahrain Banking Sector. Considering
the fact that the researcher has followed qualitative data collection procure, a literature review
will be conducted as a source of secondary data collection. The purpose of the literature
review is to access, analyze and evaluate the reasons behind the shortage of female managers
and CEOs in the Bahrain Banking Sectors. In order to conduct the literature review, a total
number of 20 articles associated with the research problem will be analyzed. The purpose of
this literature review is to critically analyze all existing literature about your topic, exploring
theories proposed by others, comparing and contrasting them with each other, and then
identifying the research gap. The chief factors that will be covered in the literature review
include Women Leadership and Influence on Institution Performance and Economic Growth,
Female CEOs and Chairwomen are more conservative, Female Leaders and Glass Cliff
theory, Women’s current situation in the Bahraini Banking Sector in Bahrain and feminism.
Finally a conclusion will be derived after conducting the literature review.

9WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
Women Leadership and Influence on Institution Performance and Economic Growth:
According to Dezsö and Ross (2012), gender diversity can be considered as a major
leadership concern and it is related to the allocation of the economic resources and human
talents. The Asian countries in comparison to the European countries are less proactive in
pressurizing the gender diversity. It is important to note that the data collected from the
western countries are applicable to the data collected from the Asian countries. The prime
reason for such a difference in the data are the economic development, differences in the
demographics and the culture. Gender diversity can be considered as an important topic for
the social development and economic development. It has been argued that Strøm,
D’Espallier and Mersland (2014), that the gender diversity in the boardroom is lower in the
Asian and the Pacific nations in comparison to Europe and North America. The highest
gender diversity is noticed in Australia and in the Republic of Korea, it is lowest. The least
emphasis on the gender diversity in the female boardroom is noticed in the People's Republic
of China, however, the representation of the females has increased in the boardroom.
Malaysia and India are the only countries that had imposed a mandatory quota for the gender
diversity. Studies have shown that at least one female on the board has the capability to
significantly outperform the other companies or organizations. The return on equity (ROE)
and the return on assets (ROA) are positively associated with the appointment of a female
director in the subsequent years. According to Boehe and Cruz (2013), that it is important to
note that there is no predictive power between the financial performance and the gender
diversity after the endogeneity issues are considered. It is also important to note that the
differences in the gender differences in the cross country are related to the supply of the
female leaders are all related to the economic demand. The supply of the female leaders, on
the other hand, is measured by the infant survival, wages, labour participation and equality in
education. However, it is important to note that the gender diversity does not significantly

10WOMAN IN BANKING SETOR IN BAHRAIN
affect the discriminatory hiring decisions and the premarket conditions that are necessary for
the gender of equality in the society (Adb.org 2018). A report of United Nations on the
leadership roles of women has shown that the women that had the decision making
authorities had the capability to succeed in introducing the changes the lives of the other
women. It has also been noted that the women that hold the power position often do not have
the control over the large budgets. This thus acts as a limitation on the resources allocation
and the reduction of the gender equality (United Nations 2018). While it has been argued by
Gipson et al. (2017), that even though women make up the 47 per cent of the U.S workforce,
the leadership positions are held by a vast majority of the men in both the political and the
corporate arenas. It is important to note that the women had become successful in obtaining
the middle management and the supervisory role, the rate is however with respect to getting
access to the upper echelons of leadership. Reports suggest that the women possess less than
a third of the senior level and the executive positions, less than one-fifth of the members into
the board seats, even less than 5 per cent of the women are seen as chief executive officers. It
has also been highlighted in this study that the worldwide scenario shows that the women are
underrepresented in the senior leadership positions and this is not just limited to the United
States alone. Presently women are holding about less than a quarter position in the senior
leadership positions in the corporations. A third of the businesses have no women in the
senior roles (Duflo 2012).
Strøm, D’Espallier and Roy Mersland (2014) have postulated that a female CEO
tends to reveal a greater degree propensity to induce a higher degree of financial performance
in the finance and banking sector. Women’s improved level of understanding of the market
facilitates the performance growth of the organization and further is matched with a form of
leadership that comply with similar kinds of trends tend to demonstrate better proficiency.
The prevailing approach in the sphere of gender studies has been identified as both

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governance as well as organizational success which are likely to bring developments with an
increasing number of females in management and board (Strøm, D’Espallier and Mersland
2014). The total resource pool of equally-proficient men and women has been underused
when applicants for management and supervisory positions in the banking and financial
sector of Bahrain are exerted from the sub-set of men only. However, the authors claim the
vitality of beneficial leadership which is often been recognized as an intrinsic quality among
women (Strøm, D’Espallier and Mersland 2014). On the other hand researcher Mijntje
Lu¨ckerath-Rovers has been of a varying opinion whereby the importance of the existence of
women on the board enhances the governance of the company has been linked to the question
of the factors which must be attained by the improved corporate governance (Lückerath-
Rovers 2013). Furthermore, it has been claimed that if good corporate governance show
incompetence in improved performance, then the question of the way the organization would
execute its operations will fail to generate any practical value and the role of a women
appointed to the board will show no symbolic value. It is important to note that the role of
women who have been engaged in CEO or supervisory positions has witnessed direct
association with other aspects of corporate governance (Lückerath-Rovers 2013). However,
reports reveal that around 40% of all directors and managers are required by law to engage a
major section of women whereby the gender debate has contributed at an immense rate of the
assessment of role and responsibilities of the board in relation to the other current discourse
that incorporates shareholder activism or the growth of the most proficient practices
(Banksbahrain.org 2015).