CAMEROON HOSTED THE FIRST EDITION OF CORPORATE AWARD WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

How have women fared throughout the economy? In other words, women are still struggling to obtain business chief executive leadership roles. There are still many obstacles preventing women from obtaining this leadership level or from keeping them. Reason justified in Cameroon, for the first time initiated Corporate Awards Women in Leadership. This took place on the 8th of December 2016 at Pullman. Hosting over 15 national and international speakers ( Dayo Oladele-Ilori, Terrence Brathwaite, Gundula Bom, Gwendoline Abunaw, Jacqueline Patcha, Patricia Kakou, Clemence Nwonkap, Celina Choi, Caude Panmo, Desiree Tolen, Charlie Teneg, Rachel Hale, Regine Ekwa Ngalle, Bertrand Tiotsop, Roland Kwemain), one can say for the first time, the hypocrite issue on challenges that both 21st century women face were openly discussed in detail, and awareness raised.






It is no doubt this is a milestone in the history of Cameroon; having a programs totally free from governmental influence that identifies barriers and obstacles and then suggest strategies for women to circumvent these barriers. The goal of these summit indeed is to facilitate excellent women leadership abilities. As one of the international speaker:Terrence Brathwaite precisely stated: women are the Bosses, from managing the home to directing a multinational company.

Findings suggest approximately 50% of women leaders perceive barriers that prevent women for entering management positions and lower advancement rates for women. Further studies show that aspiration in women exists whether or not they take action and motivate themselves to advance for top management positions. However, barriers like discrimination, family-life demands, prejudice, and stereotyping result in fruitlessness in many cases. The role of women in Africa has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. The proportion of women attending college, matriculating from graduate schools, and obtaining doctorate degrees has increased slowly but surely.

Given these large percentage increases, one might conclude that the migration of women towards leadership roles has been widely accepted. The answer is NO because, yet women are still associated with low expectations both in education and the workforce. Less women seek and obtain the highest leadership roles in education, professions, and business. For example, according to Laff (2006), in the banking industry the ranks of women in senior level management positions in most african countries is still on the low; with a slow increased from 19% to 21% between 2003 to 2006. Even more importantly, the percentage of women at the corporate executive level in the banking industry has not increased despite many women opting and graduating from banking and finance schools every year.
 

To address these dilemma the unprecedented summit had for theme, “Inspiring Women to Lead, Engage and Impact Growth” receiving over 150 delegates both from in and out of Cameroon. Personal experiences and stories from different speakers being woman in leadership positions, were sources of inspiration for aspiring ones. Also included in the summit program, was a mentor-mentee network section initiated by the executive director of the summit DayoOladele-Ilori. Such gave mentors the opportunity to coach and guide young women who aspire to become leaders, and be part of the change.