Leadership styles and women’s educational empowerment in South Sudan: a case study of Rumbek County (lakes state, South Sudan)

Abstract

This study was about leadership styles and women empowerment in South Sudan; A case study of Rumbek County. The study focused on three specific objectives: To assess the influence of democratic leadership style on women empowerment in Rumbek County, to find out how autocratic leadership style influences women empowerment in Rumbek County and to establish the influence of transformational leadership style on women empowerment in Rumbek County. A phenomenology and descriptive research designs were employed and both quantitative and qualitative approaches of data collection were used. The study used a population size of 380 and a sample of 195 respondents was selected using Solven’s formula (2000), but only 180 was used for data analysis. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the samples. Self-administered questionnaire and interview guide were also used as data collection instruments. This study found out that there is a positive significant relationship between democratic leadership style and women empowerment (r = 0.754**, p<0.05). It was also revealed democratic leadership style contributes to women empowerment by 56%. The study also revealed that autocratic leadership style contributes to women empowerment by 74% and findings of the study further showed that goal achievement through women empowerment is improved when women are encouraged by the leaders. It was shown in this study that there is a positive influence between autocratic leadership style and women empowerment (r = 0.280, p<0.05). The researcher also discovered that, the correlation coefficient result revealed a positive significant relationship between transformational leadership and women empowerment (r=0.227*, p<0.05). Also, transformational leadership style improves women empowerment and this is because leaders who serve as embodiments to their subordinates give no room for diversion of action plans. Additionally, it was demonstrated that transformational leadership style contributes to women empowerment by 42%. In conclusion, leaders of Rumbek County should promote a broad inclusive vision through education, they should lead by example, allow women to have their space in decision making, create trust and confidence in order to empower women. The study recommended that leaders of Rumbek County should promote a broad inclusive vision, in order to empower women; they should continually inspire women in order to enhance their commitment and enable them to achieve their goals.