Women in Management:
Breaking the glass ceiling
Represented by Gry Guldberg and Trine Blichfeldt, Estuary was in Arusha, Tanzania in Aug/Sep 2024 to facilitate the Danida Fellowship Centre-programme, ‘Women In Management’. A programme to empower 25 accomplished women in senior leadership roles in diverse sectors across Africa in close collaboration with Tana Copenhagen.
Client: Danida Fellowship Centre
Consultant on the assignment: Gry Guldberg & Trine Blichfeldt
Structural and cultural barriers, such as gender bias, lack of mentorship and unequal opportunities in the workforce prevent women from breaking the glass ceiling.
This training programme is designed to address these challenges by equipping participants with the skills needed to understand and analyse barriers to equal rights and opportunities.
The programme also highlights how gender influences leadership and management and builds the participants’ confidence in their abilities as managers and leaders in order to advance their careers and effectively lead others.
The training programme is a continuous programme hosted by Danida Fellowship Centre and takes place at MS TCDC in Arusha, Tanzania.
Gry and Trine’s roles during the training programme
Trine’s role in the programme was to facilitate a session on building a personal brand and network.
Gry had the overall responsibility for ensuring that the content met the educational standards and to achieve the programme’s objectives.
She also facilitated several sessions, including management versus leadership, feminine leadership and mastering impactful communication.
Gry's contribution is crucial in assisting these women to build inner strength and create strategic opportunities that promote growth and sustainable development for themselves, their organisations and their communities.
Besides Gry and Trine, the facilitator team consisted of Grace Muchunu, Mary Alice Bamusiime, Doris Ndewa Likwelile and Makena Mwobobia.
The 25 accomplished women in senior leadership roles work in diverse sectors and come from 10 countries across Africa – Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
Our approach: Imagining we are sunflowers
Throughout the programme, we have used an approach that encourages the participants to find and appreciate the "light"—their strengths, dreams and successes—and use them to fuel their journey forward.
Because when people have confidence, they dare to grow.
The approach is called Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and is a transformative method that offers a powerful opportunity for self-discovery.
In this context, “appreciative” means focusing on what is positive and working well–while "inquiry" refers to the process of exploring and uncovering new possibilities.
As women’s potential in leadership is often held back by invisible structures and biases, AI helps uncover and highlight the participants’ strengths, reminding them of the unique value they bring.
The most important aspect of this method is the ability to ask powerful and disruptive questions that challenge the participants to see things in a new way.
Throughout the programme, the facilitators used this approach to guide the 25 female leaders across 10 African countries by asking questions such as:
🌻 What are my strengths as a leader?
🌻 What could I easily grow in my leadership?
🌻 What is the dream I have for myself and my leadership?
🌻 How can we design a workplace that truly empowers and supports women?
🌻 How can I, as a female leader, create a sustainable organisation?
🌻 What is the boldest step I can take in my leadership journey?
So, just as the sunflower turns toward the sun to grow, looking at the positive ideas or opportunities over negative problem identification strengthens the female leaders’ starting point and helps them stand tall in their leadership journey looking forward.
