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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT The Impact of Glass Ceiling on Female Career Advancement: The Case of the Educational Sector of the Mezam and Fako Divisions of Cameroon

: Glass ceiling syndrome” is one of the primary hidden barriers that prohibit the progression of talented women professionals from ascending senior executive positions in most formal organizations like schools Cameroon. This barrier faced by women in the said country is an unwritten rule in many business and non-business organizations, despite the fact that the number of women in top-level corporate jobs remain blocked in their career journey. This is a call for concern and thus this work centres on ‘Assessing the Impact of Glass Ceiling on Female Career Progression in the Educational sector of the Mezam and Fako Divisions of Cameroon’. It summarizes barriers that work to keep women in traditional “sticky floors” where they remain stock at those floor levels, unable to make any swift journey to positions of leadership, unless sexually harassed sometimes in order to gain a position of authority. The objectives of the study seek to assess the factors that influence glass ceiling experienced by women employees in the Study Area. Secondly, it examines the direct and indirect effects of glass ceiling syndrome on women career advancement in these sectors of the two Divisions. The methods used for data collection are interviews and questionnaires administered to 530 women in schools and banks of the two regions. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for hypothesis testing and as a tool for inferential statistics. This is a fitting model because it analyses several variables simultaneously-even the unobservable, hard-to-measure latent variables like Glass ceiling and female career development. Results indicated that the barriers have a 52% impact on glass ceiling and the Glass ceiling syndrome in turn has a negative effect on female career progression by 62%. It was discovered that out of the 1462 Administrators or Heads of Institutions in the two regions of study, 1063 are men and only 399 are women. Some strategies are proposed to combat the negative effect of glass ceiling on the career progression of these women. They are: consciousness raising, career planning, management training, information sharing, mentoring, networking, and retraining. In order to shrink glass ceiling effect, some women are quitting their jobs and setting up their business, becoming freelancers in order to have more control over their career trajectory.

(petty traders), women account for 45.8% out of 85.2% of Cameroonians employed in that sector. Additionally, more than 75% of the workforce in the agricultural sector are women. (National Institute of Statistics-Cameroon, 2004). From a personal survey round most organizations like Higher Educational Institutions within the Bamenda and Fako regions, have disgruntled female workers due to the glass ceiling impediment. They face obstacles like: Religious/Cultural/Social barriers, Institutional/Organizational/ Structural barriers, Legislation/Political Barriers, Educational barriers, Gender Based/Self-made barriers and political/Leadership barriers. This unfortunate situation of these women provokes the following research question: To what extent does glass ceiling influence women career advancement in the Education sector of the Mezam and Fako Divisions of Cameroon? What are the indicators of female career progression among these women?

Research Objectives
 To evaluate the extent to which glass ceiling barriers influence women career advancement in the Education sector of the Mezam and Fako Divisions of Cameroon.  To assess the extent to which Motivational Factors contribute to Female Career advancement in the two sectors of the Divisions of study  To evaluate the extent to which glass ceiling influence women career advancement through motivational factors in the Educational sector of the Mezam and Fako Divisions of Cameroon.

Mezam Division-North West Region of Cameroon
Mezam is a county of Northwest Region in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 1745 km² and as of 2001 had a total population of 465,644. The capital of the department lies at Bamenda. The department is divided administratively into 5 communes and in turn into villages: Bafut, Bali, Bamenda 1, Bamenda 11, Bamenda III Santa and Tubah. (Kaberry, 1962) This Thesis work concentrated only on the Bamenda Municipality made up of the three communes. That is; Bamenda 1,Bamenda 11 and Bamenda III

Fako Division -South West Region of Cameroon
Fako is a department of Southwest Region in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 2,093 km² and as of 2001 had a total population of 534,854.The capital of the department lies at Limbé. The department is divided administratively into 7 communes and in turn into villages: Buéa, Limbé I, Limbé II, Limbé III, Muyuka, Tiko and West Coast. For this study, we concentrated on the Limbe and Buea Municipalities.

Sources and Method of Data Collection
The data needed for this work was obtained mainly from the Primary Source. This source of data constituted interviews conducted using a single form of questionnaire administration designed for a stipulated group of female interviewees namely; the Self-administered Questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed to the women of the Educational Sector of the two Divisions of study and each of them could answer them since all of these women respondents are literate. Six hundred questionnaires were given out and 530 of them were returned.

Population and Sampling Techniques
The Stratified Simple Random sampling technique was employed to get the various female employees in the Educational Sector of the two Divisions of study. In this sector, we selected from some Institutes of Higher Learning; the University of Buea (UB), the University of Bamenda (UBA), The Catholic University Institute of Buea (CUIB), the Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC) Bamenda, Government Secondary Schools, Denominational secondary Schools and Private Secondary Schools.

Model Specification and Estimation
For the inferential statistics, the Partial Least Square Path Modelling (PLS-PM) or the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is a combination of Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression. It also goes by the aliases 'causal modelling' and 'analysis of covariance structure' The PLS Structural Equation Modelling is composed of two sub-models; the measurement model and the structural model. The Measurement Model represents the relationships between the measured (manifest or observed variables) or indicators and the latent (unobserved variables) or factors. The Structural Model represents the relationships between the latent (hidden) variables and the exogenous variables. The latent variables in this study are glass ceiling and the indicators are their determinants. In order to examine the determinants of glass ceiling experienced by women in Mezam and Fako Division of Cameroon, the model is specified as follows.
Equation (3) examined the relation between measure of complacency barriers (COMB), stereotype and inter group polarization (STRB), harassment and others barriers (HAOB), measure of accessibility barrier (ACCB), personal barriers (PERS), negative expectation (NET) and glass ceiling (GLCS).In the model specification above, the constant is omitted because we are dealing with standardized scores and the mean value is zero while the standard deviation is one 3.4.2. Specification of Model Two 3.4.2.1. The Direct Effect models specification. The direct model specification derived from the conceptual framework will permit us to examine the direct effect of glass ceiling syndrome on women career advancement in Mezam Division The functional form of the model is as follow. CAREEA =f(GLCS) Empirical Model of partial direct effect is as seen below. CAREER1 = β4GLCSi + ε1 (2) The parameters in equation 2 will be estimated using the maximum likelihood approach of variance based structural equation modeling using the software SmartPLS 2.

Specification of Model Three
Specification of model three will permit us to explore the extent to which motivational factors and glass ceiling syndrome contribute to women career advancement in Mezam and Fako Division of Cameroon. That is, the interactive effect of these factors on female career growth. The estimation of the parameters in this model will permit us to adequately response to question 3 in the study.

The Indirect Effect Model Specification
The relationship between the constructs glass ceiling, motivational factor and interactive effect of motivational factor and glass ceiling and women career advancement can be expressed in the functional form as seen below. That is, the effect of glass ceiling on female career advancement as mediated by the cofounding variable -motivational factors. On the other hand, we will assess the impact of motivational factors on female career progression as mediated by the confounding variable-glass ceiling.

CAREEA = f (GLCS, MOTF, GLCS*MOTF)
(3) The empirical model derived from the functional form can be model using the hypothesized conceptual framework and mathematic as seen below.   . Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) results are employed to interpret the causal relationships between the measured and latent variables. The Factor or Path Analysis helps in inferring relationship between the latent variables. The confirmatory Factory Analysis is employed as a method of analysis of the data collected. The Explanatory Factor Analysis is applied to help test the relationship between the measured or observed variables. The software for the Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling used for data processing is the SmartPLS2 or PLS2 Statistically, the model is evaluated by comparing two variance/covariance matrices. From the data collected, a simple variance/covariance matrix is calculated. From this matrix, and the model an estimated population variance/covariance matrix is computed. If the estimated population variance/covariance matrix is very similar to the known sample/variance/covariance matrix, then the model is said to be fit for data collected. A Chi-square statistic is computed to test the null hypothesis that the model does fit the data well. In a reflective model, the latent constructs are a consequence of the measurement indicators. That is, the latent construct reflects the type of indicators. In this model, indicators are essentially interchangeable and therefore, the removal of an item doesn't change the essential nature of the underlying construct. A change in an indicator brings a change in the latent construct. Reflective measurement approach tries to maximize the overlap between the interchangeable factors. Here, arrows leave from the latent constructs and point towards the indicators. In this research study, the reflective variables are: Human Capital Development (HCD), Entrepreneurial Clustering (ENCL), Domestic Conflict (DCMT).

The Formative Model
In the formative model, measurement items or indicators cause the construct. There is little or no correlation between the indicators. They are distinct from each other. In this model, omitting an indicator is omitting a part of the construct. Here, arrows leave from the indicators to the latent constructs. In this work, Glass Ceiling is a Formative Vol 7 Issue 11 DOI No.: 10.24940/theijbm/2019/v7/i11/ BM1911-008November, 2019 Construct, comprising of personal barriers (PERS), harassment and interpersonal barriers (HAOB), complacency/ Organizational Barriers (COMB) and accessibility barriers or work/career balance (ACCB) The coefficients in the models are called Regression B-Weights and the coefficients linking one latent to another are called Path coefficients. Each path directly linking to each construct are called direct path coefficients. Paths linking indirectly are called indirect path coefficients.

The Age of the Respondents
The Age factor is very vital in determining the age group of women employed in organizations of the two Divisions of this study. From Table 1 below, this study has shown that 8 % of the women are below 20 years, 20.8% fall within the age range (21-30years), 30.0% are between (31-40 years), while 27.5% are about (41-50 years), and 20.9% are (50 and above). This survey has provided evidence of work opportunities these female age groups pursue to earn a living. In this regard, the young as well as the old are very active in the in the labour market in the two Divisions.  Figure 2 below has shown that the percentage of married women involved in activities of the 530 respondents is 51.3%, widows form 10.6%, the divorced constitute 1.9% and single women make up 35.8%. This entails that all these categories of women find it necessary to get involved in the job market as it is an indispensable economic activity and a means of survival for them and their families.   (2018) With regards to the Educational Status, the responses gotten from most of the respondents indicate that the educational level of the majority of women respondents of the study area is commensurate to their nature of jobs as Teachers. Statistics from Table 3 above shows that: 1.1% of them did not complete secondary school, 2.8% completed secondary school, 1.3% did not complete high school, 7.2% completed high school, 40.6%, are professional school graduates, and46.8% are university graduates. This is an indication that these women are qualified for their respective jobs and thus their output or productivity should be up to expectation. Those of them who did not complete secondary school are mostly auxiliary workers like cleaners and security guards employed security companies and sent to schools.

Evidence of Glass Ceiling In the Higher Educational Sector of Fako and Mezam Divisions of Study
The results of the study presented in the following tables, will help substantiate the existence of glass ceiling in the various organizations of the two regions in question. Statistics from the Table 4   The result in Table 6 above shows that accessibility barriers (ACCB), structural barriers (STRB), complacency barriers (COMB) and personal barriers (PERB) have positive significant effects on glass ceiling syndrome among women employees in Fako and Mezam Division. Stereotype and inter group polarization (SIGP) exclusion and harassment and others barriers (HAOB) also contribute though insignificantly to glass ceiling syndrome among women employees.
Technically, a one-unit increase in accessibility barriers for instance, would result to 41% increases in the glass ceiling effect. Complacency barriers contribute 26%, structural barriers 23%, stereotype and inter group polarization (SIGP) would have contributed up to 16% if it was significant. The significant of these factors permit us to reject the null hypothesis one in this study which state that accessibility barriers (ACCB), stereotype and personal barriers (PERB), structural barriers (STRB), complacency barriers (COMB) have an insignificant positive effect on glass ceiling syndrome, of course with the exclusion of inter group polarization (SIGP) exclusion, harassment and others barriers (HAOB). We therefore conclude that the determinants of glass ceiling effect are all the above-mentioned barriers. Table 3 Above)

Personal Barriers (PERB)
Personal factors encompass personality characteristics, background influences, and socialization patterns that typify many women and that serve to block their career advancement. These personal barriers indicate that Women lack sufficient self-confidence in their ability to work. All these personal barrier factors stimulate glass ceiling challenges by 0.524146 or 52% and thus a block in female career Development as seen in Table 6 above.

Structural Barriers (STRB)
Institutional barriers are constituted in many aspects of organization functioning, including: recruitment systems; selection systems; placement systems; evaluation systems; reward system, communication systems; power and authority systems; and other norms and expectations. Most of these organizational factors like promotion systems do not favourwomen. From Table 6 above, results reveal that an increase these barriers facilitate the existence of glass ceiling by 0.236316 or 23% and thus female career advancement.

Accessibility Barriers (ACCB)
These barriers take in to consideration the challenges created by women in their negligence of their teaching jobs and banking activities in preference for their family responsibilities. For example, the results reveal that most of these women take excessive amounts of sick leave, follow their husbands around, thus putting their families before their carriers. In addition, men do not want women as supervisors and some women hate working for other women. The results in Table 6 above indicate that a rise in accessibility barriers will lead to a rise in Glass ceiling by 0.410308 or 41 %. This has a significant negative impact on female career advancement.

Complacency Barriers (COMB)
Complacency Glass ceiling barriers elaborate the fact that women are not respected equally in the Education and banking sectors of the Divisions under study. That is, Sufficient opportunities do not exist these organizations for women to advance in to senior management positions. Women form a greater number in these Institutions but number of women penetrating the hierarchy and achieving senior positions is steadily insignificant. From the results obtained in Table 6 above, a rise in complacency barriers will create high avenues for glass ceiling by 0.266313 or 27%. This in turn will have a negative effect on the careers of women working in these organizations.

Stereotype and Inter Group Polarization (SIGP)
Institutional mindsets include various types of gender bias and stereotyping. There is a common belief that gender differences make women and men effective in different roles. Thus, women are less effective to the extent that the leader role is masculinized, and men are less effective when the role is feminized. For example, a woman can be a very effective leader, but her platoon may not support her, because she's in a role considered to be incongruent with femininity. Two major types of interpersonal barriers can be specified. These are: sex-role stereotyping; and inter-group polarization (Shawn, 2018). Table 6 above substantiate the fact that a rise in Stereotype and Inter Group Polarization, will cause an insignificant rise in glass ceiling practices in these Institutions under study by 0.167252 or 16%. Any prevalence of glass ceiling is a sure blockage to female career development in the education and banking sectors of these regions under study.

Sexual Harassment and Others Barriers (HAOB)
Table 6 above reveal that the existence of sexual harassment in these Institutions under study causes a rise in glass ceiling prevalence by 0.166222 or 16%. This in effect hinder female career progression. Some women are sexually harassed by their bosses before they gain promotion within the school setting as Principals, Deans of study, Deans of Discipline, Staff Representative, Vice Chancellor, Head of Department, Deans of Faculty, Registrar of the University and many other positions of Authority within the Educational setting. This becomes so traumatizing for women who desire to grow in their career options within the teaching profession. That is why the majority of these women remain stock at low levels of management in their working environment.
 The findings in Table 7 above show that glass ceiling has a negative significant direct effect on women career advancement in Mezam and Fako Division of Cameroon. An increase in glass ceiling will lead to a fall in career advancement by 0.612642 or 61%.
 Research Objective 3: To what extent does motivational contribute to women career advancement in Mezam and Fako Division of Cameroon?
We present the result of the path regression analysis that shows a positive relationship between motivation and women career advancement.

Hypothesis
Hypothetical The result in Table 8 above shows that motivational factors contribute positively to women career advancement in Fako and Mezam Division. Technically, a unit increase in the level of motivational factors among women employees will lead to 52 % improvement in the level of career advancement.

Career Advancement Indicators Results
From the results gathered in the field and the Principal Component analysis, the women of the educational sector under study agreed that their career advancement in the teaching field is made manifest by the following indicators:

Human Capital Development (HCD) Indicator
Most of the women agreed that the human capital development component is an indicator of their career advancement. Some of them who have advanced in education, those who believe in the capacities for consciousness raising and those having career planning for future prospects have the satisfaction of attaining career growth. Results from Table  9 below, indicate that 345 of the 530 women all acknowledged that when women advance in education, they become more qualified and can easily gain promotion to higher posts of responsibility like Principal in case of secondary schools and Deans of Faculty in case of the universities. Promotion is a form of career advancement. The majority of the women respondents indicated that when they as teachers advance in professional competence through training in avenues like seminars, conferences, etc., promotion to posts of leadership in the educational sector where they work can be guaranteed. Following the results from Table 10below, 310 of the 530 women accepted the fact that specialized training augments their qualification and thus the probability for them being appointed to posts of leadership becomes higher. This component consists of women being able to express interest in high stake, challenging and visible assignments and secondly, being entrepreneurial in taking initiatives. The women who have taken interest in this domain testified to have attained a career advancement through the appointments they received. For example, in Table 11 below, 58.5% of the women respondents confirmed the importance of having a specialized training in the career advancement process. Training guarantees promotion to high posts of responsibility. Most of the women respondents accepted the fact that there is need for entrepreneurial clusters among the women in order to guaranteed the sharing of useful information for their career advancement in the educational field. From Table 12 below, it is noticed that 291 of the 530 women acknowledged that clustering among them for information sharing is greatly useful for their career advancement. These tactics comprise of Women's balancing their capacity of work and family responsibilities, no career interruptions for child bearing, child raising and similar family responsibilities, learning how to deal with routine family responsibilities (e.g. visiting kids, schools, caring for kids), having a supportive spouse, and changing the perceptions that women may eventually leave the workplace to raise a family. From Table 13 below, 54% of the women respondents indicated that balancing work and family responsibility was greatly helpful in career advancement procedures. This is evident in the fact that in secondary schools, most women appointed as principals are practically free from child bearing and thus less house responsibilities. The result in Table 14 above shows moderate evidence of factorability of the items using principal component analysis. Both Bartlett's test for sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) is 0.728 and is significant. The significant of these tests permit the researcher to identify the few significant underling items that cluster into a homogenous set. We proceed to present the result of the total variance extracted.

Motivational Factors Results
From the results gathered in the field and the Principal Component analysis, the women of the educational sector under study agreed that their career advancement is enhanced by the following motivational factors: 4.6.1. Push Factors (PUSHF) The motivational pull factors to career advancement are the desire by the women of the educational sector under study, to acquire financial help from the government and to attain a job and career satisfaction through their teaching profession. From table 15 below, 94.3% of the women acknowledged that their desire for financial independent motivates their teaching career and its advancement through promotions to higher posts of duty. The push factors here comprise of women who desire to challenge the stereotyped ideas about female workers incapability to assume posts of authority in the teaching milieu. Results from Table 16 below, indicated that 401 of the 530 women agreed that they teach effectively to improve on their output and thus guarantee promotion in order to challenge the stereotyped ideas about female workers. This motivates them to attain career advancement through promotions at their job sites. The entrepreneurial oriented women of the area of study are motivated to be role models, create employment opportunities for others like creating evening schools to employ jobless teachers and do things in an innovative manner. This is a sure pointer to career growth. From Table 17 below, we notice that 94% of the women agreed that having an entrepreneurial orientation, shifts toward career advancement and a destruction of glass ceiling through female appointments to posts of leadership Extrinsic motivational indicators to career advancement include the women desiring to work to attain job satisfaction, desire to for a high self-esteem, high income to acquire skills and knowledge. From Table 18 below, 91.7% of the women agreed that all these mentioned factors are geared towards career advancement and job satisfaction. When this is achieved, glass ceiling is crushed and there is career growth.  The result in figure 4.2 above, shows that the relationships between the constructs of the inner model were all significant. The relationship between the indicators and the constructs were all significant except for some few indicators of the construct glass ceiling syndrome (PERB, NETB, HAOB, and ACCB). An increase in ACCB, COMB, HAOB, NETB, PERB, SIGB and STRB, will lead to a rise in glass ceiling by 1.109, 2.267, 1.460, 1.512, 0.878, 3.309 and 4.661 respectively. The glass ceiling rise will have a negative impact on female career advancement by 24.612. Motivational factors will impact positively on female career progression by 2.360.

Frequency
 Objective 3 Continued: The Extent To Which Glass Ceiling Influence Women Career Advancement Through Motivational Factors In The Educational Sector Of The Mezam And Fako Divisions Of Cameroon. The integration between glass ceiling on female career progression through the motivational factors will be clearly explained through Fig 4 below. The results from the SmartPls statistical software helps to bring out the structural relationship between the three constructs of glass ceiling, women career progression and motivational factors. This means that the variables are interacted to assess the effect of glass ceiling indirectly. Glass ceiling syndrome and motivational factor explain 43.9% (R 2 ) of the variation in career women advancement. It is observed that glass ceiling syndrome have a negative effect on motivation and women career advancement. That is, an increase in glass ceiling will lead to a fall in female career advancement by 0.467 or 46% and on motivational factors by 0.502 or 52%. In this study, Glass ceiling is an Exogenous Variable because, it has a negative impact on the motivational factors and on female career advancement. The two variables may shrink Glass ceiling. That is, an increase in motivational