Abstract
This study explored the level of women participation in leadership identifying some of the challenges thereto in the selected rural district of Sanyati, Zimbabwe. The study sought to address the following aspects: roles of women in Sanyati, sociocultural beliefs with regards to leadership, and the depth of the effects of women’s nonparticipation in leadership. The research guided by the role congruity theory was qualitative in nature trying to understand human behavior and experience influenced by sociocultural norms. Research population composed of chiefs, headmen, village heads, elderly women and men, and councilors who had a sound appreciation of the subject. Twenty-seven participants, nine from each of the three wards, were purposively sampled and deemed enough as the research anchored on antipositivism. Data collection was necessitated through the use of in-depth interviews and questionnaires, after which latent content analysis was used to analyze data. The study established that the involvement and interest of women in leadership was low because of illiteracy, culture, and ignorance on the part of the women.
