Date of Award
3-18-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
Department
College of Business
First Advisor
Donald Schoffstall, Ph.D.
Committee Members
Amy Ricci; Larry Hughes
Keywords
Business administration; Organizational behavior; Womens studies; Caribbean studies; Caribbean women; Guyana; Male-dominated industries; Organizational culture; Transport; Women's Workplace Culture; Logistics
Abstract
The pursuit of gender equality in the Caribbean and Latin America is a significant issue, as indicated by the 2022 Global Gender Disparity Report, which projects that, at its current pace, it will require 132 years to eliminate gender inequality globally. Given the historical male dominance in the transport and logistics sector, the purpose of this study was to explore Guyanese women's experiences in this male-dominated industry (Ng & Acker, 2020). Incorporated into this research was Eagly's (1978) Social Role Theory to analyze how societal roles and physical distinctions influence gender inequalities and the entrenched norms that shape women's roles. The research questions were designed to understand the experiences of Guyanese women employed in the transportation and logistics industry, their preferred coping mechanisms, and how their experiences compared to women in analogous male-dominated sectors globally.
Employing an embedded mixed-methods approach that combined Bergman's (2003) Women's Workplace Culture (WWC) questionnaire with open-ended questions and a ranked question to understand the coping mechanisms women prefer, data collected from 119 participants were analyzed. The WWC instrument's four subscales—Perceived Burdens, Personally Experienced Burdens, Sexual Harassment, and Inadequate Organizational Support—provided a comprehensive lens through which to analyze the data. The statistical analysis of women's experiences ranged between neutral and agree across the four WWC subscales. Through a thematic analysis of the open-ended questions, context was provided indicating that women do encounter challenges, including gender bias, a lack of professional development opportunities, instances of sexual harassment, and revealing that women often felt pressured to adopt more masculine behaviors to conform to workplace culture. These findings aligned with the investigation on coping strategies, which identified camouflaging as the most prevalent mechanism employed by the study participants. The findings from the study underscored that, despite progress toward gender equality, challenges persist, including pressure to conform to masculine norms, difficulties in achieving work-life balance, and barriers to career advancement. Understanding of women's experiences in Guyana's male-dominated transport and logistics industry was enhanced by this research paper. A foundational framework for further research was established following the study, which highlighted the need for focused interventions such as comprehensive anti-discrimination policies and enhanced organizational support systems.
Recommended Citation
Prashad, Jennifer, "Exploring the Experiences of Women in Guyana's Male-dominated Transport and Logistics Industry" (2025). JWU Dissertations & Theses. 34.
https://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/jwu_etd/34
