Maternity and childcare responsibilities are the biggest factors limiting women’s advancement to leadership positions, with 74 per cent of respondents identifying them as major barriers, a 2026 Proten International report has revealed.
The report, titled “Exploring Challenges to Women’s Career Advancement in the Private and Public Sectors,” was presented in Lagos on Thursday at the Proten International business executive roundtable.
The report noted that women were “very well represented” at entry level and up to mid-management, but their representation tended to decline as they progressed higher up the career ladder.
The report, which examined the experiences and views of people working in Nigeria on women’s career advancement in the private and public sectors, was based on 3,004 valid survey responses.
Of the respondents, 62.3 per cent worked in the private sector, 30 per cent in the public sector, 4.1 per cent were self-employed or entrepreneurs, while 3.5 per cent were not currently employed.