Most women in Africa are climbing the corporate ladder alone, but new data offers a glimpse for countries to cross-learn how to better support women and fast-track gender parity at work places.
By Conrad Onyango, bird story agency
For more than a decade, Esther Wambugu-Obado has carved out an illustrious career in technology, holding senior roles at global giants like System Analysis Programme Development (SAP), Europe’s most valuable IT company and Microsoft and leaving her mark across three continents.
One thing has however remained strikingly consistent. A quiet, persistent reality of being the only woman in the room.
“Sometimes this meant being questioned and more so having to prove myself three times more than my male counterparts,” she reflected on her career journey during an interview with bird.
After college, Ms Wambugu-Obado started off her career as a consultant at Neptune Software, implementing core banking solutions across Africa and the Middle East.
She then joined Airtel Africa as the Group Airtel Money Operations Manager, where she led efforts to stabilise Airtel money technology operations across the continent.
Ms Wambugu-Obado also had a stint at SAP, where she was responsible for driving technology adoption in East Africa. Her role involved designing and solutions for major brands across Africa, eventually leading to her relocation to South Africa as a Technical Architect Lead for the African market.
She then joined Microsoft as an Advisor for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), helping organisations define their strategies around cloud, data, and artificial intelligence (AI).
In this role, she gained global exposure, working with major international brands such as Louis Vuitton, Anglo American, and Transnet.
But this colourful journey to and at the top, she disclosed, has been ‘lonely’, asserting that hard work and a resolve to always speak up for herself and others are what keeps her going. “I have learned that to grow, I must advocate for myself and for others, ” she said.
While her journey from Nairobi to Johannesburg, and now to Microsoft’s global boardrooms may be personal, it tells a broader story about the state of workplace gender parity in Africa.
Her work experience closely mirrors new findings in McKinsey’s new report that shows while more women are stepping into leadership across Africa, they still face systemic barriers.
The report dubbed, ‘Women in the Workplace 2025,’ covering two African nations, Nigeria, and Kenya also highlights that these challenges are not similar across the borders but vary significantly from country to country.
Kenya’s pattern
In Kenya, for instance, women begin relatively well-represented in the workforce, comprising 41 per cent of entry-level roles but their presence steadily declines at higher ranks of leadership.
By the time they reach the C-suite, only 27 per cent remain. On Kenyan company boards, female representation drops even further to 24 per cent.
The private sector in Kenya is marked by what McKinsey calls a “double dip” because women face a broken rung when trying to move into management, followed by another steep barrier to reach senior leadership.
Kenya’s public sector shows a slightly different trend, a stable representation at entry and mid-level management, but with a steep drop beyond those tiers.
Nigeria presents a different pattern
Women’s representation starts lower with 33 per cent at entry level and this averages around 29 per cent across the private sector, reflecting a relatively steady representation as they rise though they still face a hard ceiling at the top.
Interestingly, Nigerian women in senior roles are also more likely than men to switch organisations, whether drawn by better offers or due to limited growth in their current roles.
These patterns confirm what Ms Wambugu-Obado has long observed firsthand in her primary working countries and across other Africa countries under her scope.
“We are seeing more women in boardrooms, in government, and in senior tech roles. However, this progress is not evenly distributed,” she said.
In some regions and industries, she said women don’t see others like them in leadership, making it harder to envision themselves there and many women lack access to senior leaders who can advocate for their advancement.
In other regions, leadership is still seen as a male domain while in others, women still carry the bulk of family and caregiving responsibilities, making it harder to take on demanding leadership roles.
“ I have seen women rise rapidly because of strong policy support and visible role models. In other countries, I have witnessed brilliant women sidelined simply because leadership was still seen as a ‘man’s domain.’ Africa’s push for gender parity in workplaces, however, is not all gloom,” she noted.
Ms Wambugu-Obado believes that structural gaps can be solved if countries collaborate and learn from each other.
“There’s a lot we can learn from one another to foster more inclusive, supportive work environments and accelerate gender parity in leadership,” she noted.
She pointed to Rwanda’s gender quotas in government and South Africa’s structured corporate inclusion programmes as examples other countries could adapt.
Building Pan-African women’s leadership networks like Ignite Her 4 Africa, which she founded in 2023 to open doors for more women in workplaces across Africa, allows women in Kenya to learn from their peers in Nigeria, Ghana, or South Africa can power cross-border mentorship, peer learning, and leadership exchanges, helping women grow beyond local limitations and gain continental exposure.
“By learning from one another, sharing what works, and lifting as we rise, we can build a continent where women don’t just participate, they lead, shape, and transform,” Ms Wambugu-Obado stated.
She called for a continent-wide charter on workplace gender equality, aligned with the African Union or modeled after the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Researchers at McKinsey echoes similar sentiments
The researchers said, “ The challenges women face differ across countries, indicating an opportunity for these countries to learn from each other, such as how to attract more women into entry-level positions or how to remove women’s barriers to promotion into management and senior leadership roles.”
Bird Story Agency
