{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T04:31:54Z","timestamp":1788150714771,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,30]],"date-time":"2024-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1722297600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,30]],"date-time":"2024-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1722297600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Int J Equity Health"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Existing evidence suggests that organisation-level policies are important in enabling gender equality and equity in the workplace. However, there is little research exploring the knowledge of health sector employees on whether policies and practices to advance women\u2019s career progression exist in their organisations. In this qualitative study, we explored the knowledge and perspectives of health managers on which of their organisations' workplace policies and practices contribute to the career advancement of women and their knowledge of how such policies and practices are implemented and monitored.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>We employed a purposive sampling method to select the study participants. The study adopted qualitative approaches to gain nuanced insights from the 21 in-depth interviews and key informant interviews that we conducted with health managers working in public and private health sector organisations. We conducted a thematic analysis to extract emerging themes relevant to advancing women\u2019s career progression in Kenya\u2019s health sector.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>During the interviews, only a few managers cited the policies and practices that contribute to women\u2019s career advancement. Policies and practices relating to promotion and flexible work schedules were mentioned most often by these managers as key to advancing women's career progression. For instance, flexible work schedules were thought to enable women to pursue further education which led to promotion. Some female managers felt that women were promoted to leadership positions only when running women-focused programs. There was little mention of capacity-building policies like training and mentorship. The health managers reported how policies and practices are implemented and monitored in general, however, they did not state how this is done for specific policies and practices. For the private sector, the health managers stated that implementation and monitoring of these policies and practices is conducted at the institutional level while for the public sector, this is done at the national or county level.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>We call upon health-sector organisations in Kenya to offer continuous policy sensitisation sessions to their staff and be deliberate in having supportive policies and other pragmatic interventions beyond policies such as training and mentorship that can enable women\u2019s career progression.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12939-024-02235-y","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,30]],"date-time":"2024-07-30T09:05:31Z","timestamp":1722330331000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["\u201cOur program manager is a woman for the first time\u201d: perceptions of health managers on what workplace policies and practices exist to advance women\u2019s career progression in the health sector in Kenya"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Sally Atieno","family":"Odunga","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Henry Owoko","family":"Odero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jackline","family":"Syonguvi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michelle","family":"Mbuthia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sonja","family":"Tanaka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sylvia","family":"Kiwuwa-Muyingo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Damazo T.","family":"Kadengye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,30]]},"reference":[{"issue":"8","key":"2235_CR1","first-page":"1262","volume":"11","author":"Z Zeinali","year":"2022","unstructured":"Zeinali Z, Muraya K, Molyneux S, Morgan R. 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Available from: http:\/\/www.kenyalaw.org:8181\/exist\/kenyalex\/actview.xql?actid=No."}],"container-title":["International Journal for Equity in Health"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/s12939-024-02235-y.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/s12939-024-02235-y\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/s12939-024-02235-y.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,30]],"date-time":"2024-07-30T09:08:12Z","timestamp":1722330492000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12939-024-02235-y"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,30]]},"references-count":20,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12]]}},"alternative-id":["2235"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s12939-024-02235-y","relation":{},"ISSN":["1475-9276"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1475-9276","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,30]]},"assertion":[{"value":"22 May 2024","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"18 July 2024","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"30 July 2024","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"This study involved human subjects. As such, ethical approval was sought from AMREF Health Africa Ethics and Scientific Review Committee (AMREF-ESRC P133\/2022). In addition, we were granted a research permit by Kenya\u2019s National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI). Consent to participate in the study was sought from participants before the interviews.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"148"}}