he term "Leadership" is a broad concept that has been given different meanings by different scholars and practitioners. In everyday usage, it permeates our human activities, organizations and other social settings. Organizations have leaders that pilot the affairs with the aim to achieve specified goals and objectives. Groups and sub-groups within the organization have their leaders. Communities have their leaders, labor unions, political groups, market women associations, students' associations, etc all have their leaders with who authority and power are vested on them to direct the lead the members toward achieving predetermined goals, and these goals may or may not be organizational.

Hence could sometimes be individual-oriented goals which the leader may sometimes impose on the members. However, this depends on the type of leadership style being used in each situation. Leadership therefore, involves working with and through people to accomplish specific goals, which sometimes may not necessarily be organizational goals. (Umoh 2002, 16-18). Therefore, all that the leadership function requires is the possession of some competencies. These competencies include technical skills, conceptual skills, human resource management skills, motivation skills, creativity skills, the endowment of wisdom, etc as this list is inexhaustible. Therefore, it follows why most scholars have defined the term as the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation. From this definition, it means that the leadership process is a function of the leader, the followers, and other situational variables. (Blanchard and Blanchard 1972, 9).

From this basic analysis, there merge, some critical questions that are very important to this study. First and foremost, one would ask, do the leadership competencies outlined above suggest any exclusivity in their natural endowments to men or that the men may have more robust natural endowments than the females? Would a woman be less creative, less skillful, or less technically sound than a man due to gender disposition? These few questions enable us to address our context of masculinity leadership syndrome in African organizations. As we defined leadership earlier, it is necessary to define the term "masculinity" in light of this paper. "Masculinity," which is also called manhood or manliness, is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with boys and men. As a social construct, it is distinct from the definition of male biological sex. From historical periods, the standards of manliness or masculinity vary widely across different race and cultures. Both males and females sometimes do exhibit masculine traits and behavor or, vice versa. But behavors such as strength, courage, independence, leadership, violence, and assertiveness are believed to be men's traits. These features and or characteristics drive the total manliness attributes of the African management world and they negatively interpose the medieval and modern management system in African organizations.

Therefore, the term "masculinity leadership" is a system of leadership that vested leadership position exclusively on the male folks to which the female is and should be made to have subordinated roles to the man's authority and dictates. As is most commonly found within the African organizational systems that are mostly influenced by African cultural norms. Masculinity leadership does not foster leadership inclusiveness and therefore, it is patriarchal and kleptocratic.

According to Patel, Gita, and Buiting Sophie (2013) "the human resources available to most countries are made up 50% of women. This means that since half of the total stock of human resources in a given country is not being channeled into the economy and not being made part of decision-making processes, then that country's economic potential is bound to suffer, by losing 50% of its capacity" They further collaborated this view that, for countries to navigate their ways out of the current economic crisis, business leaders and indeed policy-makers need to aggregate talents of both women and men more than ever to be able to come up with the best solutions" (9). Hence the thrust of this present research effort is to present a scholarly "critiquing of masculinity leadership syndrome in African organizations using the analytical and logical lens of critique from African traditional organizational settings to modern system viewing activities from the kitchen to the palace of broader organizational context.

This paper's importance is based on the fact that:

The role of women in African political and economic development is crucial as gender discriminations have hindered the growth of so many economies of the African continent. Leadership development and gender equality is a critical parameter for building vibrant economy of any region in the world. The paper is important because few of the women leaders in African organizations have proved their capabilities in most of their areas of specializations over time, and there is a need to balance the gender disparity gap that is currently limiting the growth of the human capital index in Africa.

The research purpose includes:

? To ascertain the barriers to women leadership in African organizations. ? To determine the influence of gender discrimination on women leadership participation in African organizations.

? To critically evaluate the impact of masculinity leadership on heterogeneous employees' performance in African organizations ? To ascertain how the men-men leadership syndrome in African organizations can be eradicated.

In this research, we have been confronted by the following research questions:

? What are the barriers to women's leadership in African organizations? ? What is the influence of gender discrimination on women's leadership participation in African organizations? ? What is the impact of masculinity leadership on heterogeneous employees' performance in African organizations? ? How can men-men leadership syndrome in African organizations be eradicated?

Review of Related Literature

The theory anchoring this study is based on the "Great Man Leadership Theory" Popularized by Carlyle, Thomas (1940). The Central thesis of the theory is that "Great leaders are God-gifted, not man-made" This portrays the view of the Great Man Theory of Leadership, in such dimensions that it relates to the fact that whether one could called a leaders or not, the determining factor is that leadership traits and competences are inbuilt. In other words, there seems to be a consensus that one could either be born as a great leader or not due to certain influences. It was argued that factors such as one's up-bringing, education, experiences are only modeling the person's leadership abilities; they are not necessarily responsible for making the person a leader (67).

Africans believed that leadership is an exclusive reserve of great men and not great women. We fussed our argument by advocating for leadership inclusiveness and gender equality in the leadership style in African organizations.

Before the advent of modern politics in Nigeria, which started with political activism in the build-up to independence, and matured in 1960, Nigerians had not been without political leadership. Traditional political structures had always existed, and through them, the people had gotten political leadership. In the centralized states, among the Hausa and Yoruba, the women's place in political leadership was prominent. Similarly, in some decentralized societies, especially among the Igbo of South-East Nigeria, the women also had a place in politics (Ukpata and Onyeukwu 2014, 72). Some of these positions of women traditional political leadership are shown in the table below. From the overview of the women's participation in political leadership in Nigeria from the pre-colonial era to the present-day political system, it is clear that women were recognized more in political leadership during the pre-colonial time than what was in practice during the colonial period to this present-day traditional leadership structures. Even at the pre-colonial period, traditional political power-sharing between men and women was only noticeable in five (5) states of the federation -Osun, Ondo, Oyo, Katsina, Kaduna, and Rivers states respectively. Whereas women's involvement in political power seems not to be a norm in other heterogeneous cultural settings in Nigeria (Ukpata and Onyeukwu, 2014, 73).

However, in discussing "The role of women in the development of culture in Nigeria", (Okonjo 1988, 38-44) posits that, "The villages and towns were ruled jointly by the Obi (the, male ruler or chief) the Omu (the female equivalent of the Obi). The Omu was not the wife of the Obi or related to him in any way (77). Generally, when the Obi is installed as the king, he ruled in conjunction with the Omu. There seems to be a clear division of functions between them, and none is superior to the other. The Omu ruled the women while the Obi ruled the men (Adereoti 2007, 33). (Ukpata and Onyeukwu 2014, 73) presented a debate that centered on the hypothesis that "whether the existence of women traditional rulers in the pre-colonial era represents a fair recognition of women development and empowerment in social, political and economic matters amongst multicultural ethnic cleavages in Nigeria." On the other hand, whether it is a patchy selected window-dressed representation of few ethnic origins as majority having the political and economic power? At whatever angle that is taken on the debate, it is conjectural and needs empirical validation. (75).

The "Great Man Leadership Theory" Popularized by Carlyle (1940). the central point of the theory is that; Great leaders are God-gifted, not created artificially by man" This portrays the view of the Great Man Theory of Leadership in such dimensions that it relates to the fact, that leadership traits are inbuilt. This position implies therefore that human intellectual capabilities and skills for performance in any specific duty are exclusive reserve of some individuals who are naturally and divinely born great. However, viewing the "theory of multiple intelligence" propounded by Gardner, (1983) cited in Cherry, Kendra (2018) posits that "all people irrespective of gender have different kinds of intelligence."

The position of the Great man leadership theory most perhaps laid the foundation for the Masculinity leadership system in the African continent. In most African countries, Jobs that are usually labor intensive are considered as men jobs, so also issues of leadership. It is a popular tradition in Africa that women should have their authority stamped in the kitchen and not in the leadership position such as Palace, where critical decisions about governance and leadership are made by men. In fact, in some cultures in Africa, for instance, women are prohibited from engaging in occupations such as Armed forces or military, Police force, Airforce, Navy, and jobs like Engineering, Security services, etc. Some cultures also prohibit women from going to schools claiming that women are meant to be given out in marriage and are for procreation of children. While when it comes to critical decision making in some of the cultures, men usually gathered in the town halls to make such decisions and then transmit the same to the women group who are bound by such decisions. In fact, in the traditional African Organizations, such as Kingdoms and chiefdoms, women are never allowed to form part of the cabinet of the king and therefore have nothing to say about what rules have been established to govern the subjects in the kingdom.

Recent development has shown significant improvement in the old African tradition of men-men-leadership syndrome in almost every organization. Writing from the South African context on "Only 5% of CEOs in Africa are Women" Omarjee, Lameez. (2016, 3) stressed that "There is a research evaluation report presented to have women in leadership positions in Africa." According to the McKinsey & Company report released recently, there is a link between companies which perform better financially and that have gender diversity." (2).

According to the report with regard to gender diversity and leadership for the past 10 years Africa has made significant progress and success. That's not withstanding, the report showed that only 5% of CEOs in the private sector organizations in Africa are women, when compared to 4% globally. This figure suggests that achieving gender equality is still a big issue, (Omarjee, 2016). Empirical findings equally showed that in comparing female representation leadership, the level of representations also varies from one industry to another. Hence in industries that are traditionally dominated by men, the representations of women are lower. "Historically, few women studied in these areas? the pipeline of women is smaller than men than in other areas," Moodley (2015 in (Omarjee, Lameez. 2016, 5). Although when one look at the results on table 2 above it seems that women have recently occupy more leadership position than before. Nevertheless, it does not imply that the women have any significant power to exercise in the work environment especially in the private sector where half of the women roles in operations at senior levels are mostly secondary or support functions. This situation is common across all sectors of businesses including, legal field, human resource management, communications, and corporate social responsibility, In the public sector the equivalent roles are mostly in areas such social welfare, advocacy, with just little or limited political influence, There is need therefore to critically look into the roles of women in all facets of business organizations and to help and sensitize them to reach higher levels of their careers, (Moodley, Samantha 2015). From the results of the companies surveyed, 56% of female African women who are senior managers only hold position of staff roles. There is also a wide gap in the pay structure between men and women holding similar senior position in so many of the private sector companies surveyed. For example, in country like South Africa, women who hold board membership positions earn pay package of 17% less below their male colleagues.

Similarly, African women who hold positions at Executive Committee levels constitute 23% compared with a global average of 20%. While at the board level, African women hold 14% of seats when compared with a global average of 13%. In the Southern Africa region, women who hold board positions were 20%, compared to the 14% average on the African continent. ( Moodley Samantha 2016, 4).

Even though women in Africa have been seen to be involved more as executive committee members, comparatively with what is obtainable in the EU, and most cases, they function in sedentary roles, statistics have shown that fewer of women are hold positions as Chief Executive Officers of Organizations in Africa. This is evidenced by the 5% figure shown in figure 2 above.

Design: This research being a working paper, is structured into two phases using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Under the Phase, I a phenomenological content analysis of extant literature was adopted to extract concrete theoretical formation on the subject of our investigation. This was supported by a qualitative survey with the use of a questionnaire to generate information from 50 female organizational leaders selected from amongst the listed private companies and public sector organizations in Nigeria as a pilot test for the phase, II of the research which shall be quantitative. Area of Study: In the present phase, I it was situated in Nigeria as a pilot case study preparatory to phase, II. Under the phase, II, a descriptive survey method shall be adopted with the use of structured questionnaires that would be distributed to senior female managerial leaders of private endogenous and international organizations that have their country offices in Nigeria. Such firms shall be drawn from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroun, South Africa, Kenya, and cote d'Ivoire respectively. From the table 3 above, a total of 50 questionnaires were administered to 100 women within the ranks of Female Senior Managers, Board members and Female Chief Executive Officers selected from within big private and public sector organizations to sample their opinions on the perception of women's participation in leadership roles in Africa and to draw inspiration as to what constitutes barriers to women leadership generally. The analysis shows that 20% were distributed to Female CEOs, 30% to Female Board Members, and 50% to Female Senior Managers, respectively. All were filled and retrieved, as indicated above. From the analysis of the results presented in Table 4 above, respondents were asked to outline what constitute barriers to women leadership in African organizations. On Cultural influence, 60% of CEOs listed cultural barriers while 56% of Board members and 85% of Senior Managers listed the same. Similarly, 57%, 67%, and 69% of CEOs, BMs, and SMs respectively listed religious problem as one of the key barriers. On low women educational status, 82%, 80% and 55% respectively attested to the women low educational background as the hindrance to the women's leadership participation. Other factors listed and highly rated by the respondents include:

? Lack of confidence and courage ? Lack of political will ? Gender discrimination by men ? Pull-down syndrome ? Family background ? Lack of support amongst women ? Fear of failure Similarly, to determine whether gender discrimination affects the leadership abilities of the women executives surveyed, 85%, 64%, and 83% said they were negatively affected while 15%, 36%, and 17% respectively said they were positively affected. There is also a correlation on the perceptions of the women Executives interviewed on how Masculinity Leadership affect the performance of heterogeneous workforce groups in African organizations with result indicated by 86%, 71%, and 92% of the CEOs, BMs and SMs respectively.

Influencing Masculine Leadership Perception in Africa 1. Patriarchal masculine role: The traditional African leadership style advocated the patriarchal role of the man as ordained by God. They believe it is the decision of the gods that the man is created to communicate, and hear from the Supreme Being and then translate the message to the women and therefore the women are not allowed by nature to approach the supreme Being.

2. The subordinated feminine role: for example, in Kenya, as well as Nigeria, the traditional female/male roles are deeply engrained and glorified in all Kenya languages. Education, mass media, and advertising. The society perceived the women's role solely as the mother role. Such sex stereotypes and social prejudice are inappropriate in modern-day organizational leadership. This subordinate position of women in Africa seems to legitimize their exclusion from political and managerial decision making. (Kasomo, 2012, 59).

widely from one country to another. However, the common denominator on leadership across countries of Africa is that the African culture does not permit the woman to be a leader over the man, and therefore, any system that adopts a woman as a Chief Executive, for instance, is perceived by the people as taboo. 4. Religious idiosyncrasy: The Africans have a strong affinity with their religious beliefs in so much that the traditional orthodox religion across Africa seems to agree that the women are prohibited from carrying out religious sacrifices/rites for the men. References are often made to the Bible that the women must learn in silence as stated in the Bible and not participate in debate or decision-making 5. Prohibition of the girl-child education: For example, in Nigeria, before the advent of the western civilization, the girl child is prohibited from going through any form of education and training apart from learning the domestic activities. In some tribes of Nigeria today and elsewhere in other African countries, the female child is not allowed to attend school but is forced into early marriages to take care of domestic affairs for the man.

Most organizational structures of the African system hold the view that ruler ship in any community is the exclusive reserve of the men who must be appointed by the gods and it is passed from one generation to another, and the women are not

From the result obtained from the field, the respondents collectively outlined the following strategies as fundamental in reducing masculinity leadership and ensuring women's inclusiveness in both private and public organizations. to quality education in all countries of Africa. Regional legislation should be enacted to prohibits religious and cultural prohibitions of women of access to education 5. Constitutional reviews of African countries should make it mandatory for Men-Women tickets to all elective positions in their general elections to encourage compulsory participation of women in politics and governance. 6. A strong regional woman organizations should be established who will sensitize women all over the continent towards developing interest in leadership and politics. 7. African women leadership organizations should regularly come together to dialogue and provide training for its members on leadership and governance in Africa. Such forum should present a strong and virile woman voice in the African Union congress. The leadership of the AU and ECOWAS should advocate for women inclusion in their Executives.

These views expressed should be radically implemented by the recruiting, and hiring employers if they want to maintain a global competitive edge, as success starts with hiring the right kind of staff. Stressing the positions of (Lau Chin, (2010); and Groysberg, Boris and Connolly, Katherine (2013)), which implies that diversity also needs to be in focus when it comes to selecting which candidates should be included in the talent pool or promoted to key positions, as well as who should be eligible for developmental programs. (9) suggest that representation is one factor that should not be taken too lightly.

The implication of this study for Human Resource Development Practice globally and especially to the African continent is that there is a shift from gender stereotype to workforce inclusiveness, which will enhance economic growth and development. Therefore, it will also lead to transparency in corporate governance and as well the elimination of gender discrimination in an African leadership context.

V.

Our debate presented in this paper aimed at reducing or even totally eradicating the age-long dogma, which has adversely retarded the development of creative and innovative skills and abilities of women in most African private and public organizations. As we, therefore, advocate for leadership inclusiveness that will tap-in the reservoir of Human Resource endowments in various African organizations for sustainable development, there will be a greater economic and political recovery in the African continent. The debate in this study is, therefore, advocating for undistorted, nonracial, non-religious, and nonpartisan inclusiveness as a paradigm shift for African organizational revolutions and transformation. In this direction, it will serve as a necessary tool to checkmate corruption pendulum and corrupt practices of narrow-minded men in the boards of our private and public organizations in Africa. This position has clearly been supported by Groysberg & Connolly, (2013), that, diversity has been known to