Investigating managerial challenges of women managers in Khuzestan province with a mixed approach

In many organizations, gender biases and stereotypes often occur, consciously or unconsciously, regardless of whether women assume leadership roles. In addition, women must overcome various challenges when assuming leadership roles or aspiring to be leaders. The present research has examined the management challenges of women managers in Khuzestan province from the perspective of experts. The research is qualitative in terms of development results, in terms of practical goals and in terms of data. The approach of the present study was mixed. Based on this, the present study in two levels includes the identification of concepts that were extracted by interviewing 17 women managers of Khuzestan province using the phenomenological method and also grading the concepts using the fuzzy Delphi method, with 10 experts and experts in political fields. Social, cultural, economic of Khuzestan province, an in-depth interview was conducted. The prioritization of women's management challenges based on the lived experience of the participants are: lack of protective laws, allocation of the lowest management level to women, traditional view of women, attendance at non-working hours of the office, ineffective management training courses. pay discrimination between male and female managers, emotional mood, lack of family cooperation, patriarchal view in organizations, low self-confidence, unwillingness to go on work missions, interference of family life with work, confronting female colleagues. which was categorized into 5 main concepts of glass ceiling, historical dominance of men over women, low self-confidence of women, incompatibility of customary and religious frameworks for the presence of women, disobedience of female colleagues. The structural space and organizational culture with the influence of the dominance and influence of the cultural system of the society as the most important, the most effective and the closest interactive environment of the world of work and employment of women is effective in their reaching managerial levels.