About The Event THEME: African Women in leadership and the glass ceiling: Breaking through and Staying relevant Rational The under representation of women in public and private sector leadership positions not just in Africa but globally continues to be a major concern in gender discussions. This phenomenon, often described as the glass ceiling effect, has impacted on women’s advancement from middle level to very senior or topmost leadership roles in diverse sectors and settings, keeping the proportion of females at the highest leadership positions continually low. Although women seemingly have opportunities in organizations to move up the ladder to become top leaders, somehow those opportunities are short lived and vanish at various points along the way. Oftentimes, the few women who have broken through to the highest echelons of leadership, especially in politics or the big corporate boards fail to reach their zenith, serve full terms or build a sustainable…