Abstract

Discrimination is one of the most controversial phenomena to challenge the Human Resources function in the work place.
It has been discussed in depth by sociologists, politicians and lawyers and remains a topical issue. Despite advances
gender discrimination still persists, and continues to be experienced by women in the contemporary work space. In spite of
research in various aspect of Human resource management practices and career development in various sectors, there has
not been a study on the influence of gender inequality practices on career development in NNPC, and this form the general
objective of this study which was carried out in Petroleum Industry in Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was
used with a target population of 9024 top level, middle level and lower level management (Supervisors) staff of the NNPC
Strategic Business Unit (SBU) out of which 1235 employees were selected by a purposive sampling procedure. Structured
questionnaire and personal interview were used to collect primary data. Pretesting of the research instrument was done to
determine the reliability of the questionnaire by use of Cronbach Alpha coefficient. Content validity of the questionnaire
was used to ensure that the questionnaire answered the research question. The collected data was coded and entered into
SPSS (V.22) to create a data sheet that was used for analysis. Data was analyzed using quantitative techniques. Descriptive
statistics were used to describe the characteristics of collected data. Regression analysis was used to establish the effect
of independent variable on the dependent variable. The study revealed that Gender Inequality practices had significant
negative influence on employees’ career development in NNPC. The study also noted that gender practices in NNPC are
quite visibly discriminated against women particularly in the technical areas. Career progression is favourably tilted in
favour of the men folks. Women are not given opportunity to proof themselves. The study recommended that career plans
and related competency requirements should be made clear and more transparent for women.