The purpose of this study was to assess the major problems that affect womenâ€™s participation in educational leadership in government and private primary schools of Woliso town. The study targeted 13 registered primary schools in Woliso town. Simple random sampling was used to select 53.85% of the registered schools giving a sample of 7 schools. From 113 participants, 102(52.3%) teachers were selected by simple random sampling technique and 11(100%) principals and vice principals were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The descriptive survey type of research design was employed. Both types of data, primary and secondary data were gathered by using appropriate data collection tools: questionnaires, semi structured interview questions and document analysis. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed for this study. From a total of 113 questionnaires distributed, 110(97.3%) were properly filled and returned. Descriptive and inferential statistics was employed by using SPSS software to analyze close ended quantitative data collected through questionnaires. Descriptive statistics like percentage and frequencies was to see the overall distribution of the study participants with the variables under the study. The findings of this study indicated that participation of women in primary school leadership was affected by institutional, sociology-cultural and policy practice related factors. Key recommendations were: educational institutions need to ensure that all appropriate guide lines were fully implemented in their schools and deliberate efforts need to be made by concerned bodies to increase societal awareness on the importance of femalesâ€™ participation in educational leadership position of school