Realistic solutions to tackle gender inequality

WE ALL agree and affirm that there is a gender problem in the workplace, especially when it comes to women in leadership positions and equal pay for equal work. We know it is not fair.

Employers, employees, men and women, all affirm that bias has a lot to do with why there are few women in leadership positions and why women are still not paid equally for doing the same work as their male colleagues.

I hear you say this is old news. After all, these issues are restated in our company diversity and transformation presentations. Let us be honest and truthful, the conversation never earnestly progressed to the next level to genuinely implement realistic solutions that can achieve and sustain the women leadership reality.

So let us cut to the chase: If we agree that these problems in the workplace are obvious, why can’t we get past them and implement realistic solutions?

The answer to that question and the issues themselves remain complex.

The conversation about gender equality in leadership is complex and has a history to ensure it stays complex. It goes beyond the inequalities and biases we know exist not only in the workplace but in the mind and structures of our society. Getting past the complexity requires that we deal with gender inequality by implementing and closely monitoring programmes that will take us to the ultimate goals of gender equality and ethical leadership.

To break down the complexity, we need to recognise that the absence of women in leadership positions is not due to the limited resource of these women leaders, but is embedded in patriarchal tendencies and the deeply embedded perception that women are ineffective or weak leaders not able to deal with tough business calls.

It is time for purposeful action and realistic implementation of solutions. Let us stop restating the problems with gender and leadership and start focusing on realistic solutions that generate a multitude of women leaders able to solve today and tomorrow’s business objectives.

Before discussing realistic solutions, it is important to recognise that there are several factors that may prevent women from reaching the highest levels of organisations regardless of their academic, work accomplishments, experience and merits.

Women have to navigate balancing work and family more intensely. Women tend to have more domestic responsibilities than men and may not be able to pitch in longer working hours in the office like men and are thus forced to take their work to the car and home.

I am certainly not saying that longer hours in the office are more effective, but affirming that in a predominantly male workplace it is often seen as hard work and effective, being in the physical office, when in many respects it is ineffective and very inefficient and prejudicial to women.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Corporate Gender Gap Report, leading companies are failing to capitalise on the talent of women in the workforce.

But enhancing and providing women with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes are fundamental for national and global business organisation success.

Organisations must take the lead in purposefully developing and expanding women opportunities. Highly knowledgeable and skilled women in leadership positions generate abundant value in all measure.

Women aspire to be successful executives within their operating environments and augment their talents. To generate a sense of organisational balance and accomplishment, organisations must initiate and make changes that will establish a viable and valuable future for women to lead and manage across industries and transform the policies and norms that inhibit women’s ability to excel in leadership.

We at the International Women’s Forum South Africa (IWFSA) have partnered with the Finance and Accounting Services Sector Education and Training Authority (Fasset) and Duke University’s Duke Corporate Education (DukeCE) to implement realistic solutions.

The IWFSA/Fasset Women’s Legacy Programme seeks to empower executive and middle management women in the finance sector on strategic leadership issues.

For us, conversations on the absence of women in leadership positions cannot progress unless we yield realistic solutions that will make an immediate and lasting business impact.

We need to move the conversation and realise ways to better support and develop women leaders. We call on every organisation to focus on skills training that will empower women to become the best leaders and professionals they can possibly be.