Women still facing barriers to top jobs

The number of women leaders in South Africa’s top companies remains exactly the same as it was in 2015 – and has even dropped since 2012‚ new research has shown.

This is despite the country’s push for gender transformation in senior positions.

A report shows that there has been moderate progress in gender transformation at executive level‚ but none whatsoever at CEO level.

The research was conducted by search firm Jack Hammer for its annual publication.

It investigates the leadership landscape in SA and the rest of the continent.

This year‚ research focused on the management makeup of SA’s Top 40 listed companies‚ as well as a random selection of 40 other large-to-mediumsized organisations with offices in SA (called “the Broad 40”).

“It really does appear that the corner office is the final frontier for women in the country‚” Jack Hammer chief operating officer Advaita Naidoo said.

She said what was particularly interesting was the fact that companies did express their desire to appoint women – particularly black women – leaders.

“What is not clear is why‚ despite this gender transformation agenda‚ women are simply not being appointed to the top job‚” Naidoo said.

This year’s research showed that in SA’s Top 40 companies‚ there was only one woman CEO – Maria Ramos of Absa.

This is a decline from 2012‚ when there were two.

Naidoo said the situation appeared somewhat more positive in the Broad 40‚ with four CEOs being women.

She said, however, that this represented a 0% increase in female representation in the top job‚ with exactly the same number of women CEOs as measured in the Broad 40 in 2012.

At executive level this year‚ from a total of 373 executives in the Top 40 companies‚ 83 (22%) were women.

This represented a slight increase from the 17% female representation in 2015.

“At executive level there has been some progress‚ but percentage-wise‚ women remain woefully underrepresented,” Naidoo said.

“There is a glimmer of hope at non-executive board level.”

This year‚ the total female representation at board level in SA’s Top 40 companies was 32%‚ with 64% of these being black women.

‘There has been some progress‚ but women remain underrepresented’ Advaita Naidoo

JACK HAMMER CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER