Women remain trapped in corporate limbo
Female ambition no guarantee of equal reward
DR Tshegofatso Gopane-Phiri was able to pursue her career ambitions because her husband, Oupa Phiri, willingly stepped in as the primary caregiver for their family.
For most women, however, pursuing careers can be a hard road to travel.
“My wife is a visionary leader and businesswoman . . . What makes it so easy for us is that we spend a lot of time together, even on her business trips or at home, when she is busy with her stuff. It’s all about sacrifice,” said Phiri, the head of a department at a municipality.
He said that, despite none of their parents being happy about the arrangement, “we made them understand the current dynamics and challenges we are facing in South Africa, most importantly the contribution expected from us as responsible citizens”.
Gopane-Phiri, who started her own business in health consulting for corporate clients, said her husband had “gracefully filled in the parental role where I’m absent and really cushions the busy schedule. He does the airport drop-offs and pick-ups; [or deals with] any household issue I may have left behind while travelling.”
But “it took me a very long time to understand that the work-life balance is, in fact, a myth”, said Gopane-Phiri.
As a greater number of women break through the glass ceiling, the more family roles are shifting to meet obligations at work, because organisations are slow to respond to the needs of their employees.
A study by Bain & Company released this week found that although 62% of women — comMTN pared with 61% of men — aspired to reach top management positions, many only went as far as middle management.
The study was conducted using partner companies — including the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Aspen, Edcon, Anglo American, Kumba Iron Ore and — and was based on 1 000 survey responses, as well as 50 one-on-one interviews.
Although 44% of women believed that they had the ability to be promoted on the same time-line as men, only 40% of women in middle management positions and below said they had the support of seniors.
The report found that black South African women were also less likely to recommend the organisations for which they worked.
Catalina Fajardo, a partner at Bain, said that part of the problem was the lack of commitment from the senior leadership team to have in-depth discussions on why gender equity and diversity mattered in the workplace.
“There needs to be a business reason driving the change in the workplace for people to truly REACHING FOR THE STARS: The movie ‘Hidden Figures’ tells of three women who were the brains behind Nasa’s launch of John Glenn believe the importance of gender equity at middle management, where it’s mainly male supervisors,” said Fajardo.
But Thembi Manyike, a talentacquisition specialist at Nedbank as well as being a master’s student and a single mother of two girls, said: “There is still a notion that there are certain industries that are not for women. And, also, the pay gaps grow.
“Women are also fighting the issue around equal pay for equal work — gender discrimination is part of a day in the life of a working woman,” said Manyike.
Companies did not fully understand the concept of a worklife balance, she said, leading to them not implementing it well.
“I found that, even if you wanted to grow in the ranks, you needed to choose which role you wanted to prioritise as a woman . . . the environment does not allow you to integrate between the roles,” said Manyike.
She relied on the assistance of a full-time, live-in helper and an au pair to ensure that her children did not miss out on being “full citizens and active little people at school”.
Nela Mojanaga, a chief direcisation, tor in the North West department of health with a career spanning more than 30 years, said that she had to send her son to boarding school to fit in with her shifting schedule when she was a single mother.
Demanding work schedules should make provision for children to be part of the organ- creating in-house nurseries, she said.
“Our children should be in the surroundings where we are; if you don’t know where your child is, there is no way that you can be comfortable,” said Mojanaga.
“In the department of health there are higher statistics of women who are in middle management. But when you get to executive or senior management, the glass ceiling becomes concrete.”
For Gopane-Phiri, her experience with sexual harassment when looking for new business was one of her key challenges.
“It has happened on repeated occasions; when engaging with other female entrepreneurs it emerged that it was not unique to me,” according to GopanePhiri.
Of the women surveyed in the report, 17% said that they had experienced sexual overtures or harassment at least once per quarter, with 6% experiencing it once a month or more.
Despite the obvious problems women confronted in the workplace, a lot more had to be done to address these disparities in gender issues.
“It is becoming harder for women to penetrate [the glass ceiling] and therefore we are still fighting for leadership opportunities — to become major contributors to the bottom line and, ultimately, the GDP,” said Manyike.
Discrimination is part of a day in the life of a working woman There is still a notion certain industries are not for women
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