The missing ingredient, from business to politics, is women
In many parts of the world gender equality is still only a dream. Yet including women in influential roles feeds creativity and improves the resiliency of organisations
It is now over 60 years since more than 20,000 South African women marched to the Union Buildings to protest against the apartheid government’s extension of pass laws to women, and women executives still get asked: how do you get everything done? Sadly, women have to make tradeoffs.
The United Nations points out that no country has achieved gender equality. Women could not legally drive a car in Saudi Arabia until 2018. As of last year, fewer than 25% of parliamentarians around the world were women. And one in three women everywhere experiences gender-based violence.
In some countries, legal restrictions have kept 2.7-billion women from accessing the same choice of jobs as men. Yet experts agree that we need women’s voices in all professional sectors. This remains an unmet goal for sustainable development around the world.
While more than half of SA’s population is female, only 34% of small and medium-sized enterprises are led by women, according to a survey conducted by Facebook, the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Women entrepreneurs in SA face challenges such as lack of capital or assets. Many of them work in rural or township communities. They don’t have access to the kinds of networks that can help them grow their business skills. Many are single parents with high levels of domestic responsibility and low social status.
Gender inequality at the executive level is even worse. Only 3.31% of the CEOs of companies listed on the JSE are women. Only 20.7% of South African directors and 29.4% of executive managers are women, with just 11.8% of board chairs being women.
When it comes to university leadership, only four out of the 26 public universities in SA are led by women. At the moment it is only the University of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela University where the posts of chancellor, chair of council and vicechancellor are held by women. In the case of UCT, even the three deputy vice-chancellors are all women.
Our argument here is not that women should be appointed to leadership positions simply because they are women. While appointments must be based on merit, we argue that it is also important that institutions make a conscious decision to promote women leadership. We need women role models to inspire our women students and staff and to help men at universities to see the value of gender equality in all professional sectors.
We’ve seen the power of old boys’ networks. This kind of exclusivity should be discouraged. Women, as well as people who identify as homosexual or transgender, should never have to conform to this prescribed masculinity of power in business and professional settings because it quashes the potential for creative thinking that diversity can bring.
Research published in management journals such as the Harvard Business Review shows how business and professional sectors benefit when management decides to shift from the power of masculinity to the power of diversity.
Gender diversity in the workplace allows organisations to draw from a wider pool of talent and abilities that can contribute to productivity. Women bring different perspectives and life experiences that can help organisations reach a broader market. The
Gender diversity allows organisations to draw from a wider pool of talent and abilities that can contribute to productivity. Women bring perspectives and life experiences that can help organisations reach a broader market
interaction of these different outlooks feeds creativity and innovation. It helps organisations to identify and respond to a broader range of opportunities and makes them more resilient in times of change like we are experiencing right now.
Research shows that women are better at reading nonverbal cues and so can help improve team processes and group collaboration. Women tend to be better at the simple art of taking turns in conversation, which helps them make the most of a group’s combined knowledge and skills.
Inclusive workplaces are better at reaching markets that reflect different genders, backgrounds and ethnicities. Research has shown that gender equality is intricately linked to issues of social and economic security, and that when a society treats its women and girls well, it has greater stability and prosperity.
Societies with lower investments in female education have lower national incomes than those with greater investments in female education.
For far too long we have allowed only the male half of humanity to have the power of being recognised for its excellence. And in different societies, the group becomes narrower, depending on the value allocated to race, religion, language and other traits. This kind of exclusion results in gender inequality, which is in itself a form of violence against women.
We must disrupt this kind of exclusion by creating new networks that empower diversity and new ways of thinking, doing and being in the professional world. It is for this reason that the two of us, as women executives in universities with different histories and ways of being, work together to ensure gender equality in our institutions and society.