CEO’s view on women from Stone Age

Moneyweb’s Marcia Klein takes on Manglin Pillay.

Manglin Pillay, who represents the civil engineering industry as CEO of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice), recently questioned if “we should be investing so heavily in attracting women to science, technology, engineering and maths careers, specifically engineering”.

Pillay cites research showing women “prefer care or people-oriented careers, while men tend to choose careers that orient them to things and mechanics”.

He takes issue with a female engineer, who spoke of her challenges working in a male-oriented environment, and treats women with derision, saying: “To the women in civil engineering – you know I am your friend. I wrote you Character Currency [presumably another ‘From the CEO’s desk’ article], gave you poetry and even sang you songs, so you know I am on your side. But we need to discuss a few things.”

According to Pillay, men occupy more high-profile executive posts “because of [an] appetite for work load and extreme performance requirements at that level”.

This is a patriarchal, patronising, misogynistic attitude which is no longer acceptable in 2018. It is also incorrect.

It’s beggars belief that it needs to be said that women are capable of understanding maths, science and technology and are able to be engineers or whatever they want to be.

It’s unacceptable for someone who represents an industry to declare that engineering, or any job that requires proficiency in maths and science, is not suitable for women.

If this is the industry view, it should be made clear in its mission statement so it can be challenged. If it is not the industry view, the Saice board should fire Pillay, state publicly that it will accept female engineers on an equal footing to men and put in place steps to ensure it does so.