Throughout history, society, leaders and businesses have been grappling with the topic of female leadership. Social institutions such as the family, religious groups, political and legal structures, economic and educational institutions and the mass media all are permeated with norms and values that discriminate against women and legitimize and institutionalize social placement on the basis of gender.
Women have struggled in every historical epoch and in every part of the world for equal treatment. In the 19th century the right of women to receive an education, to obtain paid employment, to enter professions, to vote and to stand for elections were all highly contested issues.
In the so called private arena, the equal treatment of women remains extremely controversial. Gender inequality in the workplace is a complex phenomenon that can be seen in organisational structures, processes and practices.
For women, some of the most harmful gender inequalities are enacted within human resources (HRs) practices. This is because HR practices (i.e., policies, decision-making, and their enactment) affect the hiring, training, pay, and promotion of women.
As a female leader and a talent practitioner, I have seen inequality play out in organisations on numerous occasion in various forms. At times males would be preferred as better successors for leadership positions, others, females would be considered not to be able to perform certain roles and responsibilities, and often women perceived as weak, to empathetic and not participative in the boardroom.
The complexity of gender inequality is further increased exponentially by the fact that leadership positions in the private sector are mostly occupied by male leaders who perpetuate a culture of inequality. Historically, in South Africa and globally, women have been marginalised and regarded as unequal compared to their male counterparts in terms of social and power relations.
Women remain underrepresented at top and senior management levels. Based on CEE data, at top management level, women constitute a mere 20.7 percent in the private sector, and 30.8 percent in the public sector.
At the senior management level, men are similarly over represented at decision-making levels in both the public (60.7 percent) and the private sector (68.5 percent), and this is evident in all provinces.
Negligible increases in female representation at top management level from indicate that there continues to be a lack of opportunities for women at the top and senior management levels, which in turn reflects systemic inequality and indirect discrimination.
Gender discrimination HR-related decision making and in the enactment of HR practices stems from gender inequalities in broader organisational structures, processes, and practices. This includes leadership, structure, strategy, culture, organisational climate, as well as HR policies. In addition, organisational decision makers’ levels of sexism can affect their likelihood of making gender biased HR-related decisions and/or behaving in a sexist manner while enacting HR practices.
Importantly, institutional discrimination in organisational structures, processes, and practices play a pre-eminent role because not only do they affect HR practices, they also provide a socializing context for organisational decision makers’ levels of hostile and benevolent sexism.
Grant Thornton’s 2018 report investigated the role of both business and government policy in bringing about change. It found that globally, business policy is abundant; equal pay, paid parental leave, flexible hours and other policies are common around the world. But those countries in which businesses have the most policies in place are not necessarily those that demonstrate the most gender diversity. Policy alone, it seems, does not create real progress.
Most SA companies, did not score favourably on a number of gender equality practices, including senior management pay linked to progress on gender diversity (14%); part-time working (39%); remote working (37%) and subsidised childcare (5%).
On the other hand, 93% of local companies said they pay men and women equally for the same roles, 88% had non-discrimination policies for recruitment, 71% offered paid parental leave and just over half (51%) offered flexible working hours.
This poses an important question: if policy is not driving more women to the top, despite widespread use, then what will?
“The report highlights that the businesses who are succeeding are those whose policies and practices are rooted in a genuine conviction of the benefit of gender diversity,”
Interviews conducted with business leaders around the world suggested that the businesses creating real change are those who truly believe in diversity. Their leaders recognize the advantages of gender diversity and create inclusive cultures in which a wide range of voices are listened to. This is about behavioral change rather than a tick box exercise.
We help organisations align their HR practices to drive diversity and inclusion.
Author: Perpetua Makwetla
Director: Ketopele Human Consulting
Contact us on info@ketopelehc.co.za for a consultation.