By Naledi Pandor | 7 May 2013
The cause of women empowerment has made much progress in Africa over recent decades, says South African Minister Naledi Pandor. But there is more to be done before women can feel truly equal partners
In the last 30 years there have been some fundamental changes. Industrial occupational structures used to be divided into male jobs and female jobs. Professions that required technical skills were seen as the preserve of males, and service-oriented professions seen as the preserve of females. We have many women in Parliament; we have many women leading universities; we have women who are business executives. And we’ve accomplished our successes in a timeframe that has taken hundreds of years for many countries to achieve.
There are a number of sectors in which we seem to be making really excellent progress. For example, we’ve seen significant expansion of the access of women to university education. And it’s strange that it’s a little-known fact, but there are more female students at university than male students. This is an exciting development but one we need to probe as part of the underlying problems that South Africa faces because we have to ask questions about the disappearing male. I think that often, in South Africa when we discuss women in any special sectors, or when we discuss gender, we forget that “gender” applies to both men and women — and the challenge is ensuring the advancement of all in society.
In our country we have begun to work toward increased equality in a range of areas. But our movement has not been shaped by a change in attitude — it is primarily shaped by our constitution and the new laws we enacted post-democracy.
Hence the problems that we confront in South Africa because we’re not allowed time for a sociological reorientation of our society — we’ve relied on formal statute to engineer change. So while we celebrate, we’re also aware of deep problems we have to address as a nation. What’s the point, for example, of having better-educated women if we find our aspirations blocked and our talents shortchanged in the world of work. If there is no space to express your ideas, or as happened to me once, if you’re called “girlie” in a meeting, then it is very difficult to express a mature thought or to be taken seriously. We still have to address these aspects.
We still see that men are getting some of the better jobs. We are better qualified, but we’re not getting the better jobs; why not? There are many reasons for this — a few perhaps form the basis for an agenda that women could pursue.
One of the reasons is that work continues to be structured for and around men. I’ll never forget my experience at the University of Cape Town. After some months it became clear that our male colleagues were spending more time together, but I couldn’t work out where, until one day I had to attend a meeting at the Sports Hall and I discovered there was a bar. And that was where they were spending their time, networking very effectively together, while we had to dash home to collect our children from after care and so on. This sort of thing has been going on for decades.
Families make a difference. Having a family has a huge impact on careers. Just as you’re progressing, you take time out, and when you come back, it’s as though you’re a different person. Of course, university-educated women are tending to have fewer children and to have them a little later than our parents did, but families do come along just when competition at work begins to get serious, and our workplaces are not geared toward that little fact of humanity.
The other thing that many researchers have found is that women don’t give themselves credit for being clever; they tend to be less self-confident, they allow their male colleagues to speak out and volunteer for promotion and better assignments, and women will feel it is inappropriate to make similar demands. We don’t negotiate for ourselves like men do; we negotiate for others instead. We don’t do it for ourselves.
We’re also very honest — and that’s good. But at times it can be a problem. For example, when the going gets tough at work, women decide to be part-time employees or to leave and don’t demand that the institution itself changes. Men won’t quit — they will rearrange their lives and if need be make things difficult for their families. It’s very rare for us to tell male partners that they will have to look after the kids for the next month because we have a tough assignment. They rearrange and expect families to bear the burden
I think there are some things that can be done. Countries have found that laws do make a difference, that equality has made a difference. We want equal opportunities and equal pay for equal work. Should we demand legislation to break the glass ceiling in the boardroom, for example? Norway has done it. Norway has introduced targets for all boards for all state-owned and publicly listed companies, and it seems to be working. Other countries are following suit — shifts have happened recently in Spain, France and the UK, and Germany is considering similar steps.
I think quotas are somewhat of a problem, however. They may diminish the status of particular groups in society — people may say, “Oh, she’s only a quota appointment,” and so on. I think there are sometimes uses of quotas as tokenism, and that is what should always be watched. They can create tensions in the workplace. But on boards perhaps they could be useful. Boards are full of men — they can’t all be brilliant! I personally prefer targets because they mean that if you’re not appropriately qualified, then you won’t be appointed — that is the difference with quotas. Once you bring opportunity into place and people show they can perform, it should become a natural process and you won’t need to force it on anyone.
What does this mean for those who are working in the private sector and those who are working in the public sector? The drive toward gender equity is something that is being pursued by the entire continent. All African countries are looking at the issue of women leadership and women in the public and private sectors. This next decade from this year has been adopted by the General Assembly of the African Union as the Decade of Women. This means that if a company arrives for a meeting with a woman finance minister in Africa, for example, and you arrive in a huge delegation of men in suits, then you may find you don’t get a very good reception. If you’re not seen as affirming that women exist in society, then it may be difficult to do business in Africa.
Global corporate companies need to be aware and responsive to the changing context on the African continent. We have massive infrastructure we intend to undertake on infrastructure development. People often assume that because it is infrastructure it may be bricks, mortar and machines, women won’t be too heavily involved. A lot of projects have a community development component to them and that often involves women — and if you’re not alert to this then you won’t successfully engage.
We also have to pay attention to the issues of training for leadership to management and so on. And of course, we don’t need the usual styles of leadership we’ve had before. We don’t want women leaders to be autocratic and gray suited; we want women leaders to be agents of change. Our way of doing things should be rather different, should be empowering, should be creating opportunities, should be demanding the same level of outcome and performance that must be done by every leader.
I think we need leaders who are transformative in character, leaders who inspire those they work with. Mentorship is sometimes absolutely necessary. One of the concerns one sometimes has is that women of my age were perhaps fortunate to be part of the struggle for equality and the struggle for political and socioeconomic rights. But sometimes we operate as though our children understand this struggle. We must never forget to teach the lesson that having opened the door, we must keep our foot there for it to remain open. Once it closes, then we go back rather than forward — so we have an important mentorship role to play. Not only do women make up more than half the workforce of the world, but I believe, and evidence proves, that they are also better than men at earning a university education. Let’s make this qualified majority work for women and work for our world.
Naledi Pandor is South African Minister of Home Affairs.
This article is drawn from remarks made during an Ernst & Young Women Public Sector Leader’s event in Cape Town, March 2013 and first appeared in the April 2013 edition of Ernst & Young's Citizen Today magazine.
