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The post-pandemic world has given rise to a whole host of changes in the workplace. As it currently stands in South Africa, companies are losing women leaders at a rate of several knots as women strive for a healthier work-life balance and seek out more lucrative job opportunities locally and beyond our borders.
Yet, while we have come a long way towards establishing equal women’s rights in the workplace, according to PWC’s Executive Directors Report 2022, of the top 100 JSE-listed companies only 7 of them currently have women CEOs. Hence, only 8% of all companies listed on the JSE have female CEOs and 22% of CFOs are women whilst at the other end of the scale 85% of the top executive positions are held by men. Considering these revealing statistics, it is abundantly clear that by not adequately representing all types of individuals and genders at a senior management level, businesses are not harnessing the skills and contributions that a diverse workforce has to offer.
The commitment towards diversity and inclusion in the workplace also needs to mirror the demographics of the country as well as those of business stakeholders. While JSE listings requirements and King IV principles of good governance incorporate the setting of gender targets, progress towards these targets is extremely slow which inevitably means that to become a tough force in every workforce, supporting the growth and development of women is imperative.
In becoming a tough force to be reckoned with, women need to work a lot harder than men to prove their worth
Across the globe as well as in South Africa, women at middle management level are still hindered in their progression up the ladder. A McKinsey survey revealed that for every 100 men that are promoted to middle management level only 87 women are given the same opportunities. Thus, since it appears to take longer for women to climb the career ladder, they often reach a stage whereby they cannot get as far as men. Even Ruiters state that women in general need to work harder than men to prove their worth in becoming a tough force to be reckoned with.
Research has found that even with similar qualifications and experience, the careers of women are approximately five years behind those of their male counterparts.
A matter of choice
The scope of a woman’s influence is such that, often, as opposed to men, women take on substantially greater amounts of unpaid work – both at home and in the workplace, where they nurture and offer support to other employees as well as taking on support and administration tasks that more often than not, go unrewarded and unrecognised. Seen in this way, one needs to realise that there is always a choice to be made. According to Ruiters, achieving a work-life balance is not always practical and is generally seen as a myth, since one must choose between work and family and cannot realistically be completely devoted to both.
It is therefore important to bear in mind that women are in a unique position in the sense that while they might choose career over family life one day, that situation often changes when family responsibilities increase, invariably forcing work to take a backseat. This is where women must make a choice and that choice is never an easy one to make.
Reference sources: Businesstech.co.za