AUGUST OCCASIONS during the August month abound. It is Women’s Month. And all and sundry are shouting the battle cry - Womandla - Power to Women.

Coincidentally, a slew of data on the pace of transformation, particularly within the mainstream economy is also released at this point in time. It is crucial to unpack such data in relation to the empowerment of women. This because, there can never be any meaningful empowerment without gender equality.

According to South Africa’s first black-owned and women-owned executive search company, Landelahni Recruitment Group, there is a dramatic decrease  in the number of women occupying top positions in the country’s leading companies.

This shrinkage is a major cause for concern. Sandra Burmeister, Chief Executive of the Landelhni Recruitment Group says the lack of progress in empowering women may take longer than expected.

Says Burmeister: “At the current minuscule rate of change, it will take women well into the next century to reach parity with men, if they ever achieve it at all.”

She was also shocked by the findings of the latest (2009) Business Women’s Association (BWA) Women in Leadership Census. The research shows that the increase in women in top positions is minimal and unrepresentative of the available pool of competent women, which is obviously insufficiently tapped.

Women hold 14,6% of all directorships compared to 7,1% five years ago. And a paltry five of the 25 biggest companies on the JSE Securities Exchange have boards on which women have at least 25% representation or more. While the percentage of women representation in executive positions level is up at 18,6 % from 14,7% in 2004, the percentage of women Chief Executives and Managing Directors remained constant at 3,6% in the same period. The percentage of chairwomen is up from 3,9% to 5,8%. 

“Of particular concern in the face of the dire need for the country to harness its resources to weather the recession is the fact that the number of women executive managers decreased from 25,3% to 18,6%. This means that the pool of women from whom directors can be drawn is shrinking.

This slowdown follows substantial progress of women in senior positions after a wave of black economic empowerment and employment equity initiatives in the early years of this decade,” says Burmeister.

On the contrary, Government is making impressive strides in this regard. There is a heavy presence of women in our parliament and the debate of how to attain the 50:50 parity is ongoing. Moreover, female ministers have been given meaningful ministries that impact on the lives of ordinary people.

Some of these ministers include Rejoice Mabudafhasi and Buyelwa Sonjica who have the herculean task of ensuring that each and every South African can have access to that lifeblood of existence - drinkable and clean water and Lindiwe Sisulu, who is charged with the task of looking after the welfare of military veterans so that they do not become the disposable heroes who fought a respectable war. The opposition is also led by another woman of pedigree, the feisty Helen Zille.

It is not without reason that the public sector is the undisputed leader in women empowerment. Our model Constitution is dedicated to ensuring that the public sector is broadly representative. In Section 108, it states unambiguously that: “The public administration must be broadly representative of the South African people, with employment and personnel management based on ability, objectivity and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve broad representation.

The snail’s pace empowerment in the corporate landscape of women is not peculiar to SA. The US leads in terms of gender representation, with 15,2% of the Fortune 500 companies having women directors, followed by SA at 14,6% and Canada at 13%( FP500). The UK lags at 8,5% (FTSE 350),  followed by Australia at 8,3% (ASX200).

The corporate world ignores gender diversity at its own peril. Research by international consultancy, Mckinsey shows that benefits accrue from having gender diversity in the workplace. It found that European and American companies with several senior level women on the board achieved better financial performance compared to those who lacked sufficient depth in terms of gender diversity and representivity.

However, on a more general note as pertains empowerment, the findings of the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) continue to show the sluggish pace of transformation within the mainstream economy. A most disconcerting finding is that  whites still occupy the majority of top management jobs and earn more than blacks even in areas where blacks comprise the majority of the skills base.

The ninth (9th) annual report of the CEE show that out of an economically active population of 17 776 000 there were 2 152 000 economically active whites. The latter still occupy top and senior positions in the workplace, both in government and the private sector.

The report also points out a “disproportionate over-representation of white people in general, white males in particular, in the top echelons of most organizations and the under-representation of people with disabilities, Coloureds and Africans.

The economically active population (EAP) among whites was 12,1% but the group’s total workforce was 72,8% while the EAP for blacks was 74,1% but the group had a miniscule 13,6% workforce. Coloureds had an EAP of 10,8% but their workforce was 4,7% while Indians had an EAP of 3% but their workforce was 5,9%.

This bleak picture may prompt government to use the force of the law. For instance, the Labour Department is receiving recommendation that the Employment Equity Act be amended to include penal and punitive measures for those companies that fail to promote racial diversification at the workplace.

Says Jimmy Manyi, the Chairman of the CEE: “There will be a lot more prosecutions now. Those not playing ball we will name and shame.”

Given the scenario, the pious intentions of equity legislation have to come to pass sooner rather than later. We need to attain the status of a winning nation expeditiously.

But using force as opposed to persuasion may just adversely affect the rationale discourse that underpins our society’s broad consensus building institutions.

Sello Mabotja writes in his personal capacity