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1. PR FOR CLIENT PADDINGTON STATION ON BEHALF OF BIERFEST: REF: PAUL REYNELL

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ANNUAL REPORT COPY ENTREPRENEUR STORIES MY CLIENT REF: CHANGE AGENT DEON
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PR FOR CONTRACT-SA CLIENT REF: JUDITH HAUPT CONTRACT SA

Bridging the boardroom divide

The Rands & Sense of Women at the Helm
A snapshot of the global corporate workplace in 2016 reveals a disturbing truth.

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Women theworld over are still not occupying a broad representation of executive seats or raking in
the highest salaries in exchange for their business nous, leadership abilities or professional
experience.
In fact the latest McKinsey Report entitled Women in the Workplace, estimates that the pace of
progress over the past three years has been so sluggish that it will take another 100 years for gender
parity to be achieved in the upper reaches of US corporations.
In South Africa currently 13% of women hold executive roles in the basic resources sector, compared
to 87% of men. The financial services sector maps this disparity with 85% of men dominating the
board level decision making.
According to Judith Haupt, Partner at Contract-SA, this reality is deeply embedded and can only be
overhauled with transformational intent.
Says Judith: On the organisations side, it is about addressing and working against unconscious bias.
It is about putting mechanisms in place to counter this such as diverse interviewing panels,
different rounds within the selection process and being flexible and courageous in terms of offering
conditions that allow for a less traditional approach to work which has been dominated by the 9 to
5, office-based format.
On an individual level, self-belief and determination will enable women to become agents of change.
For women, it will be very important to become more aware of how they stop themselves before
even trying. Many women do not even consider a job as they might feel not qualified enough,
whereas men tend see themselves as a good fit for a role even if fulfilling less criteria than
stipulated in the advert. Women also tend to ask for lower salaries than men, and negotiate less
hard, explains Judith.
So why in 2016 is the rallying cry for action on gender equity in the corporate workplace so
important? The answer lies in economics.
Research consistently shows that companies with the highest percentage of women on boards
outperform those with lower representation. Measurable outcomes such as higher returns in sales,
greater yields on invested capital, and higher returns on equity are aligned to female representation.
Given the weak Rand and low performing South African economy, every effort needs to be made to
redress disparities in gender. For South Africa to have a competitive workforce and build a robust
economy, the full value of all the countrys talent has to be engaged.
In South Africa, diversity is a business imperative in terms of BBBEE. Globally quotas and legislation
on board diversity have seen the percentage of European women represented rise. In the UK,
representation has risen from 4% in 2009 to current levels of 12.6%, largely in response to the threat
of EU-level regulation.
Importantly, how well organizations make use of female talent is a function of how well they attract,
develop, and retain them.

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Judith explains: We think the first and very main obstacle is the role of unconscious bias by those
doing the hiring. For example, several studies have shown that recruiters react differently to
identical CVs when the name is male vs female. Likewise, in interviews, the same answers are
interpreted differently depending on the gender of the interviewee.
And of course, there is the maternal wall where women with children can be seen as less
committed or focused. Particularly with working mothers we still see a lack of flexibility in thinking
about the restructuring of roles and offering flexible work times.
The issues are complex and varied, and chipping away at the barriers that exist both at the individual
and macro levels requires informed and critical choices. At the individual level, women can gain
traction in their personal career trajectories through leadership and mentoring programmes.
Judith believes that leadership workshops, such as those offered by Contract-SA, go a long way to
effecting change.
Says Judith, One of the biggest aha' moments women have is realising they are not alone, they are
not to blame and they are not crazy. We have women look at their lives and investigate their internal
and external messages and actively work with these in an experiential way.
It is the internal barriers that are hardest to crack. Judith cites Facebooks COO Sheryl Sandbergs
term of the likeability penalty by way of example. This refers to the fact that success and likeability
are correlated for men when women are successful, they are usually liked less. Internalising this,
women tend to hold back.
Encouraging women to speak up more in meetings, and sharing more of the office housework
with men (women tend to take on more work such as organising events, taking notes, etc.) can all
assist in creating opportunities for women to add value and be seen as equally important to
company performance.
ENDS

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COPY FOR WEBSITE FOR PAUL REYNELL OF PADDINGTON STATION

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