Merely 26.5 percent of women in general occupy the top management of the workforce in South Africa, compared to their male counterparts who sit at the top by 73.5 percent.
This has been revealed from the 2023 Employment Equity Report by the Department of Employment and Labour, during one of the Department's series of Employment Equity (EE) Roadshows across the country that started on 18 July 2023.
The Department of Employment and Labour in collaboration with the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) today (25 August 2023) hosted the EE Workshop at the East London's Hotel Osner in the Eastern Cape, under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense".
The general female National Economically Active Population (EAP) in the country is said to be at 45.5 percent from the 2022 figures, according to the Statistic South Africa.
The EAP is a group between the age of 15 and 64, of those who are actively employed and or seeking employment in South Africa.
The 2022 EE status by all employers currently states the following regarding the country's female workforce compared to males:
Top Management by gender – 26.5 percent
Senior Management by gender – 37.2 percent
Professionally qualified by gender – 48.2 percent
Skilled-Technically by gender – 49.4 percent
Semi-Skilled by gender – 44.8 percent
Unskilled by gender – 43.5 percent
The Department of Employment and Labour Deputy Director: EE, Mr Innocent Makwarela, today said although “we are celebrating the Women's Month in August, while women are at 26.5 percent in the top management, it's not even a good stat".
“In senior management, females are trying to rise and looking good but not yet enough. What about top management? In the professionally qualified by gender, at least females are above their EAP, which is a good thing, but why not on the upper two levels?
“At the skilled-technically by gender. We are doing good, but I think we will be happy when we present figures of women dominating the top," he said.
The Department's Deputy Director: EE, Mr Niresh Singh, said women in South Africa also suffer when it comes to ownership.
“A lot of businesses at the top management are occupied by the owner. The question is, do we close down those businesses and why. What we are saying is we need more businesses; African businesses, Coloured and Indian businesses and more business owned by women," Mr Singh said.
Furthermore, the workforce employees with disabilities is currently less than foreign national figures, at 1.2 percent nationally.
The CCMA Commissioner, Mr Christopher Blayi, from the East London Regional Office - delivered a presentation on Case Laws: Affirmative Action and Unfair Discrimination linked to Promotion in the workplace.
The remaining EE workshops will be held as follows:
KwaZulu-Natal
Western Cape
The EE workshops are targeted at Employers or Heads of organisations, Academics, Assigned Senior Managers, Consultative forum members, Human Resource Practitioners, Trade Unions, employees and other interested stakeholders.
The national workshops are held from 10:00am to 14:00pm and members of the media are invited.
For media enquiries, contact:
Teboho Thejane
Departmental Spokesperson
082 697 0694/ Teboho.Thejane@labour.gov.za
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Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour
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