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Only 37.7 percent of South Africa's
largest companies have women on their boards. Also, although the country
has 179 women-held corporate directorships, there are only 140 women directors,
as a quarter of them hold multiple positions.
Government - owned companies fared much better than publicly listed ones,
with 20 percent having women listed directors compared to 4.3 percent.
While listed companies had on average between one and two female board members,
the average number on the boards of state-owned companies was significantly
higher at four. The SABC led the field with women holding five out of 12
seats on its board.
Of the top 10 companies included in the survey, seven have no women on their
boards. They are Anglo American, DeBeers, Metro Cash and Carry,
Billiton, South African Breweries, Sappi and Pepkor. As Transnet and
Telkom fill two of the remaining three positions, Standard Bank Investment
Corporation is the only public company in to top 10 to have two women on its
board.
Natividad said that most directors
came from senior management where women were still relatively scarce. "The
proverbial glass ceiling in the management results in a glass ceiling in
corporate directorships as well."
Wendy Luhabe, who sits on numerous
boards including Telkom's, said: "for me it remains questionable whether one or
two or even three women on a board can sufficiently make their voices |
heard, given that most boards remain dominated by
males who often have many years of business experience and ling-standing
relationships in corporate circles.
"Often women meet in the board room and we know
that our male counterparts meet more regularly as they tend to be part of the
same boys club we do not have as women.
"Clearly government companies have shown a much
better picture in a very short space of time compared to the publicly-listed
companies."
"Of course this does not surprise me because government is more committed to
gender equality, the development of leadership among women and the participation
of women in leadership positions."
Natividad said that having women directors was
not affirmative action, but a matter of business sense. She said that in
the US, 80 percent of consumer spending decisions were made by women who
comprised more than half of the workforce globally.
Women directors would have a better grasp of
this market segment.
"One alternative would be for consumers and
workers to put pressure on businesses to have a fair representation of women on
their boards. Sometimes these battles cannot be fought by women alone, but
by society at large," said Luhabe.
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