International Women's Day: Are we there yet?

We have been having International Women’s Day (“IWD”) year on year and many are astonished why women are made the spotlight. Well, the question to ask is whether are women there yet?

Can we say that women have successfully strived and achieved in the workplace and community at large? We can see that gender disparities in out-of-school children have narrowed resulting in more girls being enrolled in school.

However, how many of these girls become leaders and representatives of companies in the business and economy globally, especially in Africa?

One measure to gauge progress is to look at board membership statistics. In 2019 the Boardroom Africa (“tBA”), a large regional network of female executives in Africa, studied the composition of board positions in 1,091 listed companies in 11 African countries.

For Tanzania, it found that women comprised 19 percent of non executive directors in publicly listed companies on par with the regional average of 18 percent, and the G-20 average of 20 percent, but trailing regional peers such as Uganda (20 percent), Kenya (24 percent), Rwanda (27 percent), and South Africa (22 percent, but increased to 29 percent by 2021 according to the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges). However, the same report showed that in Tanzania, women represented only seven percent of chairpersons of boards, and four percent of CEOs; but again the same statistics for our neighbours were also low (Kenya 11 percent, three percent; Uganda six percent, zero percent) other than Rwanda (33 percent, 33 percent).

Overall, there is clearly room for improvement in all countries surveyed. But it would seem that the trend is in an upward direction as the 2019 statistics from tBA are an improvement on results in a 2015 report done by African Development Bank (AfDB) report on the 307 top African companies, finding that at that time women accounted for only 14 percent of total board membership. One highlight of the AfDB report was the performance of Kenya-based East African Breweries Limited (EABL), which at the end of 2013 had five women on its 11-member board, that’s 45.5 percent women; as such, it topped the “Top Ten” list of highest percentages of women directors of the companies surveyed (with two South African companies in second and third place). From these reports we can clearly see that women are not yet there in top management and leadership in the workplace and business environment. And yet, gender equity should be a business imperative as several studies show that increasing the number of women in corporate leadership positions benefits not only the businesses concerned but the economy as a whole.

A quick glance at the tBA website shows several such statistics including: +35 percent higher return on equity when you have women on board (Source: CatalistWorldwide); +50 percent higher profitability of companies where women made up at least 15 percent than those with 10 percent (Source: Credit Suisse), +14 percent higher industry EBIT margins on average of companies with women on executive committees (Source: McKinsey). This implies a powerful incentive for companies to bring more women into their decision-making processes.

So, as stated in August 2016 in “Women Matter” a McKinsey report “women serving on company boards sharpen the continent’s competitive edge and make inclusive growth a reality”.

This report highlighted four conscious actions that will go a long way toward redressing the gender balance, namely: (i) make gender diversity a top board and CEO priority, (ii) anchor gender diversity strategies in a compelling business case (in particular, simple and clear communication of the business case), (iii) confront limiting attitudes toward women in the workplace (for example, taking initiatives to deal with unconscious bias), and (iv) implement a fact-based gender diversity strategy (including use of metrics).

From my perspective, some of the practical challenges in particular from a Tanzanian perspective include challenges in terms of typically designated roles, lack of appropriate support (whether at a personal level or in the work environment or by way of appropriate mentor), or outright bias.

In terms of roles, typically women are designed as caretakers in the community, at home, and in society at large. With these responsibilities, it can be quite a challenge to balance motherly and wifely duties with long working hours and expectations to attend certain work commitments (including board meetings) that can run until after hours including even weekends.

In order for a woman to become in the top management, she requires tremendous support, especially from the people who are close to her (whether family, friends, neighbours, or colleagues) and society in general. A critical form of personal support is appropriate mentorship or sponsorship to help guide and inspire growth to the next level.

In terms of the work environment, one key challenge is that the majority of working places do not provide sufficient support to returning mothers.

If a new mother returns to the office with the same performance expectations placed on her while she is still going through sleepless nights with a newly born baby, or if she does not have the flexibility to return home early in order to take care of the baby, how can she succeed?

For these reasons I ask, do we have to get there? Women have a key role they play in their homes, society, and community at large. Wherever a woman is placed, be it a housewife, a home school teacher, a manager at a big organisation, she will surely make an impact that will be seen to the community.

So as we celebrated IWD earlier this week, we celebrated a woman, wherever she is, whatever she has decided to do, be it be a career woman or a mother or a housewife we can truly know that wherever she serves she is making an impact on our society and community at large. Break the Bias!