KATE THOMPSON DAVY: Hire women or give ’em a raise — innovation (and humanity) demands it

On Friday SA marks Women’s Day. Now I admit, I love a public holiday as much as the next guy, but as I’ve covered in this column before, this particular one sets my teeth on edge. Not quite to the same degree as the 16 Days of Lip-service And Empty Promises On Violence Against Women, or whatever that annual charade is called, but still.

My annoyance is born out of frustration. I know this day marks a triumphant moment in our history, one that demonstrates the power of women individually and as a politically potent demographic. Almost seven decades on I believe this same power and purpose burns bright in the hearts and weighs heavily on the shoulders of SA’s women. But nothing about the state of our office spaces and boardrooms would suggest that to the casual observer, and the issue is particularly prevalent in tech.

I recently did deep dive on this for ITWeb’s Brainstorm magazine (August edition), trying to lay my hands on definitive numbers for the state of inclusion in the industry and estimates for the pay gap. As I covered there, the most often quoted stat one can find is that women make up 23% of SA’s technology workforce. This comes from WomenInTechZA.

Drawing from the 2015 Q2 Labour Force Survey, founder Samantha Perry estimated that women occupied about 56,000 of the country’s 236,000 tech roles. This remains the benchmark number we have, and the other nuggets of research tend not to paint a rosier image.

I cast about to local companies for their latest information, asking not just for the proportion of women they employ but specifically what that number is in technical roles specifically. Few were prepared to comment, and I must say there were a handful of good stories to emerge from the exercise. Bottom line, though, is that the number appears to have barely moved since that 2015 figure was freshest.

Dire everywhere

It’s kind of dire everywhere, though. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024 finds that women comprise 28% of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) workforce, slightly better reach in a slightly broader category. And, for interest, that is an underperforming category, as women make up 40% of the global non-category specific workforce (International Labour Organisation). Not that that is worth bragging about. Up the ladder, as one might expect, the numbers dwindle further. A quarter of global CEO roles are held by women.

In our own listed space, the number of companies on the JSE with women at the helm languishes under a 10th year after year, and women hold about 25% of executive roles and 35% of board seats.

Another concern is that problem becomes self-sustaining after a while. Work environments that are culturally exclusionary to women (or any other disadvantaged group) struggle to attract and retain women. That may well be a contributing factor to the finding that the pipeline of girls and women into tech spaces is now losing ground. The Outlier, drawing from Census 2022, found that the proportion of women qualifying in computer and information science has dropped from 43% to 39% since 2011. Engineering’s gain appears to be IT and law’s loss.

I don’t want to subject you to death by statistics, but I am at pains to emphasise the problem is not in my head. It is not a figment of feminist imaginations. And our failure to address it means leaving money on the table. Data from Moody’s (2023) suggests that closing the gender gap could add about $7-trillion to the global economy. Zooming in to company level, UN Women’s research finds that “companies with three or more women in senior management functions score higher in all dimensions of organisational [sic] performance”.

See, I am prepared to target my argument to the audience. If you won’t do it for the principle, perhaps the money will motivate you, our captains of industry, to take the mandate back from HR and compliance and make it your pet project.

We know economic instability contributes to gender-based violence, and that when women are able to fairly participate in the labour force, especially at a decision-making level, economies grow. In other words, keeping women out (of the labour force), or unfairly compensated, is a systemic barrier to their safety and health, and to the health of the economy.

I can throw another 100 such stats at you, from respected consulting firms, esteemed universities and reputable global organisations. More gender diversity in workplaces has been shown to boost profitability and productivity, contribute positively to customer experiences, reinforce organisational resilience, foster innovation, and is, simply, a reputational advantage.

If you want the “too long, didn’t read” version, there are no downsides to doing better at gender representation unless you ascribe to outdated beliefs (without factual basis) that would see women relegated to domestic labour only.

It should go without saying — but I will be explicit here for the keyboard warriors — I am not opposed to the stay-at-home-mothering role (with which we historically associate women) when personal preference and household finance allows. The choices of you and yours are, well, yours.

What I rail about, here and every year in August, is the discrimination and exclusion women continue to face in the workplace and world — despite our strong constitutional commitment to equality.

• Thompson Davy, a freelance journalist, is an impactAFRICA fellow and WanaData member.