Beverley Whitehead, a South African human resources consultant, took South African retail giant Woolworths to court. She alleged that the company had withdrawn a job offer after the revelation of her pregnancy. Whitehead won the case in the Labour Court; however, the victory was short-lived. On appeal, the Labour Appeals Court overturned the decision of the lower court holding that Woolworths’s decision was “not indicative of any policy or practice which it has adopted towards women.” According to the appeals court, the decision to revoke Whiteheads’ appointment was not an act of discrimination but rather one that made economic sense.
Perhaps the icing on top of this misogynistic cake was that the judge stated that it was easy to make accommodations for pregnant women in menial labour. Accommodating pregnant women could be done for store shelve packers, or till operators, however, such a compromise could not be easily made for pregnant women in executive positions as these positions are the backbone of the economy and such accommodating pregnant women could thus result in an economic catastrophe. Such thinking ultimately means that men are considered better employees for executive positions than women. This reasoning goes against the very ethos of the South African labour relations act which was enacted to promote equality and prevent unfair discrimination in the workplace. A judgement against Whitehead was delivered despite an explicit provision in the labour relations act which prohibits “the unfair discrimination, either directly or indirectly, against an employee on any arbitrary ground, including, but not limited to race, gender, sex, …. sexual orientation, …. marital status or family responsibility.”
As a young black African woman about to enter the working world the case of Whitehead v Woolworths is demoralising. I am always sold the equality dream, told that anything a man can achieve I can too. However, in reality, it is not the case. Beverly Whitehead was not and still is not an anomaly. I see similar examples of sidelined women every day, I see it with my neighbour, a woman who has worked over twenty years of her life in the tourism industry and still hasn’t reached the peak of her career. She has had to watch her male counterparts working only half as hard as she does go up the career ladder faster than she ever could. She was forced to accept that as a woman she has reached the peak of her career because she is a woman. As a young African woman myself, I do not want to accept the same fate or be blind to the problem. In many African states, there are policies and laws put in place to ensure equality between the sexes however these policies are ineffective. Instead, these policies may stifle progression as they whitewash the inherent problems of the system.
The inequalities which women, especially those in Africa face, are overshadowed by the seemingly “great” opportunities that they are afforded. The question needing interrogation is whether these opportunities and policies put in place are enough to level the playing field between men and women. The scene set in the Woolworths v Whitehead case is already indicative of the fact that this is not always the case as the profitability of business was held to outweigh the right to equal treatment of the sexes.
A few months ago I attended an International Criminal Law Conference held in Berlin, Germany. Most of the conference attendees were African Black women. We had all received scholarships to participate and thus had successfully utilised the beneficial “young black African woman” tagline. One of the comments made during a working group session on developing careers was that being a young black African woman was a trait that could be utilised to one’s advantage as the new world trend is to develop the young black African woman. Evidence of this is seen in the number of scholarship calls, bursary opportunities, and even job postings that come with the tag, “women are strongly encouraged to apply.” Moreover, yes, we do apply, and get the job, but in most cases, that is where it starts and soon ends. My neighbour’s story and the recent African Union scandal which revealed that women working in the Peace and Security Commission were often side-lined and not given further opportunities to progress their careers simply based on their gender illustrates this. Agreed that some opportunities come with being a young black African woman. However, a closer look at this “benefit” reveals a fundamental flaw. The International Criminal Law Conference had a variety of people present. However, all the experts, the revered names in International Criminal law are men. It then begs the question, are women genuinely given the opportunities to excel or are we just given a few handouts here and there to delude us into believing that a lot is being done to achieve equality?
The so-called advantage of being a young black woman is even more pronounced when it comes to opportunities for young black African women in STEM. As the world enters its fourth industrial revolution, efforts have been made by governments around the world to include the participation of women. According to a 2015 UNESCO report, there are approximately 31.3% of females in Sub-Saharan Africa engaged in a STEM-related profession. The low representation in the STEM-related occupations has led to massive campaigns to encourage more young women and girls to join STEM. In South Africa, the National Research Foundation (NRF), has implemented interventions that directly seek to increase the participation of women and girls in STEM. To date, the NRF has allocated R237 million for the NRF’s emerging women researcher initiatives. However, despite the large amounts of funds released into advancing more women in STEM, the 2016/17 financial year revealed that only 32 % of researchers who received NRF ratings were female. The percentage is still meagre and is indicative that the provision of economic opportunities is not enough to level the playing field.
Some of the tiny legislative steps that African governments could take to help women leverage themselves in the career world is to pass laws that require businesses to have nurseries at work. Implementation of such initiatives is thriving in many developed parts of the world, and some multinational companies in Africa such as Facebook have started this initiative. Nurseries in the workplace ensure that women can chase their careers as intensely as men do. As primary caregivers in most African household’s women are usually forced to give up demanding jobs to stay at home with the children, a simple directive that requires businesses to have a nursery on their premises would go a long way to ensuring equity. Nurseries on work premises is an initiative that most African countries have not introduced. In a continent that places the parenting burden on women a failure to have nurseries on site is a factor that results in fewer women being able to sustain careers in the STEM industry and thus not able to contribute to the world’s fourth industrial revolution.
Other issues that threaten the rise of the African career woman starts early on. The average South African woman will spend approximately R40 000 (about US$ 2 400) on sanitary products throughout their lifetime. This is in a country where less than 30% of the workforce earns over R7 000 (about US$ 400) a month. The money utilised to buy sanitary products is enough to pay for a year of tertiary education or invest in and start a small business. These are funds that females must use on sanitary products while their male counterparts invest, start businesses and educate themselves. Furthermore, estimations reveal that 30% of South African girls miss school when menstruating. Girls do not attend school during menstruation due to the inability to afford the high cost of sanitary pads and tampons within the country. The girls forced to miss school due to menstruating miss valuable lessons which ultimately impacts negatively on their final school results. These are the same results that get them into university and ultimately their careers. Failure to attend school means that girls are disadvantaged early on and cannot compete with males who do not face the same problem. Despite various organisations lobbying the South African government, South Africa still does not have a free sanitary pads policy in all schools. The country only recently took the simple step of adding sanitary products to the country’s’ list of zero-rated VAT items, a move that many African states have not made. The failure of many African governments in dealing with these female centric issues as a matter of urgency is indicative of the fact that the problems affecting women are not of grave concern to African lawmakers. On paper men and women are equal, but the lack of equity means that women are in fact still considered second class citizens.
Africa is still very far from achieving equality between the sexes. Women are still severely marginalised. However, the marginalisation is not blatant as it is often wrapped up in the guise of opportunities and yet, in reality, there is a lot of invisible red tape inhibiting women from utilising the opportunity entirely. Although women are still underrepresented in many African governments around Africa, even the governments that have attempted to have equal representation like South Africa still do not have sufficient policies that promote equity between the sexes. The failure to implement strategies tailored to the advancement of equality between sexes is because the voices of women are ignored continuously and patronised. Until our voices are heard, equality between men and women remains an illusion, and the future of women’s work in Africa remains subordinate to the man.
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This post was previously published on Equality Includes You and is republished here with permission from the author.
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