Deliberate and consistent effort is required to promote female leadership
The commemoration of International Women’s Day on March 8 was an opportunity to reflect on the strides women have made to influence a range of areas in society. These include areas traditionally dominated by men, such as science and technology as well as the upper echelons of corporate leadership in both executive and boardrooms.
However, progress at the chair and CEO levels is less apparent. This underscores the notion that placing more women on corporate boards does not necessarily equate to progress across leadership positions. The latest edition found that only 6.7% of board chairs are women, representing a 1.4% increase from the 2019 report. Even fewer women — 5% — hold the CEO role, representing only a 0.6 point increase from the 2019 report.
SA does not have legislation compelling boards to be representative but is rather guided by parts of its constitution and Principle 7 of the King IV Code of Corporate Governance, in which diversity is considered in terms of fields of knowledge, skills and experience, as well as other factors such as age, culture, race and gender. After analysing 81 companies it was found that 31.8% of board seats are held by women in SA.
The stretch factor: are the same women joining more boards? A key consideration we have to make as we strive for diversity is to ensure that we do not burden a smaller pool of women to take up so many board seats that their effectiveness is undermined. The Deloitte Global Stretch Factor metric examines how many board seats an individual holds in a particular market. The higher the stretch factor the greater the number of board seats the same director occupies in a given market.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
CRICKET WORLD CUP: Points on board key strategy for improving Proteas women, says coach MoreengThree games into the 50-over Women’s Cricket World Cup, South Africa is yet to lose. The team has been far from clinical, but head coach Hilton Moreeng says he’ll take winning ugly over losing any day.
Read more »
Man gets life for rape after victim's family rejects hush money | News24It took almost five years, since the rape on 2 September 2017, but the Ulundi Regional Court finally brought justice to the woman. | itchybyte
Read more »
ANC makes first move to disband Bathabile Dlamini-led women's league executiveThe ANC has appointed Thandi Modise to lead a task team to determine if the leadership of the ANC Women's league should remain in office.
Read more »
GROUNDUP INVESTIGATION: Lotto money funded board chair Alfred Nevhutanda’s R27m luxury mansionIs it time to stop buying that PowerBall ticket? There are plenty of reasons to, including news that one of the former National Lotteries Commission board chairperson’s companies received millions for his mansion from Lottery grants.
Read more »
ANC makes first move to disband Bathabile Dlamini-led women's league executiveThe ANC has appointed Thandi Modise to lead a task team to determine if the leadership of the ANC Women's league should remain in office.
Read more »