When a woman rises to the top rung of the traditionally all-male corporate ladder in Africa, it’s front-page news because women’s progress in business leadership continues to be achingly slow.
Why is there a significant difference in the cumulative population of women in corporate compared to men? That’s the better question to ask: Why aren’t women in corporate?
A groundbreaking 2015 study by the African Development Bank (AfDB) titled Where Are the Women? Inclusive Boardrooms in Africa’s Top-Listed Companies, in the 307 top African companies, women accounted for only 14% of total board membership. That translates to one woman out of every seven board members. And one-third of the boards have no women at all, adds the report.
Countries with the highest percentage of women board members are Kenya (19.8%), Ghana (17.7%), South Africa (17.4%), Botswana (16.9%), and Zambia (16.9%).
On the downside, the country with the lowest percentage of women on boards is Côte d’Ivoire (5.1%), followed by Morocco (5.9%), Tunisia (7.9%), and Egypt (8.2%).
According to the report, Uganda hangs around the continent’s average of 12.7%. African women can take some small solace because the continent ranks first in female membership of boards among emerging regions. Africa’s 14.4% is far higher than Asia-Pacific’s 9.8%, Latin America’s 5.6%, and the Middle East’s 1%.
Many African companies claim to be equal-opportunity employers, while statistics prove otherwise. Women are “victims of ongoing socio-cultural prejudice,” Viviane Zunon.
Conformity to traditional cultural beliefs and societal expectations has contributed significantly to gender gaps in corporate Africa. Men’s dominant positions in Africa influenced socio-cultural values and beliefs that eventually created perceptions that corporate positions are hard to crack for women whose roles are “taking care of the home/ home oriented.”
Sexism and stereotyping of women’s roles pushed girls and women to settle in careers and wish down on their aspirations to elevate.
But while patriarchal attitudes may be pushing women away from corporate, studies argue that the workplace environment has not been conducive to women in corporate.
Researchers reported that 61% of women interviewed agreed that they constantly need to prove that they are as capable as men, while nearly 80% of women deal with obstacles that men do not confront.
Women can only move up the corporate ladder if there’s eminent planning, communication (listening to the cries of women in these organizations), and, in most cases, changes in policy and structure. But with the right strategy, resources, and the dismemberment of patriarchal constructs, you can empower more women to reach their full professional potential.
