Women smash the glass ceiling but...
Timothy Lewanika - Mbongeni Mguni | Monday May 8, 2023 15:28
A recently released Statistics Botswana report shows, officially, that women are making up lost ground against men, in terms of opportunities in the formal employment sector. Long overlooked for recruitment and promotion across the different formal job sectors, the Quarterly Multi-Topic Survey covering the fourth quarter of last year, shows how far women have come.
The report is critical as it allows comparison of the fourth quarter of 2019 to the corresponding quarter last year, a period that covers the pre and post pandemic performance of the economy relative to trends in employment creation.
Kgori Capital investment analyst, Kitso Mokhurutshe, noted that from the fourth quarter of 2019, female monthly average earnings had grown by 31.7%, reaching P5,466 by the fourth quarter of 2022.
“During the same period, male average earnings have risen by 8.5% to a total of P5,914,” he told Mmegi, in an analysis of the report.
“Subsequently, the difference in average pay between the male and female population has more than halved, falling from P1,299 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to P448 in the fourth quarter of 2022.”
Mokhurutshe noted that in the skilled occupations – managers, professionals and technicians & associate professionals – women outnumbered males comfortably and while males out-earned females across these professions in 2019, by the end of last year the situation had changed.
“By the fourth quarter of 2022, there had been some marked changes,” the investment analyst said.
“On average, female managers now earn more (P20,922) than their male counterparts (P17,352). “Although males still earn more in the Professionals (P19,863 vs P17,017) and Technicians & Associate Professionals (P12,786 vs P12,511) occupations, the differences have reduced significantly and are only marginal for the latter.”
According to Statistics Botswana, by December last year, the country had 74,220 managers of which just over 42,000 or 57% were female.
Mmantlha Sankoloba, the CEO of the Botswana Exporters and Manufacturers Association, believes women in the country are gradually rising and should be supported to continue. She women play a significant role in shaping the economy through their intellect and creativity.
“Women in Botswana are in every sector of the economy breaking barriers, alleviating poverty and providing all sorts of goods we didn’t think was possible for them to produce a decade ago,” Sankoloba said at a recent women’s high tea event in Gaborone.
Pedzani Tafa, who recently took over as managing director of the country’s newest commercial banks, BBS Bank, told Mmegi that the number of women in leadership contradicts their number as a majority in the broader population.
To overcome this mismatch, Tafa believes that women must work hard and earn their way to the top.
“It is important for women and girl children to understand that they must work hard to earn leadership roles,” she said.
“Success anywhere is earned, not just in the private sector.” she said.
But what is behind the recent explosion of women into high profile corporate positions? University of Botswana political scientist, Leonard Sesa, believes the rising tide of women to corporate positions is helped by robust policies set out by the government to empower women.
According to him, the ruling regime is “moving at jet-like speed” to ensure that women continue to thrive in an environment that prioritises gender parity.
“The current political regime has demonstrated robust efforts through legislation and enactment of policies that have served as a wake-up call to all stakeholders to move swiftly towards women empowerment,” he told Mmegi.
Kealeboga Dipogiso, also a political scientist at the University, holds a different view. He believes that the current appointments of women to high corporate positions has to do with their own wits and efforts, and little to no help by society or any political structures.
“I do not think this is a case of women empowerment,” Dipogiso said.
“Empowerment should mean the removal of barriers that impede personal triumph, especially impediments in cultural and patriarchal societies.
“Empowerment should include programmes of positive discrimination to bring the much disfranchised women at par with their male counterparts.”
Even as they climb up the corporate ladder and narrow the gap with their male counterparts, women are not moving as a united bloc of change. Some have been left behind the tide of change, as seen in the recent Statistics Botswana report.
“Overall, the female population continues to be skewed towards lower paying occupations such as Service/Sales workers and Elementary Occupations,” Mokhurutshe told Mmegi.
Average monthly earnings in the service/sales and elementary occupations as at December last year ranged from P3,234 to P1,495, representing the lower rungs of the formal employment ladder.
In fact, of the 352,225 formally employed women as at December last year, 202,019 were employed in the service/sales and elementary occupations.
Outside of formal employment, a report from the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) suggests women may be struggling in entrepreneurial endeavours beyond the informal sector. According to BIDPA, in 2021 of the P72 million or so disbursed from CEDA to fund enterprises, only a meagre seven percent went to women.
The glass ceiling has shattered, but more upliftment is required for those lower down the scale.