Women climb up decision-making ladder
Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Tuesday April 8, 2014 10:37
Speaking on behalf of Minister Edwin Batshu, at the seminar’s official opening, Bagopi revealed that the figures were valid as at September 2013.
The PS also revealed that Botswana had the second highest proportion of women permanent secretaries in Southern Africa with 35 percent and 45 percent directors, after Seychelles which recorded 45 percent women permanent secretaries and 49 percent directors or heads of departments.
Bagopi said that Botswana could claim proximity to 50/50 in this regard as she continues to make improvements in the empowerment of women to effectively participate in decision-making.
“Examples include the Speaker of the National Assembly, Attorney General and the Governor of Bank of Botswana and many more. These are women who have been instrumental in the development of this country,” he said.
The government, he said, has committed to the spirit of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which motivates state parties to ensure that women are accorded opportunities to embrace responsibilities of representing their countries.
“To this end, the government of Botswana is committed to affording credible women and men equal opportunity in serving on missions abroad. To date, women account for 38 percent of heads of missions, and this is an increase from 37 percent in 2010,” he continued.
Botswana, he said, has witnessed a wave of strong and capable women leading the industry, such as Machailo-Ellis of BOCCIM, Boakgomo-Ntakhwana of First National Bank of Botswana and others across different sectors.
He added that figures show that the proportion of women at heads of companies had risen from 21 percent in 2013, to 23 percent currently.
Over the same period, the proportion of women heads of parastatals had risen to 30 percent from 27.
“Though the increase is small, it is definitely leading us in the right direction, meaning that Botswana is gradually moving towards reaching gender parity in these sectors of governance. It is encouraging to note that some sectors of the economy are nearing gender parity such as in civil society organisations, where women account for 45 percent in leadership,” he said.
Bagopi acknowledged women as always having been instrumental in Botswana’s democracy as voters, mobilisers for voters and party membership.
“The work of the Women’s Wing cannot be over-emphasised,” he said, adding that women continue to play key roles in fundraising for political parties.
However, despite their active roles in various political activities, women’s representation in political leadership structures remains very low, as they account for only 31 percent in political parties’ central committees.
“As a country, we are yet to find another woman after the late Eitlhopha Mosinyi who founded a political party (Lesedi la Botswana) in 1993, or in a position of Secretary General of a political party,” he said.
Meanwhile, he pointed out that the landscape for women in power and decision-making was slowly changing as evidenced by the recent Francistown West by-election, which took Habaudi Hubona to parliament.
The decision resulted in a slight increase to the number of women in Parliament from 6.5 percent to 8.2 percent.