[More Leftist claptrap. If God really wanted us to be equal, then why aren’t we hermaphrodites? Why did he create male and female of most creatures? Let me give you the simple answer that has been eluding the idiots on the left for a century or more: SPECIALISATION! Yes… God obviously knew that SPECIALISATION is better – and hence he designed females to bear babies and he designed males as providers. Specialisation is logical. Specialisation also makes a TEAM more EFFECTIVE. God, obviously believed in EFFICIENCY and in creating a TEAM of Male(43)+Female. These dopes want to interfere with a process that is the result of excellent design. They think with their stupid “logic” that they’re going to make things better. The reality is that ever since the Left meddled with the Male/Female relationship they totally screwed it up, destroyed families and ruined the lives of untold millions of people around the world. The damage they did to the Male/Female relationship is probably the biggest disaster in the long list of disasters which the Left has created on this planet.

In South Africa, the added twist is that they use any excuse to get rid of White Males. Jan]

It is definitely still a man’s world. However, although South Africa’s working women are grossly under-represented as executive managers, this country is ahead of some First World countries when it comes to the proportion of women in the top echelons of business.

This is according to the Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) census, which was released on Wednesday.

The census, which aims to track the trends of women in business in South Africa, found that although only 19,8 percent of local companies had women as executive managers, this figure was way ahead of those in the United States, Canada and Australia, which respectively had 15,7 percent, 14 percent and 10,2 percent of these positions filled by women.

This was the second annual census released by the association, which, in conjunction with EmpowerDEX, surveyed 355 JSE Securities Exchange companies and 17 state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

‘They become competitive with each other instead of being supportive’
The census found that the number of female executive managers had increased by about five percent since last year. But it also found that women were still significantly under-represented in top corporate leadership positions.

Out of the 372 chief executive officers (CEOs) in these companies and SOEs, only eight were women, and of the same number of board chairpersons in the country, 15 were women.

The survey noted that it seemed to be easier for women to become chairs of boards than CEOs.

Tina Thomson, CEO of the BWA, said this was probably because, in order to fill these positions, women required “financial profit and loss experience”.

“The norm has been that women are placed merely as directors of human resources (HR) and communications.”

“But in order for a woman to become a CEO, she needs financial experience.”

“Those very women in the HR positions need to start appointing women in the business fields to gain that experience.”

“Although the HR and communication positions are called soft skills, these are vital positions,” Thomson said.

She pointed out that there may be more women business leaders than in other countries because of the SOEs, which had 11,8 percent of women chairs of boards, compared with 3,7 percent in JSE-listed companies.

“Decidedly, the SOEs are pushing those figures up. The government is doing an excellent job,” Thomson said.

She also pointed out that just over half of the companies involved in the census did not have a single female board member.

Thomson said that what was needed was for women in high-level positions to be less competitive among themselves.

“I think women must help other women. I can never overemphasise the power of mentoring and nurturing. No business course or learning can teach you what an experienced business person can.”

“Unfortunately, because many of these companies have limited top positions for women, you find women become competitive with each other instead of being supportive,” Thomson added.

She said many women were also their own worst enemies, because they lacked confidence to seize their opportunities.

The survey also found that it was not true that only a few powerful women held a majority of directorships in South Africa. Of the 278 women directors, the majority – 84,2 percent – held only one directorship.

Two women in the group, Elizabeth Bradley and Danisa Baloyi, held six and five directorships respectively.

Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa said: “We need to take steps to position women in their rightful place … Just look at BEE (black economic empowerment) – there was a lot of resistance in the past; now it is the done thing.”

Unisa professor of business leadership Stella Nkomo said companies needed to examine “old-fashioned” ideas that a person could advance in a company only after being there for a long time.

This article was originally published on page 3 of The Star on April 21, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>