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South Africans celebrated National Women’s Day on August 9 to remember the 1956 march of 20 000 women against the extension of apartheid laws to restrict women’s movements.
Not only did the march show that the stereotype of women as politically inept was inaccurate, it also continues to remind us of both the progress and continued challenges women face in South Africa, including keeping the girl child in school, erasing the gender pay gap and eliminating gender-based violence.
Data can help move us from recognising a challenge to taking measures to address it.
Without detailed data about women in the workplace and society, it remains difficult to ask the right questions and actively engage with the issues at hand.
Some might argue that data in itself is no solution and we could use our expert judgement to address the challenges women face.
However, at the current rate, the World Economic Forum expects it will take another 217 years for the economic gender gap (parity in wages and labour market participation) to close.
Data in tandem with thoughtful analysis and remedial action, however, can empower us to make much faster progress than we have seen before.
Data to tell the full story
Already significant advances have been made since the inaugural National Women’s Day. Before 1994, women had low representation in many areas of work, and beyond.
Only 29% of working-age women were employed in 1995, while 38% are employed today.
The fraction of women in managerial roles has also increased by 10 percentage points since 1995.
Unfortunately, these statistics do not paint the full story. In spite of this progress, women still only occupy one-third of all managerial posts today and the number of women in chief executive roles is astonishingly low, with only 2.2% of chief executives of JSE-listed companies currently being led by women.
What’s keeping women from reaching the top?
While there is data to show how women’s participation in the workforce has progressed, specific data about women in the workforce is necessary to understand the complete picture and where particular problem areas lie.
For instance, do we have enough women studying Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), enough female engineers building drones, do women receive the same salaries as men for equal work, and do women have a chance at getting the corner office?
Regulators respond to increasing pressure
In the UK, companies that employ more than 250 employees are now required to publish the average salaries paid to female workers together with the average salaries of their male counterparts.
Publishing pay gap data allows for greater transparency and brings remuneration information out into the open: a possible foundation for more fairness in future remuneration patterns.
Greater transparency will also shine a light on the factors contributing to the gap, hold businesses accountable to take action, and allow us to celebrate organisations that promote gender equality in the workplace.
Behavioural science experts tell us that the use of rankings and metrics makes it possible to instil new and improved social norms.
Sharing information about what others are doing can also show laggards that they are outliers and can prompt them to join the herd around the group’s improved social norms.
In addition to exposing the challenges and informing suitable solutions, data empowers us to celebrate women and their progress. Visibility is key.
Thus, when we see portraits of female leaders on our organisations’ walls and when we talk about their successes, women become visible as cornerstones of socioeconomic progress.
• Maura Feddersen and Nina Kirsten are economists at PwC Strategy&
