{"id":55610,"date":"2025-04-16T16:23:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T16:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/?p=55610"},"modified":"2025-04-19T16:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:24:15","slug":"how-technology-is-widening-the-gender-inequality-gap-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/builder\/how-technology-is-widening-the-gender-inequality-gap-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How technology is widening the gender inequality gap in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post<\/a> was originally published on this site<\/a><\/p>

<\/p>\n

Not only are women more financially responsible than their male counterparts, but they are also increasingly losing out at work at a time when technology is developing at a rate of knots.<\/p>\n

 As the World Bank has noted earlier, even with the current rates of improvement, full gender parity will only be reached in 134 years, or around 2158. In terms of economic participation, the Bank\u2019s Women, Business, and Law index, combines indicators of the legal environment for women within employment and entrepreneurship on a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 being \u201cperfect\u201d.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s measurement against this index was 88.1 \u2013 above the average of 78.9 in the 2023 report. This does perhaps not tell the full story. The index measures enabling legal frameworks, such as whether the law mandates equal work for equal pay, and not the actual situation. South Africa\u2019s November 2024 report on the progress made on the implementation of the Beijing platform for action quoted Sindisiwe Chikunga, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, as saying that the report showed that South Africa had made progress in areas such as education, health, social protection and political representation of women.<\/p>\n

However, Chikunga wrote, there are still challenges when it comes to aspects such as improving the inclusive nature of the economy to increase women\u2019s participation and absorption into the labour force and increasing representation of women in some sectors, especially within the private sector.<\/p>\n

Old Mutual Corporate Consultants Consulting Analytics and Insights Manager, Keri-Lee Edmond, has said that the financial service\u2019s research has found a \u201csignificant gender pay gap of between 20% and 40%\u201d. She added that looking back, this gap is widening. \u201cAlthough access to employment and management positions is improving, albeit slowly, for women, men continue to dominate the pay sphere, both in absolute incomes and annual salary increases,\u201d said Edmond.<\/p>\n

During an Old Mutual Big Business Insights podcast towards the end of February, Phillipa Geard, founder and CEO of RecruitMyMom, said: \u201cIt\u2019s not about having a number on a tick box of women in senior leadership; it\u2019s about what contribution this woman [is] able to bring\u201d. Geard noted that more than a third of women in South Africa are sole income earners. She added that aspects such as \u201cfair wages, medical, maternity, and general mental health support at this time are really important\u201d.<\/p>\n

Technology, or the lack thereof, seems to be compounding this issue. The GSMA\u2019s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024 found in its latest research that, although the gender gap in mobile internet adoption has narrowed for the first time since 2020, \u201cthis gender gap is also still substantial\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a piece written by Nadia Jeffrie, senior insights manager at the GMSA\u2019s Connected Women unit, she said: \u201cThese gender gaps are widest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The gender gap in mobile internet narrowed slightly in sub-Saharan Africa between 2022 and 2023 for the first time in five years, from 36% to 32%, but this gender gap is similar to what it was in 2017 (34%).\u201d<\/p>\n

Digitisation and emerging technologies enable some of Africa\u2019s most transformative opportunities. Yet, women continue to lag in accessing quality education and employment in the digital economy, Lohini Moodley, communications, media, and technology partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman, said. \u201cKey barriers such as affordability, digital illiteracy, and infrastructure continue to limit women\u2019s participation in the digital economy.<\/p>\n

To close this gap, the telecom sector should collaborate with governments and private stakeholders to drive inclusive solutions \u2013 affordable data, access to affordable smartphones, targeted digital literacy programmes, and infrastructure investments that connect underserved communities,\u201d said Moodley. The biggest challenge hindering women in developing their career progression, especially in tech, is their under-representation in new fields like artificial intelligence (AI), said Linda Saunders, Salesforce country leader and senior director of Solution Engineering Africa. \u201cAcross all sectors, systems need to become more welcoming and more equitable. To open up the technology industry specifically, the role of business to address the issue of equity should begin with education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Vanashree Govender, media relations and communications manager for Huawei South Africa, said that women continue to be underrepresented as innovators and decision-makers in technology even though the digital economy is rapidly advancing. This, she said, hinders progress and stifles potential. \u201cA more inclusive future requires targeted investment in female talent, particularly within science, technology, engineering and maths fields. However, achieving gender equality extends beyond education; it depends on expanding access, promoting mentorship, and creating leadership opportunities,\u201d Govender said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEncouraging more women to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and maths will help businesses address women\u2019s under-representation in emerging roles such as cloud computing, engineering, data, and AI,\u201d said Saunders. Moodley added that \u201cdiverse leadership fosters innovation and ensures solutions are built for everyone. By prioritising mentorship, skills development, and equitable hiring, we can accelerate digital transformation in a way that includes and empowers women.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are incredible benefits to having women in leadership roles. McKinsey\u2019s 2024 Women in the Workplace report stated that companies with more women in leadership benefit from greater innovation, healthier cultures, and stronger performance. \u201cThe digital economy holds immense potential to close gender disparities but only if we act now to prevent the exclusion of women,\u201d Moodley said. The World Bank noted that its estimates showed that gross domestic production per capita could increase by as much as 20% \u201cif gender employment gaps were eliminated\u201d.<\/p>\n

PERSONAL FINANCE<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not only are women more financially responsible than their male counterparts, but they are also increasingly losing out at work at a time when technology is developing at a rate of knots.\u00a0As the World Bank has noted earlier, even with the current rates of improvement, full gender parity will only be reached in 134 years, or around 2158.\u00a0In terms of economic participation, the Bank\u2019s Women, Business, and Law index, combines indicators of the legal environment for women within employment and entrepreneurship on a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 being \u201cperfect\u201d.South Africa\u2019s measurement against this index was 88.1 \u2013 above the average of 78.9 in the 2023 report.\u00a0This does perhaps not tell the full story. The index measures enabling legal frameworks, such as whether the law mandates equal work for equal pay, and not the actual situation.\u00a0South Africa\u2019s November 2024 report on the progress made on the implementation of the Beijing platform for action quoted Sindisiwe Chikunga, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, as saying that the report showed that South Africa had made progress in areas such as education, health, social protection and political representation of women.However, Chikunga wrote, there are still challenges when it comes to aspects such as improving the inclusive nature of the economy to increase women\u2019s participation and absorption into the labour force and increasing representation of women in some sectors, especially within the private sector.Old Mutual Corporate Consultants Consulting Analytics and Insights Manager, Keri-Lee Edmond, has said that the financial service\u2019s research has found a \u201csignificant gender pay gap of between 20% and 40%\u201d. She added that looking back, this gap is widening. \u201cAlthough access to employment and management positions is improving, albeit slowly, for women, men continue to dominate the pay sphere, both in absolute incomes and annual salary increases,\u201d said Edmond.During an Old Mutual Big Business Insights podcast towards the end of February, Phillipa Geard, founder and CEO of RecruitMyMom, said: \u201cIt\u2019s not about having a number on a tick box of women in senior leadership; it\u2019s about what contribution this woman [is] able to bring\u201d. Geard noted that more than a third of women in South Africa are sole income earners. She added that aspects such as \u201cfair wages, medical, maternity, and general mental health support at this time are really important\u201d.Technology, or the lack thereof, seems to be compounding this issue. The GSMA\u2019s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024 found in its latest research that, although the gender gap in mobile internet adoption has narrowed for the first time since 2020, \u201cthis gender gap is also still substantial\u201d.In a piece written by Nadia Jeffrie, senior insights manager at the GMSA\u2019s Connected Women unit, she said: \u201cThese gender gaps are widest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The gender gap in mobile internet narrowed slightly in sub-Saharan Africa between 2022 and 2023 for the first time in five years, from 36% to 32%, but this gender gap is similar to what it was in 2017 (34%).\u201dDigitisation and emerging technologies enable some of Africa\u2019s most transformative opportunities. Yet, women continue to lag in accessing quality education and employment in the digital economy, Lohini Moodley, communications, media, and technology partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman, said. \u201cKey barriers such as affordability, digital illiteracy, and infrastructure continue to limit women\u2019s participation in the digital economy.To close this gap, the telecom sector should collaborate with governments and private stakeholders to drive inclusive solutions \u2013 affordable data, access to affordable smartphones, targeted digital literacy programmes, and infrastructure investments that connect underserved communities,\u201d said Moodley. The biggest challenge hindering women in developing their career progression, especially in tech, is their under-representation in new fields like artificial intelligence (AI), said Linda Saunders, Salesforce country leader and senior director of Solution Engineering Africa. \u201cAcross all sectors, systems need to become more welcoming and more equitable. To open up the technology industry specifically, the role of business to address the issue of equity should begin with education,\u201d she said.Vanashree Govender, media relations and communications manager for Huawei South Africa, said that women continue to be underrepresented as innovators and decision-makers in technology even though the digital economy is rapidly advancing. This, she said, hinders progress and stifles potential. \u201cA more inclusive future requires targeted investment in female talent, particularly within science, technology, engineering and maths fields. However, achieving gender equality extends beyond education; it depends on expanding access, promoting mentorship, and creating leadership opportunities,\u201d Govender said.\u201cEncouraging more women to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and maths will help businesses address women\u2019s under-representation in emerging roles such as cloud computing, engineering, data, and AI,\u201d said Saunders. Moodley added that \u201cdiverse leadership fosters innovation and ensures solutions are built for everyone. By prioritising mentorship, skills development, and equitable hiring, we can accelerate digital transformation in a way that includes and empowers women.\u201dThere are incredible benefits to having women in leadership roles. McKinsey\u2019s 2024 Women in the Workplace report stated that companies with more women in leadership benefit from greater innovation, healthier cultures, and stronger performance. \u201cThe digital economy holds immense potential to close gender disparities but only if we act now to prevent the exclusion of women,\u201d Moodley said. The World Bank noted that its estimates showed that gross domestic production per capita could increase by as much as 20% \u201cif gender employment gaps were eliminated\u201d.PERSONAL FINANCE<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-builder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55611,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55610\/revisions\/55611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}