Empowering Women Creates a Productive Nation
Talking Productivity MEN’S and women’s roles in society have come quite a long way from the days of hunting and gathering; but they are still transforming dramatically.
Women have until recently been seen as fulfilling the roles of housewives and child-minders, but the modern world that has changed all that, as women become better educated and push the boundaries of their roles.
The World Economic Forum has found a strong correlation between a country’s competitiveness and how it educates and uses its female talent. It states: “Empowering women means a more efficient use of a nation’s human talent endowment, and reducing gender inequality enhances productivity and economic growth. Over time, therefore, a nation’s competitiveness depends, among other things, on whether and how it educates and utilises its female talent.” “When men get the chance they start dreaming about themselves; when women get a chance, they dream about the home and their children,” microfinance organisation the Grameen Bank said. “Extensive research has shown that the empowerment of women tends to have a strong multiplier effect on the wider community, spreading local economic development.
Well-educated woman can control their own income and generate a number of wider benefits, including improved child health, increased agricultural productivity and enhanced economic growth. “We tend to see men as being more competitive and women as more cooperative. Productivity often seems to mean being more profitable, more interesting, more relevant, more useful than other businesses, or about working harder and longer than your colleagues, or earning more money than your friends. Women are seen as problem-solvers and great team players.” The South African unemployment rate is currently at 25%, although young women have recently managed to close this gap.
This is captured by the SABPP Women’s report 2011: “The influx of women into the South African labour market has been associated with economic need, suggesting that women have been ‘pushed’ into the labour market, and as such, have simply altered their status for census purposes from ‘not economically active’ to ‘unemployed’. “Women have received opportunities equal to those of men with regard to especially education, putting them in competition with men for jobs, and have with great success entered male-dominated fields of work such as mining and machine operating.” Many women drop out of the workforce when they have children, as well as not having a support system for them to take care of their family needs.
There seems to be an inequitable career pathway and promotion for women who bear children. Improving workplace productivity is not about working harder and harder, but about working smarter. It involves continuous innovation and improvement in all aspects to have a competitive advantage. The workplace should be in such a way that it supports women empowerment by providing professional and affordable child-care facilities; providing the support and work life balance such as flexitime; and training and reskilling women to improve and empower them. “The strength of a woman is not measured by the impact that all her hardships in life have had on her; but the strength of a woman is measured by the extent of her refusal to allow those hardships to dictate her and who she becomes,” author C JoyBell C said.
In conclusion, women are often active, clever and compassionate towards their family and countries. They comport themselves in the workplace in such a way, creating harmony and a productive working environment.
By: Bongani Coka – CEO of Productivity SA
This article was originally published on the Productivity SA website