Women in senior govt positions grows slowly
Posted 1st July 2008 at 05:53 PM by NewsTracker
By Bathandwa Mbola
Pretoria – Government has not made its targets of employing more women in the Senior Management Service, says Minister of Public Services and Administration Geraldine Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.
The percentage of women in senior management positions grew by a low 2 percent between March 2007 and March 2008, according to Persal data.
While this brings the total of women in senior management positions to 34 percent, it falls 16 percent short of government’s target of 50 percent by March 2009.
Speaking at the Governance and Administration cluster briefing on Tuesday, Ms Fraser-Moleketi said that the low numbers of women in senior management positions were a concern.
“[The numbers] are not good enough in terms of our targets but we will make sure that this issue is addressed.”
Citing possible reasons for the low numbers of women, Ms Fraser-Moleketi said that there were environmental factors, such as the lack of facilities conducive to breast feeding which prevented women from serving at a senior level.
She also believed that women of child-bearing age felt that they could not meet the demands of senior positions, which would have implications on parenting.
"Although we are gender sensitive in this country it is clear that parenting is still mostly the role of the women.
"I believe that there were policy frameworks within place to ameliorate the 50 percent figure by next year," the minister said, adding that government will look into ways to address such issues.
One of the programmes aimed at addressing the challenges that women face is the development of the Workplace Forums for Women Managers.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said government aimed to bring women managers together through the forum to share their experiences and challenges and success they face in the workplace.
On what plans government has in place to strike the balance, the minister said her department was currently providing support to other departments on the implementation of the department’s eight Principle Action Plan for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.
“This will ensure the creation of a bigger pool of women in prospects for upward mobility to senior management positions in order to deal with the achievement of the 50 percent set target.”
On people with disabilities, a draft document as well as a directive on reasonable accommodation for those people within the public service will be provided.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the policy document will be used on basis for consultation with the relevant stakeholders in order to drive the acceleration of the attainment of the required minimum target of 2 percent.
People with disabilities constitute less than 0.2 percent of the total number of employees in the public service.
In 2002, people with disabilities comprised 0.11 percent of the public service and this has increased marginally between 2002 and 2007.
The figure currently stands at 0.17 percent. At the rate in which government employs people with disabilities, it appears as if the target of 2 percent will not be achieved by March 2010.
With regards to corruption, Ms Fraser-Moleketi told the media that the cluster has intensified efforts to root out corruption together with other law enforcement agencies and will continue doing so with vigour and zeal as demonstrated in the past successful cases.
The cluster will also direct its efforts to further root out possible syndicates operating in the public service environment.
The minister announced that an implementation approach for the drafting of fraud prevention plans has been developed to ensure that the countries 50 municipalities have Local Government Anti-Corruption Strategies by year end.
Meanwhile, the Batho Pele Change Management Programme, aimed at improving the quality of service given to the public, has reached about 1132 officials from the 261 (92 percent) municipalities.
The programme is identified by a slogan, "Together beating the drums of service delivery", which entails working together in teams to ensure that outputs are maximised, duplication is avoided, flaws and weaknesses are identified and addressed before they escalate.
The minister said in some of the municipalities that were trained there are visible evidence of progress.
Some of the municipalities which were trained include, Sedibeng, Mogale City, Ekurhuleni, the West Rand, Emfuleni, Metsweding, Nokeng, the City of Johannesburg, Midvaal, Randfontein, Westonaria, George Municipality and Merafong. – BuaNews
Pretoria – Government has not made its targets of employing more women in the Senior Management Service, says Minister of Public Services and Administration Geraldine Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.
The percentage of women in senior management positions grew by a low 2 percent between March 2007 and March 2008, according to Persal data.
While this brings the total of women in senior management positions to 34 percent, it falls 16 percent short of government’s target of 50 percent by March 2009.
Speaking at the Governance and Administration cluster briefing on Tuesday, Ms Fraser-Moleketi said that the low numbers of women in senior management positions were a concern.
“[The numbers] are not good enough in terms of our targets but we will make sure that this issue is addressed.”
Citing possible reasons for the low numbers of women, Ms Fraser-Moleketi said that there were environmental factors, such as the lack of facilities conducive to breast feeding which prevented women from serving at a senior level.
She also believed that women of child-bearing age felt that they could not meet the demands of senior positions, which would have implications on parenting.
"Although we are gender sensitive in this country it is clear that parenting is still mostly the role of the women.
"I believe that there were policy frameworks within place to ameliorate the 50 percent figure by next year," the minister said, adding that government will look into ways to address such issues.
One of the programmes aimed at addressing the challenges that women face is the development of the Workplace Forums for Women Managers.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said government aimed to bring women managers together through the forum to share their experiences and challenges and success they face in the workplace.
On what plans government has in place to strike the balance, the minister said her department was currently providing support to other departments on the implementation of the department’s eight Principle Action Plan for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.
“This will ensure the creation of a bigger pool of women in prospects for upward mobility to senior management positions in order to deal with the achievement of the 50 percent set target.”
On people with disabilities, a draft document as well as a directive on reasonable accommodation for those people within the public service will be provided.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the policy document will be used on basis for consultation with the relevant stakeholders in order to drive the acceleration of the attainment of the required minimum target of 2 percent.
People with disabilities constitute less than 0.2 percent of the total number of employees in the public service.
In 2002, people with disabilities comprised 0.11 percent of the public service and this has increased marginally between 2002 and 2007.
The figure currently stands at 0.17 percent. At the rate in which government employs people with disabilities, it appears as if the target of 2 percent will not be achieved by March 2010.
With regards to corruption, Ms Fraser-Moleketi told the media that the cluster has intensified efforts to root out corruption together with other law enforcement agencies and will continue doing so with vigour and zeal as demonstrated in the past successful cases.
The cluster will also direct its efforts to further root out possible syndicates operating in the public service environment.
The minister announced that an implementation approach for the drafting of fraud prevention plans has been developed to ensure that the countries 50 municipalities have Local Government Anti-Corruption Strategies by year end.
Meanwhile, the Batho Pele Change Management Programme, aimed at improving the quality of service given to the public, has reached about 1132 officials from the 261 (92 percent) municipalities.
The programme is identified by a slogan, "Together beating the drums of service delivery", which entails working together in teams to ensure that outputs are maximised, duplication is avoided, flaws and weaknesses are identified and addressed before they escalate.
The minister said in some of the municipalities that were trained there are visible evidence of progress.
Some of the municipalities which were trained include, Sedibeng, Mogale City, Ekurhuleni, the West Rand, Emfuleni, Metsweding, Nokeng, the City of Johannesburg, Midvaal, Randfontein, Westonaria, George Municipality and Merafong. – BuaNews
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