Women, underrepresented in executive posts in SA, are showing they've got what it takes to lead. When high-flying property executive Bronwyn Corbett stepped into her new role as CEO of Delta International in April, she had already had an idea of just how tough her new job was likely to be.A comment from a shareholder illustrated the barriers that still confront women 21 years into South Africa's democracy.mini_story_image_hleft2"Bronwyn is very good, good work ethic and hard-working - but can she drink with the men in Nigeria?" he remarked.This week, Corbett said: "Being a female on the African continent is quite tough."I thought that was a very odd comment and I laughed at him and said: 'Hopefully that's not all that business is about, drinking with men in Nigeria on our African aspirations.'"It's such a male comment. It's so typical of men in the industry to ask women those types of questions because they don't necessarily think that we can play at that level, which we definitely can, that's for sure."Corbett qualified as a chartered accountant at the age of 22 - the average age is 25. Twelve years later, she is CEO and chief operations officer and chief investment officer of the Delta Property Fund alongside her business partner, Sandile Nomvete.Every step up the corporate ladder has been hard work. "I worked and studied for my CA at the same time, which has really built my work ethic and who I am today," Corbett said.Her career choice was inspired by the craving for financial freedom. Her mother, a former receptionist at a prominent auditing firm, was financially hamstrung after a bad divorce.Corbett said: "I've had my work cut out for me. I know we all see each other as colleagues now. It wasn't always like that in the beginning."mini_story_image_vright4Alongside Nomvete, Corbett has grown the portfolio of the Delta Property Fund, the parent company of Delta International, from R2-billion to just more than R10-billion."I think our success has made a lot of my male counterparts look up and realise that actually women can also do it."The property sector remains male-dominated. Of the 32 listed property firms, only three are headed by women, according to Corbett.Property is not the only sector that is male-dominated.Research by the Businesswomen's Association of South Africa published last month showed that only 11.6% of CEO and chairperson positions are held by women in blue-chip listed companies.Positively, the survey found that the number of women in leadership roles had doubled since 2012, when 16% of such positions in the companies surveyed were held by women.Corbett, in her personal capacity, sponsors bursaries along with Delta for women to enter the property sector. Many women believe that property-type degrees are male-dominated. "So they don't tend to go and study those, whether it's engineering or quantity surveying or anything in relation to property," she said.Corbett is involved in networking with and mentoring young women entering the industry. "I always say to the women in our industry - and there are few of us - it's really going to come down to us and how we lead the way in getting women through. The men in the industry stand together even if they are competitors. It's the most interesting thing to see."story_article_left1But she draws the line at following the example of men in the boardroom. She is home every day by 6pm to bath and feed her children, often picking up her laptop late at night or early in the morning to catch up on work. It is a culture she extends to other women at Delta.Team-building exercises do not always revolve around rugby, either. Earlier this month she booked a spa day for company staff - men included. "Some of them said they've never had anybody touch their bodies for a massage before, so there was quite a lot of anxiety."Corbett said she was known for who she was, and for what she was trying to achieve, and not as a follower. "Ultimately, you'll never be part of the boys' club."Women make up 51.2% of the population and 45.8% of the workforce, according to the businesswomen's association, but hold only 21.9% of directorships and 29.3% of executive manager positions. There tend to be more women executives in state-owned companies than in JSE-listed firms. Of the 293 companies surveyed, 53 had no women directors.Antoinette Irvine, vice-president of human resources at Unilever South Africa and Southern Africa, said the findings highlighted the urgent need for change. "It is a human rights issue, and a holistic approach is required to ... [facilitate] gender equality and transformation."At Unilever, women represent 43.5% of management globally. In its South African unit, women constitute 40% of management.Aisha Pandor, CEO of SweepSouth, is co-creator of a technology platform to procure cleaning services which was selected recently for a prestigious Silicon Valley accelerator programme. She was a managing consultant at Accenture before launching her company 14 months ago.Pandor, 30, holds a PhD in human genetics, but she found herself constantly working long hours to prove her worth.mini_story_image_hright3Accenture has many women in senior posts, but Pandor's clients were in the mining sector. "As a young black woman, going into a room full of older white Afrikaans men who've been in the industry for decades, and having to give them my opinion about things with me only having had experience in the industry for a couple of months, was difficult," she said.Mathane Makgatho, an executive at the Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals, said research showed that women were technically capable, but an inability to network and build relationships was often a hurdle. The association has developed a programme to equip 200 women with leadership skills in the next five years. More than 60 women have been trained so far.The association, with the International Women's Forum of South Africa, is investigating the feasibility of an index that will measure the empowerment of women, initially in the financial services industry. "Hopefully through that we can influence policy and have concrete discussions. Apparently whatever you see on scorecards, those are just thumb-sucked numbers."Makgatho said her organisation wanted to see more women industrialists."We don't want them coming in as a trust of some sort, just to tick the box. We want them to lead the industrialisation initiative."Investment capital is another challenge. This week, Business Partners launched a special Women in Business Fund, offering finance of between R500000 and R50-million per investment over five years to viable businesses that are 50%-owned by women.sub_head_start How women can learn to play and win in business sub_head_endWhen branding guru Donna Rachelson steps into her Sandton office, she visualises a giant Monopoly board game and then knuckles down to the hard work of playing.mini_story_image_hleft1"I've trained myself: when I come to work and see business as a game, my appetite for risk increases. I make faster decisions and I have a lot more fun because I'm not personally entrenched. It's a game," Rachelson said this week.Her latest book, Play to Win - What Women Can Learn from Men in Business, is set to become as much as a bible for women in the corporate space in South Africa as Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In has become for women worldwide.In short, the book is about game-winning strategies that men are socialised into and women are often left to assimilate by chance.Women are relationship builders, intuitive and collaborative; even when they are praised for individual effort they offload the praise onto the team. They are prepared to have the difficult conversations that men shy away from, Rachelson argued.Men are generally physical and sports-oriented, where it's about winning or losing. They translate this into the boardroom. They don't wait to be noticed but walk into an organisation and see themselves as the CEO.story_article_right2They can have a personal falling out with another man and yet maintain cordial relationships for the sake of business, while women allow bad personal relationships to hinder them in business relationships. Men also leverage their networks shamelessly."In terms of the missing gap for women, that's an area that we need to be focusing on - how we are going to contribute to the financial performance of this business," Rachelson said.But she also tells women to "fake it till you are it", which is another skill men are better at."I get irritated that corporates see August as Women's Month. It's so patronising. The events that are put together for women - posies and pink cupcakes. It drives me crazy."I'm not saying women need to be like men. But the world of work was invented by men. They created the rules. If we as women can understand those rules, plus combine that with what we bring as women to the workplace, I believe that makes us more compelling."..