Employers must do more to provide equal opportunities for women: report

More than 95% of employees believe companies should do more to ensure equal opportunities and salaries for women in the workplace.

This is one of the findings in a research report titled “The costly impact of GBV: Private sector perceptions and reality in SA”, released by the University of Johannesburg on Thursday.  

Led by UJ strategic communications department senior lecturer Prof Corné Davis, the research — conducted in partnership with Shared Value Africa Initiative, Mid Sweden University and supported by KPMG — explores the role of the private sector in achieving gender equality.

It highlights the need for the private sector to address the reality of gender-based violence (GBV) in the workplace as it formulates company policy and structures of governance.

The research focused on three areas: leadership, employee and healthcare costs of GBV.

It tracked awareness, knowledge, impact and opinions about GBV and its prevention in the private sector.

Davis said GBV remains one of the most prevalent and persistent issues facing women and girls globally.

“Despite GBV being a form of human rights violation, it has not attracted much research interest.” 

Seventy-three leaders were interviewed, including CEOs (72%), executive directors (13%), human resources managers (11%) and other members of senior management (4%). They represented private sector organisations from 17 sectors, with a combined staff of about 789,000 employees.

About 2,270 employees across various sectors with a spread of languages and cultural backgrounds completed the online survey questionnaire.

Of the participants, 30% were male, 68% female and 2% represented the LGBTQIAPK communities in SA.

The research found that 83% of respondents believe GBV has a big impact on workplace productivity, while 95% indicated that companies should do more to ensure equal opportunities and salaries for women and 77% believe GBV plays a big role in women’s career progress or lack thereof.

Some of the key findings include:

• Strategic positioning and policy changes: GBV is not strategically addressed and should be positioned within company policies and structures of governance.
• Reporting and multisectoral collaboration: Decisive action and a collaborative, multisectoral approach are required. The private sector should provide ongoing feedback on progress through annual integrated and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.
• Education and awareness training: More should be done to change patriarchal ideologies and male-centric culture through strategy, HR-led policies, education, awareness and behavioural change programmes as well as dialogue to break the silence and remove the stigma, shame and fear associated with GBV in the workplace.
• Healthcare costs of GBV: Considering the out-of-pocket medical costs for GBV victims (estimated at almost R10bn), human capital loss (estimated at R26bn) and judicial costs (estimated at R104m), the research conservatively estimates that SA lost more than R36bn in 2019 due to GBV.

The report recommended companies take effective and decisive action to assess, prevent, respond to and monitor GBV in the workplace.

“It is important to act in a thoughtful and considerate way. Rushed and ill-informed approaches to tackling GBV could increase risks and cause further harm to survivors, especially if support services are not in place.”

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