Africa is the second-fastest-growing continent for women-led firms, and the number of women in management positions is growing. In a traditionally male-dominated culture, this is a positive sign that more and more opportunities are being made available for female entrepreneurs.
A Growing Movement: Women in Corporate and Political Leadership in Africa
Women’s involvement in the African political and corporate sphere is changing the pace of growth on the continent. In the past decade, women have made a significant breakthrough in the corporate and political worlds in Africa.
se are some things at stake when women are not included in leadership.
Even though women’s participation seems to increase, there is still a low representation of women as the recent national average shows that only 6.7 percent of women are in leadership positions. In some aspects, women are not interested. In others, women are not given the opportunity, even though they have shown their abilities after occupying various positions in different states. When women are included in politics, they serve as role models for young people, especially when constantly on the news. Women leaders can also speak up for minority groups when they are not being considered in decision-making processes. They can raise their voices about children and various groups.
African Women are Rising to Prominence
One of the most defining features of African culture is the prominence and strength of African women. Many women in Africa are now involved in leadership roles, both in the corporate world and in politics. For instance, women like Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Angela Keyematen-Jimoh and many others. The presence of women in these high-profile positions will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Though women are still not well represented in these areas, those present are making way for Africa. In Africa, the representation of women in politics and the corporate world used to be very low. Still, things changed when some countries broke the gender discrimination inherited from the Eurocentric educational system. Uganda in 2001 and South Africa in 1991 brought about the breaking of this system by encouraging the participation of women in paid employment and politics. However, women were not significantly represented. The African Union’s Constitutive Act stated that member states must have about 50 percent of women’s commissions representing them in decision-making sectors. Countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Cote d’Ivoire still default on the Constitutive Act.
Hope is Rising
“Women’s representation in African politics and the corporate world was once very low, but progress came when some countries broke free from the gender discrimination rooted in the Eurocentric educational system.” #WomenInLeadership #GenderEquality #Africa #Progress
The quota system is contributing to growth.
Many organisations promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality rose in Africa significantly. 1995 to 2005 saw an increase in the number of women involved in the government and other paid employment sectors. The quota system also contributed to this growth. Many challenges also influenced the low level of women’s representation in politics and corporate organisations. Some of these issues include gender roles, cultural practices, age, domestic roles (case of Kenya), lack of economic power (no financial resources), gender stereotypes and resistance from men. Dating from the 1st of September, 2021, it has been recorded by UN Women that 26 women are now serving as Head of State in 10 countries and Head of Government in 13 countries. Rwanda was also recorded as one of the four countries to have about 50 per cent or more women working in the parliament. Four countries in Africa have about 40 percent of women in their parliament, with sub-Saharan Africa recording about 29 per cent of women in government. According to Maty Konte and Victor Osei Kwadwo of Impakter in 2019, the correlation result showed that countries with a high level of female political influence experienced low levels of gender discrimination in various social institutions. This included South Africa, which had more female politicians and had little gender discrimination in social institutions.
However, Rwandan women are topping the rankings of women in parliament. Women in Rwanda also head some households, while taking jobs in construction and mechanics. Women now have 24 seats reserved for them in the lower parliament house, but in 2003, some women got 15 non-reserved seats. These women pushed for the establishment of the government Ministry of Women’s Affairs to promote women’s interests.
Rawanda and South African Example
South African Women were instrumental to the fight for national liberation, and they are now gaining from the quota system implanted by the African National Congress (ANC). Women are slowly standing up to decrease male domination in the political and corporate worlds. Women have largely affected the economy in Africa. In many African countries, women are the backbone of the economy and account for more than half of the total workforce. Women in Africa have played a significant role in national economies for decades now. They provide much-needed labour and income to their rural communities and their country’s overall GDP. Women in Africa serve as economic leaders in various sectors, such as agriculture, trade, administration, healthcare and education. In a world where women are still fighting for equal rights, Africa’s female politicians have made a difference in how society treats them. These female politicians have helped to make changes “on social, economic, political and environmental levels”, which have led Africa to become one of the major driving forces behind progress on issues related to gender equality.
Ms Angela Keyematen-Jimoh
Ms Angela Keyematen-Jimoh, a female leader from Ghana. She is popularly known for her role as the Regional General Manager for IBM Africa, where she oversees North, East and West Africa. However, she was one of the country directors and was recognised as the first female and African to occupy those positions. While working in the financial and technology sectors, her work spanned across Africa and Europe. Ms Keyematen-Jimoh has also served as a member of the governing board of the Bank of Ghana. In 2016, she was listed among the Top 50 Corporate Women Leaders in Ghana. Like many women in leadership positions today, she strongly supports the movement of “women supporting women” and gives time to mentoring upcoming female leaders. She serves as an inspiration to many young women across Africa from her position.
Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is always referred to as a woman of firsts keeps rocking the world with various bouts of achievement. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the present Director-General of the World Trade Organization, a position where she is highly recognised, as she is the first woman to occupy it. She is an economist who had previously served as finance minister in Nigeria twice and minister of foreign affairs. Ms Okonjo-Iweala had a successful 25-year career at the World Bank, and from 2007 to 2011, she served as the Managing Director for Operations. She used her position in the World Bank to facilitate the assistance of developing countries in Africa. Ms Okonjo-Iweala never ceases to use her posts to fight for her continent as she also makes sure the poor countries get access to grants and low-interest credits. During her political journey in Nigeria, she headed the Paris Club negotiations which led to the waiver of Nigeria’s 30 billion dollar debt. She is also behind implementing the oil-price-based fiscal rule, which helped manage the macroeconomic volatility. At this time, she also established that every state in Nigeria should publish their financial allocation in the newspapers every month, which made for transparency and corruption reduction. In 2006, Nigeria received the first sovereign credit rating from Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poors. Her presence in Nigeria made the financial structures stronger, and she also invested her time in empowering women, girls, and youths to become entrepreneurs and have access to jobs.
Oby Ezekwesili
Ms Obiageli Ezekwesili is an expert in economic policy who also serves as a humanitarian and activist. She co-founded organisations like Transparency International and the #bringbackourgirlsmovement. Ms Ezekwesili was once the vice president of the World Bank in Africa, and she has worked as a Federal Minister in Nigeria two times. For most of the positions she occupied, she advocated and raised her voice for the minorities and vulnerable. Ms Ezekwesili is an important figure who has excelled in politics and finance. She is also a chartered accountant, public analyst and senior economic advisor for the Open Society, where she advises various heads of state. Her milestones include being the architect of the Bureau for Public Procurement legislation, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) legislation, and the new Minerals and Mining legislation. In 2019, she was the only female to run for President 2019 under the umbrella of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria. Ms Ezekwesili has won a series of awards. Oby Ezekwesili often confronts matters bothering on corruption, extremism and gender-based violence. While serving under President Obasanjo as head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit, she cleaned up the budget process. She maintains the transparency she is so popularly known for today. Oby Ezekwesili is very much grieved about the persistent issues in Nigeria and wishes for change to happen as people embrace a land without violence, corruption and discrimination.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Women have indeed occupied very relevant positions in Africa, and there is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to become a head of state in Africa. Ms Sirleaf has served as a Liberian President from 2006 to 2018. Before her remarkable rise, she passed through many challenges. She was once arrested for her open criticism of the military government in 1985, for which she was sentenced to prison for ten years but was released later. From an early time, she worked in banks like Citi Bank and Equator Bank, after which she contested for a seat in the Senate in 1985. Her first Presidential run was in 1997, but she did not give up even though she came in second place. She went in again in 2005 to run for president. Ms Sirleaf has been constantly recognised for bringing women into peacekeeping processes. She is also the first woman to hold the position of Chair of the Economic Community of West African States. One can trace her political involvement and tenacity back to her background, as her father was also a Liberian Politician who was the first Liberian to be in the national legislature. Though she had a past of early marriage and domestic home keeper, she still tried to further her education when she was opportune to travel with her husband to the States. Later, she returned to Liberia to become a minister. In 1961, she divorced her husband on the grounds of abuse. Her strength is easily noticed after this. She took on roles as Assistant Minister, Minister of Finance, and President of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment, and worked at the World Bank. Using her position as President, she has initiated a relationship between Liberia, the US and the People’s Republic of China. Ms Sirleaf is part of the Council of Women World Leaders, a network invested in bringing former women leaders together to address issues facing women in the world now. Women in Africa play a massive role in shaping and building national economies. Any nation that hopes to be successful must invest heavily in educating its female population.
Reasons why these women have Impacted Society
There are many reasons these women have impacted society. One is that they prove women can be just as powerful as men if allowed to lead their country or territory. The lack of representation for females in corporate and political leadership is troubling. Girls tend not to develop an interest or confidence in STEM fields, which are often male-dominated careers. And because the recruiting pipeline doesn’t have many women, companies find it hard to do much about the lack of diversity. We should stop making assumptions about what girls can or can’t do based on gender. We need to change our mindset, so people don’t think it’s normal for girls to be bad at math or science, which leads them to avoid these subjects and careers altogether. Organisations like UN Women Africa are working on promoting the participation of women in leadership, politics, business, government, business and society. They aim to change the regional and national frameworks and their policies. Their efforts yielded the Africa Centre for Transformative and Inclusive Leadership (ACTIL). To encourage women to participate in political leadership in Africa, some factors need to be in place, this includes: Allowing women to campaign for local positions in government will improve the political experience of these women and encourage them to run for higher offices.
The Way Forward
- Making the quota system match the electoral system To increase the participation of women in politics, some countries adopted the female quota system method, which aims to improve the balance of gender in politics. Though this system exists in some countries, it has some issues attached which make it unsuccessful. First, there is resistance to the system, and second, some quota systems do not fit the process of elections in the country, and it becomes merely a symbol as women cannot be elected into certain offices. This is one of the reasons why women should be generally supported to participate in politics. Programs should be run to help women gain the confidence to go to local offices.
- Women supporting women Rwanda’s method can also be used as female politicians who have been in the game for a while helped younger female politicians reserve quota seats in government. This method earned Rwanda 64% of female parliamentarians, which is the highest participation of women in politics in the world.
Organisations run by women in the leadership and corporate world can help other women raise their chances of joining those fields. These older women can provide advice and also support upcoming female leaders.
They will be similar to associations run by male counterparts comprising veteran politicians and leaders roping in new people and coaching them. In Rwanda, they have the Forum of Women Parliamentarians, across-party group that included women from various groups who helped ease legislative processes.
Capacity building is also a method for veteran female politicians to support younger female leaders as that helps them grow their knowledge and solidify their foundation in political issues as they also get connected to key people in society. They get trained to be good decision-makers and corporate individuals in the countries through this.
Awareness Programmes
- Awareness programs can change women’s participation in political leadershipTo increase the participation of women in politics, some countries adopted the female quota system method, which aims to improve the balance of gender in politics. Though this system exists in some countries, it has some issues attached which make it unsuccessful. First, there is resistance to the system, and second, some quota systems do not fit the process of elections in the country, and it becomes merely a symbol as women cannot be elected into certain offices. This is one of the reasons why women should be generally supported to participate in politics. Programs should be run to help women gain confidence to go for local offices.
4. Diversification
Women in leadership need to be diversified. These women should come from various ethnic and religious backgrounds so that they can fully represent the quota where they are. This way, these women will represent every aspect of the nation.
The Future of Women in Africa Looks Bright
Africa is the second-fastest-growing continent for women-led firms, and the number of women in management positions is growing. In a traditionally male-dominated culture, this is a positive sign that more and more opportunities are being made available for female entrepreneurs. Women are now filling 50% of all jobs in Africa’s formal sectors, and that number is expected to grow. As of 2010, the UN estimated over 50 million more girls in school than boys in Africa. Considering these trends, it’s clear that the future of women in Africa looks bright. As more industries open up to them, new opportunities will arise – and as a result, their economic power will increase. Africa is making giant leaps in the global empowerment of women.
Comments
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