United Kingdom
9 March 2007
"We, the people of South Africa, Recognise the injustices of the past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our
diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this
Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to heal the divisions of
the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and
fundamental human rights."
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
These opening lines are from the Preamble to the Constitution of South
Africa, as adopted on 8 May 1996. The Founding Provisions of this Constitution
which is entrenched on the values of "Human dignity, the achievement of
equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms; non-racialism and
non-sexism," includes a Bill of Rights that is the cornerstone of democracy,
human dignity, equality and freedom; and which enshrines an entire clause on
Equality. Allow me to quote:
"Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and
the benefit of the law. Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all
rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and
other measures designed to protect or advance persons or categories of persons,
disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken. The State may not unfairly
discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds,
including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social
origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience,
belief, culture, language and birth."
This provision in our Constitution, ladies and gentlemen, is the most
profound legacy South African women leave to future generations in our country.
It firmly established the foundation on which all future generations of South
Africa women can assert their right to equal treatment before the law. Today,
less than 15 years into the existence of our young democracy we can look back
with pride about what women leaders have achieved through their dedication,
struggle and sacrifice. Our Constitution is one that is regarded the world over
as one of the most progressive, forward looking bastions of non-sexism. As such
serves as a beacon of hope for women in societies that still have to assert
their rights, while providing the necessary protection for this and future
generations of women in South Africa.
Within the framework of this conference and its thematic focus I decided to
share with you the legacy that was carved by stalwart South African women in
the struggle for freedom, since I believe this story reveals much about
leadership in general, but particularly women's leadership. The indomitable
spirit of those who were at the forefront of our women's movement gave rise to
traits that characterise pillars of leadership, as they have become identified
in research studies.
The struggle I refer to began with the mobilisation of women in the 1950s
against the atrocities of a white racist regime, with the highlight being the
historic Women's March on 9 August 1956, when 20 000 women descended on the
fortress of white male supremacy. The struggle for women's rights in South
Africa has always been closely associated with the overall freedom struggle.
During the Women's March, women of all colour, in all forms of traditional
dress, some with babies on their backs, walked up the steps of the Union
Building to hand thousands of petitions against the dehumanising Pass Laws to
the then Prime Minister, Hertzog. Helen Joseph, one of the four frontline women
in this historic march describes in her book "Step by Step" how when no one
came out to receive these petitions, the women leaders quietly left them in the
offices of the Union Building and returned to the women who were gathered
within the amphitheatre of the building. She recalls how at this stage 20 000
women bowed their heads for a minute of absolute silence, which was only broken
by the poignant single voice of Lillian Ngoyi, another one of the four
frontline leaders, who raised her arm in the air and began to sing: "Wathinta
bafasi wathinti mbokodo" (you strike a women you strike a rock!).
This indomitable spirit of women was entrenched throughout the activities of
the women's movement during the country's mass democratic struggles. The lives
of our women and the niches they have carved for themselves and their families,
often under very difficult and trying circumstances stand testimony to this
spirit. And the deaths of those who have succumbed in the struggle, the
ill-health that many suffer till today as a consequence of hardships experience
equally bear testimony.
Without detracting from the earlier experiences of the women's struggle, I
want to concentrate on what the period during the multiparty negotiations led
to our transition to democracy and that involved the drafting of the Interim
Constitution, revealed of women leadership in a period of creating profound
legacy for future generations.
As hope for a democratic transition turned from a far off mirage, to
something much more tangible, the women's struggle experienced one of the
greatest threats ever. There was a very significant chance that the issue of
women could have been sacrificed by it just being displaced by issues that were
seen as being more pressing. This was the path that many African countries
walked before us, where transitions following nationalist struggles did not
automatically translate into the emancipation of women. At this point women
realised that if they did not assert their position as women, they were going
to be sidelined and excluded from these transition processes.
Inherently women leaders have always known that if true freedom was to be
our innate right, then we needed to be located in the centre of such
negotiations. Gender equality concerns had to be inserted in the heart of
democratic debates. Jacquette and Wolchik in their work on Women and Democracy,
observe that the role women played during most nationalist liberation movement
politics differed from that during the South African transition period. In the
South African case women "organised as women and entered the democratic era
with new agendas for women."
So that is exactly what the women did! They made sure that they "wriggled
their way in" and got right into the middle of things and ensured that they
placed gender equality squarely in the middle of the negotiations and debates.
They guaranteed that the Constitution was engendered, unequivocally making it
the single largest legacy to future generations of South Africans.
What elements of leadership did these women leaders display that made them
such a bastion of power and force? What styles of women leadership can we glean
from their trials and tribulations? What can we learn for women's leadership
studies that future generation of women leaders would benefit from?
The answer is so simple, yet so intriguing � it is mostly about seizing and
creating opportunities. It was all about women grasping opportune moments,
acting timeously and being innovative. This is without a doubt one of the
underlying, inherent and fundamental qualities of leaders, which was so
candidly displayed by South African women in various periods of our turbulent
history.
South African women's struggles for equality and human rights and the
advances made in this respect rests very much so on the window of opportunity
that women found and squeezed their way through. It was never given, we found
it, often creating the windows of opportunity ourselves and at minimum forcing
open tiny crevices that appeared. This leadership quality that our women
displayed drove the women's agenda in the country. The success story of the
South African women's movement in the transition to democracy is also rooted in
fierce determination and unrelenting fervour. Never being satisfied with early
victories and partial successes.
On the basis the Interim Constitution provided for, women's political
participation was extended into the realm of representative governance, with
the African National Congress (ANC) tripartite alliance taking a policy stance
from the first democratic election to give effect to more equitable gender
representation through their electoral list construction process. A range of
institutions were further created to represent and defend women's interests in
policy making. Furthermore, women's activism ensured that gender equality was
protected in the final Constitution of the country.
What accounted for these gains by women in the early 1990s? South African
women in the mass democratic movements held steadfast to the vision; that of
freedom both as blacks and as women. This was not an easy struggle. While women
had made huge but limited strides in the liberation movement itself, their
leadership was nonetheless being decimated by the repressive Apartheid State
authority during repeated States of Emergency and the draconian rights those
bestowed on the state. Women's energies were diverted from organising women per
se, to keeping the broader liberation movements alive. Concomitantly, women
were gaining respect within these liberation movements for their contributions,
but given their double burden under apartheid did not manage to formalise and
translate their limited power in adequate numbers in the movement's
decision-making structures.
The maturation of the women's movement during the transition phase benefited
greatly from how women leaders responded to three key contextual factors:
* the opportunities presented by the nature of transition
* the creation of an autonomous organisation for representing women's
movement
* the ideological context of a prior struggle for equality within at least one
key political organisation in the negotiations.
The nature of opportunities for the women's movement to pursue its claims at
the national political level changed dramatically with the beginning of a
process of negotiated transition to democracy when women were excluded from the
actual negotiations. Adversity has always spawned survivalist instincts within
women. This unexpectedly offered opportunities for women to articulate an
agenda of equality that unseated nationalist formulations of women's political
roles. The leadership displayed by women in attempting to be included within
the negotiation process itself, expanded to the political system as a whole and
women's demands were being made on the grounds of democracy itself rather than
the exigencies or internal consistency of national liberation.
It was all about seizing opportunities. Transition, the opening of
negotiations between political parties about a new, democratic order resulted
in an expansion of the political space available to women which allowed for the
articulation of gender-specific claims. Independence, achieved in part through
the building of a national women's coalition allowed the women to exert
pressure.
By combining forces in a strategic and flexible manner on the basis of
shared objectives and ideals, remarkable leadership skills were again at play.
Establishing a loose coalition rather than a unified body was the source of
strength for the successes finally achieved. It allowed for sufficient
flexibility and independence on other agendas, without comprising the goal
regarding the position of women in a future dispensation. It demonstrated an
ability to derive at winning situations for all through the art of striking
compromises. It was based on the explicit recognition of differences and
diversity among women and there was no attempt to impose a particular
ideological programme on affiliates.
Co-treasurer of the Women's National Commission (WNC), Jennifer Kinghorn
stated that "even when tensions developed we could stomach it because it was
our window of opportunity and if we didn't get this together women would never
be part of liberation. This cause was much bigger than individuals and that was
what kept all of us together."
It was about finding common women's issues to make inroads. Frene Ginwala,
stalwart gender activist in South Africa, and later Speaker of Parliament,
stated that and I quote: "the constitution would not only be drafted by the
African National Congress (ANC) but would need the support of other women. It
was very strategic to win over women; broaden the mass base by including women
who would support feminism and got support for a progressive women's movement."
She went on to call this "a conspiracy of women."
The Women's Coalition was a significant step towards the formation of a
political movement that was driven by women rather than by the exigencies of
male leadership. Its existence contributed to the sense of women as a political
force in their own right. For all the differences among women, the initial
exclusion of women from the decision-making about the shape of the new
democracy highlighted an obvious collective interest for all politically active
women. An adverse situation was exploited and turned around, favouring the hand
of the women's agenda, rather than diminishing it. More clearly than ever
before, exclusion served to distinguish women as a group and to sharpen the
awareness of disparities in opportunities for representation in decision-making
of women and men.
In demanding inclusion, the coalition was using political opportunity
offered by the debate among negotiators on the Bill of Rights and in particular
the promise that these debates would provide an "opening for new issues and new
ways of doing politics." By a combination of moral persuasion and multiparty
organisation, women managed to insert their different notions of democracy and
equality into the negotiations process.
Leadership was also shown in how particular instruments for change were
favoured at given moments. By securing the constitutional and legal framework
first, the position of women was optimally entrenched. For these women and for
the country as a whole, an equality clause in the Constitution was not so much
an achievement but as a weapon to be used in the struggle against women's
subordination. The negotiation process, which eventually included women in
sizeable numbers, produced several favourable formal conditions for women.
The SA Constitution provides a positive framework for the achievement of
gender equality, with gender equality as a founding provision and fundamental
principle and value of the new democracy. The Bill of Rights enshrines both
individual and collective rights and establishes government as accountable in
terms of several powerful gender rights. These include a broad and substantive
equality right which includes protection against unfair discrimination on sex,
gender, age, pregnancy, marital status and sexual orientation; a right to
security and freedom of the person which specifically incorporates the right to
be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources and
the right to bodily and psychological integrity including the right to make
decisions concerning reproduction and to security in and control over their
bodies.
The framing of the equality clause in the Constitution to explicitly assert
gender equality provides the enabling framework within which to advance the
demand for structures and mechanisms to ensure equality for women. Developing
the institutional terrain was undertaken with gusto. There was a critical
realisation that the legal framework had to be backed up through an
institutional reality if it had to have any lasting and real effect.
A gender machinery that is cited as a best practice globally was put in
place: an Office on the Status of Women in the Presidency; a Parliamentary
Committee on Women within National Parliament, an independent oversight body,
the Gender Commission; the inclusion of women non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) into the dialogue on advancement of women working in a national gender
machinery. This is a legacy the women leaders of the women's struggles leave
for future generations and which we can be proud of.
Had we missed this opportunity we would not be where we are today. I would
like to stress again, our Constitution is the greatest legacy that we leave the
future generation of women with the clauses of equality and non-sexism
enshrined within it. The Constitution does not make provision for any quotas
per se. and this was a wise move. Had we done so, we might have set our targets
too low. From time to time political structures and the Executive have adopted
to set targets for women in political and decision-making positions to be
achieved within given time frames. These have been systematically raised.
Within the Public Service we had reached our initial target of 30%
representation of women in Senior Management positions in March 2006. We did
not stop at that ceiling. In line with a position embraced by the African
Union, we have recently reviewed this target and are now aiming at achieving
50% representation of women at all levels in Senior Management by March
2009.
The process of transformation has provided a fertile ground of opportunities
for women to advance themselves. However, this was not done in isolation of the
contribution and leadership of some remarkable men. The strong political will
and commitment exhibited by both our Heads of State we had since 1994 have
contributed significantly to the enabling environment for the development of
women as political leaders in the country.
From the composition of the first democratic cabinet in May 1994, women
occupied key positions in politics. Both former President Mandela, as well as
President Mbeki has avoided the patronising option of assigning token women to
the soft option cabinet posts. Some of the most critical and most technical
portfolios have over the years been assigned to women, for example the Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Minerals and Energy. Since 2005 we have a
woman holding the Office of Deputy President; and two consecutive Speakers in
the National Assembly were women. To have had women in key policy and
legislative positions ensured over the first critical decade that a new legal
and policy framework were put in place and that these were properly engendered.
This framework constitutes a concrete legacy to future generations to sustain
gender equality over the entire spectrum of government activity; more
far-reaching than what anybody could have foreseen or purposefully
designed.
We were also aided in our endeavours through international initiatives that
were clearly placing women's emancipation on the agenda. As South African women
we could draw energy and inspiration from such events. We used meetings to
network internationally with some of the most inspiring people alive globally.
Beijing and Beijing +10 constituted key signposts on the global stage with
respect to the women's agenda.
In the public service itself, we have seized the opportunity provided by the
mandate for transformation to ensure that we create a non-sexist machinery of
state. We have developed a strategic framework on gender equality for the
public service, where we are relentlessly pushing forward on achieving a
position of parity. Given the low base we have come from our progress has been
remarkable. As recently as in the 1980s the number of women in management
positions in the South African public service could be counted on one hand.
The conditions of service were so discriminatory that married women could
not quality for permanent positions and therefore were excluded from
participation in the government pension funds. The window of opportunity was
presented for concretising women's empowerment and gender equality within the
public service through the determination of equity targets by Cabinet as a
short term goal. We have grasped this opportunity to further inculcate the
long-term goal of women's empowerment and gender equality through the
nationally adopted strategy of gender mainstreaming.
We are grasping all opportunities not just in terms of legislative
frameworks but in terms of key policy areas which influence how we will foster
leadership and development in women managers. To this effect we have recently
embarked on a programme for fast tracking the development of women in middle
management positions, preparing them to step into the senior management
services, without fear of compromising on requirements for competent and
skilled managers given the unequal playing ground of the past.
We are using the window of opportunity provided by revised targets for
recruitment, selection and retention of persons with disabilities in the
workplace to foster the removal of barriers to access into and within the
workplace or public service particularly for women with disabilities. The
opportunity exists currently in the country in that tremendous emphasis is
placed on women's development for leadership; such impetus is provided for
through strong political will, equity targets, policy and legislative
framework, skills development strategy, etc. How women grab these opportunities
and develop into a cadre of women with gravitas is the challenge facing us as a
country.
We are also starting to address the effects that differences in domestic
burdens might have on the performance of women by creating child care
facilities at workplaces within government departments. This could serve as
powerful equalisers in the workplace playing fields, enabling women leaders and
mangers to spend longer hours at work or undertaking critical networking
activities, which often are compromised due to domestic responsibilities
competing for attention. Traditionally the success of men in the workplace
could be found in their ability to singularly concentrate and focus on their
careers and jobs, not having to worry about the home front. The same is not
freely afforded to women.
Where to from here for us what is the legacy that the SA women in key
positions in the Public Service can leave for the future? The answer I believe
lies in consciously and critically engaging with underlying assumptions of the
dominant models that influence our thinking on matters related to public
administration and the workplace in general.
We should unpack these for their possible negative influence on women's
continued emancipation, and where suitable and required, we could develop
particularistic women's models. By now it is generally accepted that the way we
structure jobs and the assumed behaviour that demonstrates commitment to career
and employer is quite discriminatory towards women. We need to start acting
against the dominance of such alienating models replacing them with engendered
thinking.
I believe particularly with respect to leadership models we might have
unique contributions to make. Women could design models for leadership that are
built on women's way of doing things which have borne success to date. Women
have their individual and own style of being leaders. What we leave for the
future would therefore be the right to our own style of leadership through
knowledge creation i.e. the styles of leadership that women have played in key
areas of global history has to be captured in research and writing. We need to
study very intently what made them successful as leaders and what contextual
factors inhibited or aided them?
Similarly, we need to interrogate the finer points of leadership that women
displayed in the South African context. These could be utilised to deepen our
understanding as to the key pillars of leadership. What made women commit under
adverse circumstances and display such critical leadership? What is it that
made it work then and what can we learn from it for our current situations? How
can we harness it to take the remaining parts of the struggle further? We
constantly talk of these women's achievements but we fail to capitalise on the
lessons it can provide us on women's leadership traits.
I want to share with you how we gained such rapid success on the
representation of women in political and decision making positions in the
public service over a short span of twelve years of democracy. I notice from
the accompanying article written by Ms Manning that in the United Kingdom (UK)
you have only recently achieved 29% representation of women within management
positions in the Public Service. I am impressed but also intrigued. I can
recall that at a United Nations (UN) Public Administration Experts meeting in
2001 we noted that the glass ceiling internationally seemed to have been 20%.
The counter examples came from the small island states in the West Indies, but
those countries could not explained what allowed them to move beyond the 20%
ceiling. I wonder whether you can consciously reflect on what changed between
then and now that you could also raise your own representation by more than 10%
over effectively half a decade. What were the triggers and are we facing a new
glass ceiling around 30%? These are the questions we should engage with.
The successes achieved with the transformation of the Public Service in
South Africa, particularly with regard to women's empowerment and gender
equality, can be clearly understood using the "Eight steps to transforming an
organisation." These are adapted from an article by John P Kotter, titled
"Leading Change, Leaders who successfully transform businesses do eight things
right and they do them in the right order," in a recent Harvard Business
Review[1]. These steps are: Establishing a sense of urgency: examining
realities and seizing major opportunities in SA we have a deadline of 2009 for
50% women. Why? Because creating the sense of urgency is critical to achieving
the goal. We adopted the Southern African Development Community (SADC) target
of 30% by 2005 in 1995. We reached critical mass in political leadership by
women as early as 2003 i.e. 33% women in executive positions. Currently there
is a 42% representation of women in Cabinet, which includes a woman Deputy
President.
What was the urgency in SA, since in more developed countries 60 years after
the UN formation and 30 years after the first women's congress, these countries
have still not reached critical mass in women's political leadership. In SA, we
believe that this sense of urgency maintains the impetus, momentum and the
gains made towards gender equality on the top of the agenda. It ensures that
other pressing priorities do not push out the gender agenda.
There is a challenge with the private sector in this regard � but the
urgency presented within the Public Sector is having a strong spill-over effect
within the private sector where hardcore male dominated institutions are
beginning to look at the gender representation within key decision making
positions � more and more women are now in key corporate leadership positions,
owning and steering the levers of the economy.
Forming a powerful guiding coalition: Assembling a group of women with
enough power to lead the change effort and encouraging the group to work as a
team � starting with the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in 1956,
the women's coalition during the negotiations; which was the women's movement;
and currently the National Gender Machinery (NGM) in the country. We also have
the South African Women in Development (SAWID) initiative and the recently
launched Progressive Women's Movement. Driving the process in the Public
Service is the engagement with the SAWID and the NGM from ministerial level
right down to public servants.
Creating a vision: Creating a vision to help direct the change effort and
developing strategies for achieving that vision and ensuring that such a vision
is a unifying one � achieving optimal alignment of vision between different
initiatives. From the Constitution to the political will to the international
obligations that we sign, a National Policy Framework on Gender Equality and a
progressive legislative framework, to the vision of a transformed public
service � including the strategic framework for the public service, which all
articulate the same vision. We are signatories to every major international,
regional and sub-regional instrument on advancing women and women's rights,
including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, and the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
Communicating the vision: using every vehicle possible to communicate the
new vision and strategies and teaching new behaviours by the example of the
guiding coalition: e.g. within the national situation, women are in prominent
positions. The vision of a non-sexist state has been reiterated strongly by the
respective Presidents in every State of the Nation Address. Budget vote
speeches, Cabinet decisions, wide and positive media coverage, high profile
commemorations of National Women's Day (declared a public holiday on 9 August
commemorating the march of 1956); the 16 Days campaign taking place annually in
December highlighting the scourge of violence against women and children, high
profile involvement of the Minister of Public Service and Administration
internationally and the launching of the framework at a national event of 16
days, keeps the candle burning bright. The President and Deputy President's
involvement in the 16 days campaign and National Women's Day celebrations � all
carry the same key messages and the same vision.
Empowering others to act on the vision: Getting rid of obstacles to change
and changing systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision.
Encouraging risk taking and non-traditional ideas, activities and actions. E.g.
setting targets for representation and inclusivity. In addition, making Heads
of Departments, who are mainly men, accountable within their performance
contracts on mainstreaming of gender equality and achieving equity targets.
Planning for and creating short term wins: Planning for visible performance
improvements; staggering targets progressively; creating those improvements and
recognising and rewarding employees involved in their improvements.
Consolidating improvements and producing still more change: using increased
credibility to change systems, structures and policies that don't fit that
vision. Hiring, promoting, and developing employees who can implement the
vision. Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes and change
agents.
Institutionalising new approaches: articulating the connections between the
new behaviours and corporate success. Developing the means to ensure leadership
development and succession. This, ladies and gentlemen, is my legacy to this
forum, sharing some initial analysis of the gender achievements within SA and
pointing to some key aspects of aisle emerging model.
In conclusion, I want to leave you with key messages from the analysis of
the leadership displayed by women in the struggle for fundamental freedoms in
South Africa:
"Remember that leadership is a choice you make, not a position you sit
in.
Learn to lead despite the restrictions others have placed on you
Good leaders rarely think in terms of boundaries; instead they think in terms
of opportunities; a true leader champions her vision, take it and make it your
own!"
Thank you
Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
9 March 2007
