On 9 August 1956, 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria protesting against apartheid pass laws. These days, August is nationally celebrated as Women’s Month to commemorate the courage and strength of South African women who fought for – and continue to strive for – a non-racist, non-sexist society.
Earlier this month, Statistics South Africa released a report looking at how far we have come as a country in terms of gender equality. Are we indeed honouring those women who led that march 61 years ago?
In South Africa women comprise 51% of the population and make up 44% of the workforce. This includes skilled posts such as managers, professionals and technicians. These numbers don’t sound too bad, but seeing that they haven’t shown any growth since 2002, it is clear that we still have a long march ahead to achieve gender equality.
Delving deeper into positions of power, women comprise 32% of Supreme Court of Appeal judges, 31% of advocates and 24% of heads of state-owned enterprises. Of the top 40 Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies, only one has a female chief executive.
Shifting the focus to Flow Communications, we see a very different trend. In total, Flow has more than 70 regular employees, including 11 managers. An impressive 71% of all employees are women, with our management team 81% female. Looking at the company structure, 50% of our directors or shareholders are women. We are, of course, also very proud to have two women at the helm of it all.
CEO Tara Turkington and managing director Tiffany Turkington-Palmer have even been chosen to receive awards from the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge Foundation in Seattle, US, later this year. The Foundation aims to connect and develop a global network of successful women business owners.
It’s no secret that Flow is geared towards girl power, not only through our company structure, but also with our affiliations. Flow is a member of the prestigious WEConnect International women’s networking organisation, and we also recently hosted a Women Presidents’ Organization event.
We hope to continue on this path, effecting real change with respect to gender equality and the empowerment of women in South Africa. In the meantime, we believe those brave women of 1956 would have been quite proud of our achievements so far.
