THE country‘s most influential business women‘s organisation is planning a major lobbying campaign to encourage the newly elected government to play a more active role in breaking down gender barriers.

That was the message given to delegates at a Mandela Bay Business Women‘s Association (BWA) panel discussion this week on its leadership census. It showed that, after 15 years of transformation, “women are still lagging behind in corporate South Africa”.

National committee member Rojie Kistens, a former petrol station attendant in Port Elizabeth who is now a senior executive of Old Mutual in Cape Town, told the delegates that a meeting with president-elect Jacob Zuma was scheduled soon after he takes office.

“A BWA team led by our president, Basetsana Kumalo, will present an agenda personally to the new president listing the actions that can be taken to ensure gender parity and remove barriers to it.

“We will ask the president to give his personal assurance that he will drive the BWA agenda,” Kistens said.

Metro branch BWA president Betsy Ings said later that the meeting with the president would be followed by national board discussions on how best to conduct the programme to get recognition for women‘s business talents.

The end objectives would be to get women‘s corporate talent fully recognised and ensure improved representation of women not only in the top echelons of companies but throughout all levels.

Earlier, panel member Salma Munshi said in addition to the traditional problems being encountered by women on the way up the corporate ladder, a “stiletto barrier” was beginning to emerge.

Munshi – a lawyer and vice chair of the Bay‘s BWA branch – said the new trend involved women in senior positions in companies “holding down” more junior women with high potential.

Other critical areas that had to be prioritised were:

The crucial role of mentoring women‘s talent, not only by other women, but also by men.

The need to recognise that businesses were still run and managed from a “men‘s perspective”, arising from traditional hierarchical structures.

The need to avoid “tokenism”, possibly including women being appointed as non-executive directors of companies, but having little say in day-to-day operations.

The need for individual women to take credit for their own initiatives and successes and not play their normal “nurturing” role.

In making the point about taking credit, panel member and PE Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Percci) operations manager Samantha Venter said it could be “tough” for a women to move forward in an organisation.

“But don‘t be shy to take credit for deliverables and results,” she urged the audience.

The census the panel was discussing was the result of a comprehensive study of 400 companies. It found there was still an “urgent need for concerted efforts to rope in more women into the higher echelons of corporate leadership”.

At its recent launch, BWA national official Kunyalala Maphisa said despite initiatives to bolster gender parity since the advent of democracy in 1994, the increase in women in the corridors of power “is still minimal”.

“The figure is not representative of the large pool of women available to take up these positions,” said Maphisa.

“In some instances, there is a fluctuation of figures which indicates a lack of any significant progress on the ground.”

The sixth annual census – sponsored by Nedbank in association with Gauteng Enterprise Propeller – also showed that the government‘s efforts to advance women into positions of leadership “yielded much higher results” than in other sectors.

However, even in this sector, “men still received much higher rewards in terms of salaries within the various departments”.

BWA president Kumalo also spoke at the national launch of the 140-page census.

“Never has the urgency for the incorporation of women into mainstream economic development been more critical than it is now, when the world is facing one of the toughest economic periods since the global depression of the 1930s.

“This is the time when corporations should be rounding up all available talent at senior level and working towards easing the impact of the global recession. This talent includes women,” she said.