Kgomotso Ramoenyane Gender diversity is vital for business success in an environment of increasing uncertainty. As the country celebrates women during August, Kgomotso Ramoenyane, Executive General Manager of Human Resources at Business Partners Limited (BUSINESS/PARTNERS) , says that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can benefit significantly from improving gender diversity in their companies because of the complementary skills, different perspectives and ideas women bring.   She says that only 28% of senior management roles in South Africa are held by women, according to the 2017 Grant Thornton Women in business: New perspectives on risk and reward report. While this is up from 23% in 2016, it is still considerably lower than other regions like Eastern Europe, where 38% of senior positions are held by women. However, Ramoenyane says South African businesses shouldn’t get distracted by comparisons but should rather focus on understanding the significant value a busi...

The Benefits of Gender Equality South Africa’s ability to embrace transformation is known worldwide, its muscle is flexed once again as it deals with gender diversity in the workplace. The MasterCard Index results seem to show that gender equality in South Africa still needs major improvement. It highlights that there are still more men in leadership positions than women. The index suggests that for every 100 men, there are 57.5 women in business leadership roles in organisations; and that for every 100 males, there are 25.5 women that own their own businesses.  As alarming as this is, are there benefits that businesses can enjoy by embracing more women participation in senior management? According to an ACCA report titled Increasing gender diversity to boost performance there are many benefits for organisations that choose to embrace this. The report says that organisations that lack a gender balance are unrepresentative of the society in which they operate because women m...