South African women are working their way up the ranks in the logistics sector and are tackling some of the industry’s problems such as skills gaps head on, top female executives told delegates at a recent Women in Transport and Business Forum in Durban.
But while women have made strides in attaining senior management and boardroom positions in the sector, there is still a need for further improvement and enforcement of gender equity policies.
The forum highlighted the successes of several high-profile women working in logistics and honed in on the status quo of empowerment in transport. Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) stakeholder relations manager, Ingrid Ramalekana-Werz, highlighted the progress women have made in the transport sector by focusing on gender representation in state-owned enterprises in maritime, rail, road and air transport. In an interview with FTW following the forum, Ramalekana-Werz said women had made significant progress according to the most recent available statistics on gender equity in the sector but there was still room for improvement.
According to 2016 statistics supplied by the Department of Transport, while women made up 50% of the Airports Company of South Africa and the South African Civil Aviation Authority boards, they only comprised 33% of the Air Traffic Navigation Services board, and their representation at top senior management was 44%, 40% and 37.6% respectively.
Women comprised 60% of the board of the National Ports Regulator but just 34% of senior management, 40% of the board of the South African Maritime Safety Authority and 28% of senior management.
She said Sanral had achieved 50% women representation on its board and in its total employment numbers but just 19% had secured top management posts with the entity, while the Road Traffic Management Corporation had 38% women on the board and 67% in top management. The Road Accident Fund had 36% women on the board and 66% in top management.
“There is progress but 24 years into democracy it’s really slow. We have beautiful policies but the implementation is a challenge. Women are in general management but we are not really growing into that space of senior and board management,” RamalekanaWerz said.
She added that there was a need for the Department of Women to push for the implementation of existing gender equity policies which had set high targets for women empowerment. Apparently “only a few” men were supportive in helping women to climb the career ladder.
“As women we should continue doing what we do best and uplift each other instead of waiting for someone else to do it,” Ramalekana-Werz said.
Lebo Letsoala, director of Sincpoint, who also works as a specialised supply chain coach and founded the African Women in Supply Chain Association (Awicsa), said women still had a long way to go in the sector, which faced a skills gap in terms of technical capability of new entrants into the workplace.
She said her coaching work involved developing technical skills and the mentoring of students, both men and women, to ensure workplace readiness. Awicsa is endorsed by the Department of Trade and Industry and by corporates in the sector.
She will be launching a new branch in Durban in September followed by a third branch in Cape Town in October.
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As women we should continue doing what we do best and uplift each other instead of waiting for someone else to do it. – Ramalekana-Werz
