Date: 09/03/2007

Source: Department of Public Service and Administration

Title: Fraser-Moleketi: Conference on Women's Leadership (09/03/2007)


The Conference on Women's Leadership: Globally and Locally, United Kingdom

"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