The Gender Equity Dilemma: The Decade Ahead for Female Representation in the South African Public Service

Abstract

With the formation of a democratic regime in 1996, the new Republic of South Africa established a number of goals, including the advancement of women in politics, society and the public service. Within the public service, ambitious targets were set for the representation of women in management and intensive efforts undertaken to achieve them. Women have made great strides, but have consistently failed to reach those goals. This paper utilizes the findings of prior research on impediments to the advancement of women in organizations (often called the glass ceiling) to suggest a framework for analysis. Then, data obtained from South Africa’s nationwide employment database provide the basis for examining how the structure and dynamics of the public service delay progress. It describes how such factors as concentration in certain departments and grade levels, methods of accession and turnover serve as obstacles, in some expected and unexpected ways. The markov chain method of workforce forecasting is employed to estimate women’s progress through the year 2022, and finds that current targets will remain elusive. It concludes by suggesting that a fruitful area for further research on women’s advancement, in South Africa and elsewhere, would be these kinds of analyses of how organizations’ internal structures and dynamics and interaction among them.