More than 2,000 office workers, including 77 CEOs and executive directors, believe greater efforts are needed to change the culture of toxic masculinity, patriarchy and male supremacy in the private sector, according to a report released this week.
“The Costly Impact of Gender-Based Violence” report — compiled by the University of Johannesburg and Shared Value Africa Initiative (SVAI) in partnership with Mid Sweden University and with the support of KPMG — estimates SA lost R36bn as a result of GBV in 2019 alone. The researchers estimate R26bn was lost in human capital, R10bn as a result of out-of-pocket medical costs for victims and R104m in judicial costs.
The report was compiled from interviews with 73 CEOs, executive directors and other senior managers, as well as written responses to an online questionnaire completed by 2,270 mostly private-sector employees. It found companies are not doing enough to address GBV and its impact on their businesses.
“The topic of GBV does not feature in corporate social responsibility or broad-based BBBEE indices, corporate governance specifications or even occupational health and safety regulations,” the researchers said.
The board should always ask itself this question: the business judgment call we are about to make, how will it impact on gender equality? If we get that into the standards there will be a huge advancement on gender equality and [if] we get that quality standardised you will start eradicating violence
— Tiekie Barnard, CEO and founder of Shared Value Africa Initiative
More than 90% of respondents believe companies need to address toxic masculinity, patriarchy and male supremacy in the workplace.
According to the report, closing the pay gap is among the things companies can do to address gender discrimination. There is also pressure on them to increase the number of women, especially black women, in leadership.
The report quoted from research by advisory firm PwC in 2021, which found that in SA’s largest firms women in top leadership roles earned 72c for every R1 earned by their male counterparts. The report tracked executive director remuneration trends in 285 JSE-listed companies and found there were only 81 women executives among the 725 people whose pay was analysed. The gender pay gap was most pronounced in the top JSE-listed companies, where only 5% of CEOs were women.
Speaking at the release of the report, corporate governance expert Mervyn King called for new corporate reporting standards on gender equality that will hold companies accountable for discriminating against women.
He said every company should report what it had done to close the gender equality gap in areas such as remuneration.
“Leaders in the corporate reporting world are drafting standards and the time has come to draft a corporate reporting standard on gender equality … and every company should report on what they have done.
“People in capital markets can then make up their mind if they want to invest long term for their beneficiaries, like pension funds, in the equity of companies that have had no regard for gender equality and have greenwashed [their] report,” he said.
SA has a high rate of violent crimes against women and children, with experts saying that one in three women will experience some form of physical or sexual violence. In the workplace, the report describes GBV as violence that reflects the existing asymmetry in the power relations between men and women, which perpetuates the subordination and devaluation of the female.
Tiekie Barnard, CEO and founder of SVAI, said gender inequality is the biggest driver of GBV and the private sector has the capacity, resources and power to change economies forever if it intentionally and deliberately addresses the issue in the workplace.
“The board should always ask itself this question: the business judgment call we are about to make, how will it impact on gender equality? If we get that into the standards there will be a huge advancement on gender equality and [if] we get that quality standardised you will start eradicating violence,” King said.
According to King, a report by US investment bank Citigroup found achieving gender parity in business growth could boost global GDP by as much as $2-trillion (about R32.4-trillion), or 2%-3% of global GDP. Citigroup found gender equality could also generate between 288-million and 433-million jobs.
Researchers found that GBV affects company recruitment efforts and employee retention as the fear of violence can affect the decisions people make about where they work and with whom. Absenteeism, poor performance and increased staff turnover are factors that pose risks for business if companies do not address GBV.
Organisations that are gender- blind always make decisions that discriminate against the gender that is not included. We must also not forget that there are not only two genders. We also have to think about the LGBTQI+ and the violence they experience
— Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former executive director, UN Women
SVIA said GBV is increasingly a term that connects all acts of violence rooted in some form of “patriarchal ideology” and can be committed against women and men by women and men, with the purpose of maintaining social power.
GBV includes bullying, verbal abuse and harassment from work colleagues, supervisors or managers. Other types of violence, such as trafficking, cyber harassment, trolling, stalking, body shaming and nonconsensual creation of sexual images through artificial intelligence are also prevalent. “These affect communities and families and can prevent women from fully participating in the economy,” the report stated.
Barnard said the hope is that the research will “shift the male leadership mindset and drive accountability”, as well as persuading organisations to change their policies.
Bonang Mohale, president of Business Unity SA, said businesses need to kick down the doors closed to women. “Bring down the proverbial, not glass ceiling, but the concrete ceiling that we [men] have created. It is men who are uncomfortable with being surrounded by good quality women. The work needs to be done by men. As a beneficiary of patriarchy what am I doing to use this position of power that I have to make it that much easier for women to assume their rightful place in society?”
The report also recommended that corporate social investment spending include GBV awareness and prevention programmes.
In a recorded video message, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former executive director of UN Women, said companies need to intensify their reference checks when making appointments to establish if the person they are considering for employment has a history of abusive behaviour. She said addressing equality in the workplace must not only be limited to men and women, but also the LGBTQI+ community.
“Organisations that are gender-blind always make decisions that discriminate against the gender that is not included. We must also not forget that there are not only two genders. We also have to think about the LGBTQI+ and the violence they experience,” she said.
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