Challenges in the Era of Globalization - iaabd

Challenges in the Era of Globalization
Edited by Emmanuel Obuah
The BWA 2010 Census for director and directorships comprised of 335 organisations where information
was easily accessible from JSE-listed companies and state-owned enterprises (SOE); while there were
306 organisations that could actually verify their information for the executive management analysis
(BWA, 2010: 10, 75-145). For international comparisons, we also use the Global Gender Gap Index,
particularly since it is multidimensional and combines quantitative data sets and qualitative measures
(Hausmann et al, 2009; 2010; Moser, 2007: 2, 38-39). Because of missing data, coverage in the 2010
Report was ultimately restricted to 134 out of the initial 200 countries. Of this total, 17 countries had one
data missing, another 8 countries had two variables missing, and 2 countries which had been included in
previous reports were left out altogether because of lack of recent data, although the final total was
balanced by the inclusion of 2 new countries. Unlike previous reports, the 2010 Report also aggregated
five years of data (Hausmann et al, 2010: v, 6-7).
The Global Gender Gap Index examines gender equality according to “economic participation and
opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival” (Hausmann et al,
2009: 4: 2010: 4).
Limitations of the study
A number of problems are immediately apparent with the BWA Censuses and the Global Gender Gap
Index, the most obvious being comprehensiveness. The annual censuses concentrate on “the corporate
landscape”, even though the out-going President, Ms. Kumalo, did hint at the need to look beyond the
corporate world since “poverty … [is] a feminized development challenge” (Kumalo, 2010: 6). Moser
also notes that the Global Gender Gap Index does not “include indicators for informal work, unpaid and
reproductive work, or time-use. These are critical to understanding women’s participation in the economy
because much of women’s work falls outside the formal sector” (Moser, 2007: 39).
Allied with problems of comprehensiveness are inevitable data problems. For example, in the case of the
BWA 2010 Census, difficulties associated with accessing information on executive managers means that
“the analysis applies only to those 91.34% of those companies that responded to the Census request for
verification and information” (BWA, 2010: 12). Moreover, in this self-reporting process, the supplied
information could not be verified by the BWA or Synovate (BWA, 2010: 12, 51). On a global scale, for
reasons mentioned earlier and because the Global Gender Gap Index “is a nuanced and comprehensive
tool, the data is so complex that it is only available to measure - - - [a limited number] of countries”
(Moser, 2007: 39). This partly explains why around 66 countries did not make the final count in the 2010
Global Gender Gap Report.
There are also problems of comparing like with like. For its part, the 2010 BWA Census concedes that the
inclusion of subsidiaries makes it difficult to make historical comparisons (BWA, 2010: 10-11). In
addition, there are conceptual problems relating to gender inequality (which may be context-specific) and,
in particular, empowerment (whose interactive processes can only be ‘captured’ by qualitative rather than
quantitative methods).
With this in mind, the findings, while generally acknowledged as painting a more complete picture of the
role of professional women in business, should be used with caution. In our case, we also benefited from
discussions with a number of influential people in South Africa during the periods 2006-2008 and
November 2010.
The BWA Findings and Response
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