WLA 2018 Report - Draft 1-2

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In teams, females take support roles more often than males Team-work is an integral part of ALU’s learning model and even more critical in the larger working world. Beyond the gender composition of teams, gender stereotypes greatly affect the dynamics or a team and task divisions. Mckinsey Women Matter Africa report (2016) explains that, from non management to senior management positions, women's representation drops by 20%. This is due to the fact that men dominate ‘leading’ positions in teams, compte for line* roels and thereby obtain organisational leadership positions easily as compared to than women (ibid). Our research revealed that significantly more male students contribute in multiple ways (skill sets) to peer groups than female students. The proportion of male students playing multiple roles in peer groups is 22% while this proportion is only 3% for female students. This disparity could be due to female students being less confident whereby they would want to keep doing tasks they are familiar with while male students will be open to take on tasks they have not done before. 22% Male students contribute with multiple skill sets in teams 1.6X More likely to perform line* roles in teams 3% Female students contribute with multiple skill sets in teams 1.3X More likely to perform support* roles in teams In addition, gender role stereotypes also seem to be prevalent in the tasks female and male students undertake in teams. At ALU, while male students are likely to undertake tasks they deem to be critical for success like ‘strategy’ and ‘data analysis’, female students are more likely to be taking supporting roles such as ‘planning and organising’ meetings. Our survey shows that male students are 1.6 times more likely to perform data analysis, research and strategy as compared to their female peers. In contrary, female students are 1.3 times more likely to lead peer group discussions and organise peer group meetings (eg. sending calendar invites) in peer groups. *Note: 1. Line roles focus on core operations, e.g., strategy, finance, risk; staff roles focus on support functions, e.g., legal, HR, admin (McKinsey, 2016) 20
‘’Peer groups can sometimes be extremely toxic. [...] People don't see peer work as platforms to learn from each other but to show off their skills. Some feel like if they don't do certain tasks, they will not be held to a certain standards. Such situations make the group a strife of who delivers more quality as opposed to helping each other grow. It's like you come together and there are few people who feel like this is about me so it ends up being a toxic experience’’ - Female Business Management student Key Next steps The described gender-biased team dynamics can be more altered through an individual effort by students than institutional structure. Therefore, female students should consciously choose the tasks they undertake in peer groups and go out of their comfort zone and step up to take on tasks that 1) they have not done in their previous peer engagements 2) are critical for the project to move forward like research and data analysis. In such a way, they will be able to develop multi-dimensional skills as well us practice a habit of stepping up to lead team workstreams. Furthermore, facilitators should also encourage students to take alternative roles while working in a peer group and create check and balance systems to ensure its realisation. 21
Page 2 and 3: A N f WLA’ F WLA was founded by 3
Page 4 and 5: Executive summary 5 Gender landscap
Page 6 and 7: Executive Summary The McKinsey Glob
Page 8 and 9: Overall Gender Landscape at ALU The
Page 10 and 11: Brief History of State of African W
Page 12 and 13: Female students at ALU are less con
Page 14 and 15: Male students are more comfortable
Page 16 and 17: No gender disparity in risk-taking
Page 18 and 19: Unconscious bias are prevalent and
Page 22 and 23: Female students believe they don’
Page 24 and 25: Methodology The report is grounded
Page 26 and 27: 3 Female Students predominantly in
Page 28 and 29: 28

WLA 2018 Report - Draft 1-2

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