Gender imbalance: a focus on senior management positions in the it sector in South Africa

Abstract

Women in South Africa are under-represented in senior management positions in the Information technology (IT) sector — even with available incentives and directives to rectify the situation. The purpose of this research is to explore and understand the reasons for the imbalance in representation of women in senior management positions in the IT sector in South Africa. Seventeen women in middle to senior management positions from two of South Africa’s nine provinces — Western Cape and Gauteng — were interviewed for this study. The women were asked to relate their personal experiences and perceptions around organizational culture in IT environments and factors influencing their career advancements. A qualitative content analysis method was used to analyse the responses from the interviews. The findings of this study confirm the imbalanced representation of women in senior management positions. It was found that organizations are open and welcoming and provide opportunities to women, but women in the IT sector do not necessarily desire to advance to senior management positions. Factors such as the legacy in the IT industry where men held senior positions, career interruptions due to child bearing, and the absence of female mentor’s impact on the career advancement of women. The informal recruitment process for senior manager positions and the lack of emphasis on the need for women in IT when advertising senior management positions worsen the situation. Women lack self-confidence and are of the opinion that their skills set must be an exact match to the job requirements before applying for senior positions. Work life balance is not supported in the IT environment and no development programs aimed specifically at women are available. The paucity of women taking up technical careers — such as IT — limits the number of women available to develop and appoint in senior management positions. Guidelines for women to advance to senior positions and for companies to recruit and hire women are proposed. These guidelines will assist to correct the imbalance representation of women in senior management positions and promote IT as a career for women. A suggestion for future studies is to compare career advancement of women working in the software development environments, compared to women in the infrastructure and technical environments of IT, as well as those who have left the IT industry.