Gender inequality is still rampant throughout society and in the workplace, it can take on many forms – disparity in promotions, unequal pay and fewer leadership roles.

While this is often the case in big corporations and civil society, we should also be turning a lens towards the education sector, where gender inequality is even more pronounced.

Across the world, and in SA, women make up more than 70% of teaching staff, yet less than 40% of education management. A 2021 study by the University of Stellenbosch paints a bleak picture of female management representation in the SA education sector where 70% of all publicly paid educators were women; 48% of deputy principals were women and only 39% of principals.

According to the latest World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, South African women are paid between 23% and 35% less than men for the same work. Stats SA recently noted recently the gender wage gap was about 30% across the board.

The education sector has always attracted large numbers of women, but women remain severely underrepresented in school leadership despite evidence suggesting a link between strong and accomplished female school leaders and positive learning outcomes.

Most female educators have mastered the art of multitasking, balancing the demands of motherhood, domestic life and excelling in the workplace. Regrettably, these attributes are often seen as “soft skills” and are therefore not valued.

In fact, essential attributes like empathy and emotional intelligence, generally attributed to women and so critical to educating our children, are often dismissed. What we need to help bring about change to an antiquated and stereo-typical management approach is to educate the incumbent male leadership on the role that women play, and will continue to play, in the world.

Research across the world shows that female leaders bring a unique set of skills to leadership positions, which foster increased diversity, a change of mindset an increased success to organisations.

Of course, increasing the number of women in leadership positions will significantly change the organisational ethos in this regard. In fact, a Harvard Business Review found that women outscore men on 17 of the 19 competencies deemed essential for managers.

Women are highly competent managers, but what’s holding them back is a lack of opportunity. Some of the ways to retain valuable female human capital is to allow for flexible working hours to accommodate the many roles these women fulfil in society, update recruitment policies to ensure fair representation and organisations must update salary scales to eliminate the pay gap.

Companies need to invest in women supply chains and support SMMEs run and set up by women. It is also crucial to invest in learnerships that allow female employees acquire new skill sets.

Looking specifically at our schools, the way we educate a girl child versus a boy child at all levels can change the narrative. Curriculums need to be free from bias and gender parallels.

This can be approached by, for example, driving STEM subjects in all schools to all students. Too often, parents and teachers underestimate the abilities of girls. While the numbers speak for themselves, to truly transform the quality of the education sector in an industry dominated by women, change must happen. The quality, growth and future of the next generation of leaders and teachers in SA could be dependent on it.

■ Ramgareeb is deputy principal of Centennial Schools