Men and women working in health sectors have called on global health leaders and institutions to recognise that women are ready for gender equality in global health leadership.

This call was made at a recent Women’s Month event held under the theme ‘Gender Transformative Leadership: We are Ready’, hosted by Women in Global Health (WGH) South Africa in collaboration with the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Health Sciences and the Albert Luthuli Leadership Platform. The event was held at UP’s Future Africa Campus.

Speakers echoed sentiments by Professor Flavia Senkubuge, President of WGH South Africa and Deputy Dean for Stakeholder Relations in UP’s Faculty of Health Sciences, who said it was concerning that 70% of the global health workforce was women, who also make up approximately 90% of healthcare practitioners who provide direct healthcare, but make up less than 25% of the global health leadership.

“The question then is, where are these men coming from to be able to contribute 75% of the leadership?” Dr Lerato Makoro, Programme Director and WGH South Africa Secretary General, asked. “So it means all the men are automatically leadership, because it is quite a minority of them? This is a good question to ask if we are going to work together to address this concern.”

Prof Senkubuge said the theme ‘Gender Transformative Leadership: We are Ready’ speaks to the number one objective the organisers wanted to achieve when they founded the South African chapter of the WGH: achieving gender transformative leadership with 50-50 representation of men and women in global health leadership positions, and representation at events such as panel discussions.

“We partnered with UP to start conversations on gender transformative leadership, and as you heard the other speakers, all women, say, ‘We are ready’,” Prof Senkubuge said. “Partnering with an organisation that is in fact an institution of higher learning, which is a space not only for just lecturers and professors, but also a space where we groom the next generation of leaders. In essence, when the leaders in the room hear conversations where women are saying, ‘We are ready, but these are conditions which we need in order for us to be ready’, something very important happens in that moment, and that is why we chose the theme ‘Gender Transformative Leadership: We are ready’, particularly here at an event held at a university.”

Professor Salome Maswime, a renowned global surgery expert and passionate advocate for women's health rights and equity in surgical and maternal care, said women in health need to know that they are ready, and not rely solely on organisations and institutions to tell them when they are ready.

“When I was applying to be an associate professor in 2019, some institutions were saying that I am not ready and I still needed to get a lot more experience and all of that, but in actual fact, what they were saying is that they were not ready,” Prof Maswime said. “Maybe they were not ready for a woman like me, or a black woman like me. It was more a reflection of them than me as an individual.”

She thanked associates who said they thought she was ready, saying that they had made it possible for her to ascend. “We need to prepare ourselves, get our CVs ready, but we also need to know what we bring to the table, so that when someone says you still need another 10 years of training, you can know that that is not true. We must become excellent, because when you are excellent, at some point, they cannot close all the doors. Look, now it is five years later, and I am a full professor.”

Professor Loretta Feris, UP Vice-Principal: Academic, said a lot still needs to be done to achieve the desired equality. She said a recent study showed that women in South Africa get paid 15% to 17% less than men for the same work.

Only 25.8% of executive positions and 36.4% of senior management roles are held by women. This is somewhat better than the global average of 25%, but lower than the best regions, such as Eastern Europe, at 38%.

One-third of South African companies have no women in management (again, at 31%, this is slightly better than the global average of 34%). Only seven of the 100 largest companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are led by female chief executive officers, indicating minimal progress in gender balance in senior management and leadership positions.

According to PwC South Africa’s 2022 board report, the typical senior roles women tend to hold are in human resources and finance; in the public sector the picture is somewhat better: women comprise 45.5% of senior management of state-owned enterprises, and have 46.0% representation in Parliament.

Prof Feris also announced that the University of Pretoria Executive has given its approval for the development and implementation of a Women's Leadership Programme at UP as part of meeting the institutional need to take deliberate steps to prepare women for leadership positions.

“We recognise that understanding the unique barriers women face in leadership and how they navigate these challenges is essential for creating a more inclusive and supportive environment,” Prof Feris said. “Our vision is clear: we aim to purposefully prepare and adapt UP's culture, policies, appointment procedures, and management processes to ensure women are well represented at all levels of leadership. By leveraging existing opportunities and programmes, we are committed to ensuring that women benefit from the growth and development initiatives offered by the university.”