Constructing a development approach for female managers in the local sphere of government: The case of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality

Abstract

The benefits of women’s active public participation and representation in all spectrum of public sector leadership are countless. Some of the benefits include the achievement of social transformation, human and societal development, economic growth, poverty reduction, good governance, and better care for children and an improved standard of living. Women’s active public participation in public sector leadership requires but is not limited to an enforceable public policy framework that will enable them equal access and opportunity to reach strategic public management levels where they can contribute and influence public policy. The South African public sector/service has several impressive equality public policy frameworks to eradicate unfair and discriminatory labour practices, promote women’s human rights and ensure their equal public participation in the public leadership and public policy formulation realms. Despite the existence of the public policy frameworks towards ensuring a democratic and a representative public sector/service (including the local government sphere), women continue to be discriminated against in their attempts to gain access to senior public positions. This reality is reflected in women’s’ under-representation in top and professional positions in public institutions including in the local sphere of government. The local sphere of government, which is the first call point for all South African citizens, is the sphere of government where women are mostly disproportionately represented in directorship and senior public management positions. To establish the current situation regarding gender issues and the challenges on women’s’ public empowerment and public leadership training and development in the local sphere of government, a mixed research method where both the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms were used to ascertain the views, perceptions and experiences of female public managers. A triangulation method was used for the data collection, comprising various gender theories and feminist theoretical frameworks, literature study, application of semi-structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Twenty-three (23) women in professional public positions and senior management service, and four (4) HR personnel within the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality participated in the semi-structured personal interviews. The semi-structured questionnaire was completed by forty-one (41) women in middle management service and senior management service across the different local municipalities under the Dr Kenneth Kaunda district. The findings revealed that the DKKDM does not have any developed public policy or framework for the public leadership training and skills development of all public managers. The DKKDM relies primarily on formal education in the realisation of the skills development of its public officials in key strategic management positions. The study findings show that gender equality polices, legislation and the framework of government (local sphere) pertaining to the promotion of gender equality and for the empowerment of women are not implemented by the Dr KKDM. From the findings on paper, both men and women are equal. Nevertheless, reality shows that women are not equal to men; women face intense discrimination during recruitment and promotion into directorship and senior public management positions. The study further revealed that, although there is an improvement in women’s’ public leadership participation when compared with the last two decades, women are mostly considered for middle management public positions. Other impediments deterring women’s public leadership and advancement was summarised into four categories: structural challenges, institutional mindset, individual mindset, and life style choices. An empowerment approach was further proposed to accelerate women’s’ public leadership goals, uncover public gender leadership bias and to mitigate against the identified barriers hindering women public leadership inclusion and advancement in the local sphere of government.