Exploring the barriers and challenges that women face in the quest for leadership positions: The case of the mining sector in Gauteng

Abstract

This thesis critically investigates the barriers, challenges, and interventions shaping the advancement of women into executive directorships within Gauteng's mining sector. Despite South Africa's progressive legislative frameworks, including the Employment Equity Act and the Mining Charter, women remain significantly underrepresented in executive leadership. The study deliberately focuses on executive directors, who exercise day-to-day strategic and operational authority, as opposed to non-executive directors, whose roles are limited to governance and oversight. This distinction is central because executive directors embody substantive decision-making power and, therefore, encounter more entrenched resistance, scrutiny, and systemic exclusion. The problem statement is rooted in the paradox between formal equity policies and women's lived experiences in mining organisations. Globally, women comprise fewer than 15% of executive roles in extractive industries. In South Africa, women account for less than 5% of mining executive directors despite representing over half of the economically active population. Gauteng, as the country's economic and administrative hub of mining activity, exemplifies this disparity, where patriarchal organisational cultures, tokenism, and intersectional discrimination converge to entrench inequality. A review of literature highlights that earlier studies have examined women's leadership pathways but often treated individual, organisational, or cultural barriers in isolation. This research integrates these dimensions to demonstrate how intrapersonal factors (such as confidence, assertiveness, and resilience), interpersonal barriers (mentorship deficits and network exclusion), structural obstacles (bias, tokenism, and hostile work environments), and socio-cultural and religious expectations intersect to undermine women's authority. A multi-theoretical framework anchors the analysis, drawing from Human Capital Theory, Social Role and Role Congruity Theory, the Glass Ceiling and Glass Cliff concepts, Feminist Organisational Theory, and Intersectionality. Together, these perspectives provide a layered understanding of how systemic exclusion persists. The research methodology employed a qualitative design within an interpretivist-constructivist paradigm to foreground the lived experiences of women in leadership. Data were collected from 25 purposively selected female executive directors in Gauteng's mining firms, using open-ended survey questionnaires distributed via HR gatekeepers. Thematic analysis with reflexive coding was applied to identify recurring barriers and coping strategies. Rigour was achieved through purposive sampling, data saturation, and adherence to ethical standards (NWU-0061-22-A4). The findings confirm that women's underrepresentation in executive mining leadership is not the outcome of individual deficits but of systemic and mutually reinforcing barriers. Intrapersonal strategies such as resilience, self-awareness, and assertiveness enabled women to survive within hypermasculine spaces, yet they imposed significant psychological costs. Organisational barriers, including tokenistic appointments, exclusion from influential networks, and a lack of mentorship, restricted women's influence even after appointment. Cultural and religious norms reinforced patriarchal narratives that delegitimised female leadership, while intersectionality revealed compounded disadvantages for Black women. Notably, initiatives like training, mentorship, and networking offered some support, but they proved insufficient without a more profound structural transformation. The contribution of the thesis is the development of the Contextually Embedded Empowerment Framework (CEEF), which integrates structural accountability, contextual specificity, and collective agency. This framework demonstrates that meaningful transformation requires redefining leadership norms, embedding accountability tools such as leadership equity scorecards and cultural audits, and fostering inclusive mentorship and sponsorship practices. By advancing feminist, critical, and organisational theory, the study not only enriches academic discourse but also offers actionable strategies for mining organisations seeking to embed genuine gender equity.