Doing gender well: Women’s perceptions on gender equality and career progression in the South African security industry

Women empowerment is integral for sustaining economies and ultimately improving the quality of life for men and women, their families, communities and society at large (Ackermann & Velelo, 2013; UN Women, 2017). As is evident in South African statistics, women are increasingly entering the workplace, constituting 43.8% of the labour force (Statistics South Africa, 2018), and are, thus, contributing significantly towards the economy. This incline is attributed to a variety of reasons. Barker (2007) suggested the primary reasons to be the declining birth rate, the decrease of women being dependent on employed men (for reasons such as death of partners, unemployment of men, divorce or single parenthood), as well as an increasing number of formally educated women. In addition, the increase in remuneration and access to jobs, because of the decrease in gender discrimination, are contributing factors to the proliferation of women in the labour force. As gender is viewed in a binary way, the female is treated as ‘other’ and not as equal (Acker, 1990). In South Africa, statistics substantiate this by revealing that the workforce is benign to men, and that men are more likely to be in paid employment when compared with women. As explained by the expanded definition of unemployment, females account for 7.5% points higher than males (Statistics South Africa, 2018). In 2019, the rates of unemployment were estimated to be 31.3% and 27.2% amongst women and men, respectively (Statistics South Africa, 2019). Furthermore, the data reveal that gender equality is still below the halfway mark for Orientation: Although significant progress has been made globally in gender equality, women still occupy less political influence, fewer leadership positions and yield less control over their careers than most men. Gender inequality is evident in male-dominated work environments such as the security industry.