The role of employment equity in gender diversity

Abstract

Employment Equity legislation was introduced in South Africa in 1998. Many organisations had to critically evaluate their human resources strategies and policies in the light of this profound legislation.

The process of Employment Equity within an organisation is not merely a numbers game, with checks and balances. The process involves a macro perspective of how the country embraces diversity to capitalise on all the strengths that all types of cultures and races bring to the working world..

The study was conducted to ascertain if the implementation of employment equity legislation in South Africa, would lead to gender equity.

Major findings in the study were as follows:  Senior female managers are more negative towards development than are male senior managers;  Blacks are not as negative towards the employment equity process as would have been expected;  Implementation of employment equity legislation is a trigger mechanism that does lead towards gender equity, however it is a slow and arduous task to bring equitable processes into parity within an organisation;  Males are generally well disposed towards the female fraternity and that bodes well for the employment equity process.

The study concludes with a Systems Paradigm Model of Employment Equity, that presents an implementation strategy for any organisation in South Africa, about to embark on employment equity analysis and processes.