A mixed methods study of women's advancement into top management positions in municipalities in Mpumalanga Province

Abstract

Despite the legislative imperative and commitment by government to ensure that all previously discriminatory laws and practices are eradicated, women still face significant challenges in as far as their advancement into top management positions is concerned. The Employment Equity Act of 1998 (Act 55 of 1998) seeks to create equal employment opportunities for the designated groups, which include Black people; women; and people with disabilities. The advancement of women into key positions in government, particularly at national and provincial levels, has been quite significant. However, the same could not be said about the advancement of women into key positions in local government, which incorporates the municipalities. The pace of gender transformation in senior management positions in the municipalities has been slow, which warrants a sociological investigation. The broad aim of the research reported in this thesis was to develop a theory to describe and explain the conditions surrounding the pace of gender transformation that affects women’s advancement into top management positions in the municipalities. The aim was also to provide a perspective of measures that could be ensured to accelerate the pace of gender transformation to enable women to access top management positions. The research was a mixed methods study with an emphasis on qualitative research, which incorporated grounded theory that was used to conduct the investigation targeting municipalities in the Mpumalanga province. The substantive grounded theory that emerged for this study is that the pace of gender transformation that affects women’s advancement into top management positions in the municipalities relates to conditions existing both internal and external to the municipalities. These are discussed as micro level conditions, which relate to women as a designated group, seeking advancement opportunities; and macro-level conditions, which relate to the municipalities, political influences, and society, as institutions to ensure the advancement of women. To accelerate the pace of gender transformation to enable women to access top management positions, different measures need to be ensured both inside the municipalities and outside the municipalities, in society and other social institutions.