Approaches to doing business the ‘traditional’ way is changing fast. The time for women to take to the corporate wheel to steer organisations in the right direction in a post-pandemic era, has never been greater.
How well-represented are women in the world of business? And how many female-owned businesses are there?
Women account for only 19.4% of business owners in South Africa – a slight 0.2% increase over 2019 – maintaining its 45th global ranking.
According to the global women’s network AllBright, some of the challenges women face in the workplace are:
- A lack of funding for female entrepreneurs
- Underrepresentation in senior roles
- A confidence gap
- A need for cultural changes
As seen in our current environment, corporate learning and development is the way of the future and women are taking the bull by the horns.
With that approach, it is predicted that women will be shaping the world of learning and development in business through:
- Increased and renewed innovation
- Bringing a new approach to leadership
- Focusing on diversity and inclusion
- Challenging social norms
- Increased empathy in the workplace
- Inspiring through growth
- Persuasiveness
Feeling a palpable lack of diversity and presence of women in their workforce, many organisations around the world have started to plan women-specific learning and development programmes.
Policymakers should use the frameworks from past summits to identify and address the major challenges to liberating women’s access to a more gender-inclusive economy and plan for skills and workforce development strategically.