tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/employment-equity-19161/articlesemployment equity – The Conversation2021-06-08T06:28:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1606952021-06-08T06:28:23Z2021-06-08T06:28:23ZWhat’s in a name? How recruitment discriminates against ‘foreign’ applicants<p>Since moving from Pakistan to Australia, Mariam Mohammed has gained a bachelor’s and a <a href="https://www.thewestern.com.au/locals1/making-money-moves-in-conversation-with-moneygirl">master’s degree</a>, co-founded a social enterprise (teaching financial literacy to women) and made the Australian Financial Review’s <a href="https://www.afr.com/women-of-influence">100 Women of Influence</a> list.</p>
<p>But there was a time she was so disheartened at not being able to get a job she <a href="https://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/mind-body/wellbeing/mariam-mohammed-is-calling-out-the-job-discrimination-she-received-because-of-her-surname/news-story/1b35482f2098e42b96598d4babd8dec4">considered changing her name</a> to something less “Muslim” and more “Anglo”. </p>
<p>Her experience is not unique. </p>
<p>In the past 50 years most Western countries have become more tolerant of cultural diversity. Laws now forbid overt forms of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity or age. But unconscious biases remain – with one of the most well-documented being discrimination against job applicants with ethnic minority names. </p>
<h2>Reviewing 123 resume studies</h2>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053482221000115">analysed 123 “resume studies”</a> to get a more fine-grained understanding of name-based discrimination in recruitment. </p>
<p>Resume studies <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijsa.12298">typically involve</a> researchers responding to real job advertisements with very similar resumes of fictitious job candidates. In these studies, some resumes have names indicating an applicant comes from an ethnic minority group, while other resumes have more common names. This enables researchers to compare the responses for the different names. </p>
<p>My review covered studies conducted in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Sweden, and the United States. </p>
<p>More than 95% of the studies identified high ethnic discrimination in recruitment. On average, ethnic minority applicants received about half as many positive responses to their job applications. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-the-pros-and-cons-of-diversity-in-organisations-159524">Vital Signs: the pros and cons of diversity in organisations</a>
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<h2>Notable differences</h2>
<p>There were, however, large differences in the degree of discrimination across the studies. </p>
<p>The following chart shows results from a selection of studies in different nations. The “net discrimination rate” is a common measure in resume studies. The higher the percentage, the higher the discrimination. So the resume studies show applicants with Moroccan names in Italy and African or German names in Ireland are more discriminated against than those with Turkish names in Germany. </p>
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<p>Just three of the studies did not find any hiring discrimination against ethnic minorities. Only one reported hiring discrimination against the ethnic majority group – a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13547860.2015.1055948">study in Malaysia</a> finding a Chinese name was more helpful than a Malay name. (Chinese Malaysians represent <a href="https://minorityrights.org/minorities/chinese-4/">less than a third</a> of Malaysia’s population, but are disproportionately represented in the <a href="http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Malaysia/sub5_4c/entry-3645.html">business class</a>.)</p>
<h2>Yes, it really is the name that counts</h2>
<p>The most noteworthy finding is the similar degree of discrimination against immigrants and the native-born children of immigrants (or second-generation immigrants). </p>
<p>Studies measured this effect through resumes for candidates with an ethnic minority name but with local educational qualification and work experience. Resumes for first-generation immigrants indicated attendance at foreign schools and universities and no local work experience. The response rate from recruiters was roughly the same. </p>
<p>These results show it is the ethnic minority name that’s the hindrance, rather than an assessment about a candidate’s language skills or a preference for local qualifications and work experience. </p>
<p>This point is underlined by <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0001839216639577">US</a> and <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/593964">Swedish</a> study findings that adopting an ethnic majority name improves job application success.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bias-creeps-into-reference-checks-so-is-it-time-to-ditch-them-88693">Bias creeps into reference checks, so is it time to ditch them?</a>
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<h2>Anonymous resumes may not help</h2>
<p>One common assumption among recruiters and human resource managers is that deleting the name of the job application should result in a more equal recruitment process.</p>
<p>But the research has returned mixed findings about anonymous resumes.</p>
<p>A 2012 <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001979391206500105">Swedish study</a>, for example, found anonymous resumes did indeed improve the chances for job candidates of non-Western origin (and also for female candidates). </p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20140185">a 2015 study in France</a> reported that anonymous resumes increased ethnic discrimination in recruitment. The researchers suggest anonymous resumes might have led to harsher judgments of “negative signals” such as employment gaps.</p>
<p>So anonymous resumes might not be the solution. What recruiters need to focus on instead is training to recognise their unconscious biases and better evaluate resumes based only on applicants’ actual skills and experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mladen Adamovic does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Discrimination against job applicants with ethnic minority, “foreign” names is still endemic.Mladen Adamovic, Research Fellow in Management, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1270292019-11-14T15:30:38Z2019-11-14T15:30:38ZSouth Africa’s liberals are failing to wrap their heads around race<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301744/original/file-20191114-26229-1scidwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is reeling from self-inflicted political damage. Its newly elected parliamentary leader <a href="https://www.pa.org.za/person/john-henry-steenhuisen/">John Steenhuisen</a> recently appealed to his colleagues to “stop the political hara-kiri that’s going on in the DA – <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2019-10-28-steenhuisen-says-big-blue-wobbly-jelly-da-needs-to-find-its-spine-again/">pulling out entrails to show everybody”</a>.</p>
<p>This follows the <a href="https://theconversation.com/partys-woes-signify-historical-dilemma-of-south-africas-liberals-126358">departure</a> of two more prominent black members, party leader Mmusi Maimane and Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, apart from national chair Athol Trollip, who is white. Other black members the party has shed include Cape Town mayor <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/de-lille-resigns-as-cape-town-mayor-quits-da-20181031">Patricia de Lille</a>, forced out last year, and former parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, who <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2014-05-10-lindiwe-mazibuko-quits-da-as-parliamentary-leader">left under duress in 2014</a>. </p>
<p>The recent resignations come in the wake of the <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/breaking-helen-zille-wins-da-federal-council-chair-vote-20191020">election</a> of former party leader Helen Zille to the powerful position of chairperson of the DA’s federal council. </p>
<p>She and other contenders for the post promised to return the party to a vague <a href="https://twitter.com/helenzille/status/1156067508136415234">“classical liberalism”</a>. What this would mean in light of the history of the party is left unexplained. It does seem that the dominant bloc in the Democratic Alliance wants to convince some South African voters that a version of liberalism exists which is untouched by history and context. Judging by recent events, they also seem to insist that liberalism has not and cannot be adapted to <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2019-10-31-helen-zille-calls-for-da-to-dump-race-analysis/">address the problem of racism</a>. </p>
<p>This reflects a growing dearth in political imagination in South Africa’s white liberal establishment in recent years.</p>
<h2>Success and new complexities</h2>
<p>The current malaise was triggered by the Democratic Alliance’s slightly poorer results in the May 2019 national election. It attracted <a href="https://www.elections.org.za/NPEDashboard/App/dashboard.html">20.8% compared with 22.2% in 2014</a>. </p>
<p>At the heart of the party’s problems lies what can be called “white denialism” – the inability to acknowledge the continuing repercussions of race and racism in the country. This has affected its analytical capacity to the point of endangering its electoral fortunes. </p>
<p>“Losing” more black leaders shows a greater concern with keeping the party as a base for white interests than growing it to a possible future government.</p>
<p>It wasn’t always like this. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mmusi Maimane, former leader of the Democratic Alliance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span>
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<p>The Democratic Alliance was one of the political success stories of the democratic era. In its previous manifestation as the Democratic Party, it managed to grow from a mere 1.7% in the first racially inclusive election in 1994 to <a href="https://www.elections.org.za/NPEDashboard/App/dashboard.html">12.4% </a>in the 2004 national elections, demolishing the former party of apartheid, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/partys-woes-signify-historical-dilemma-of-south-africas-liberals-126358">National Party</a>. </p>
<p>But with success come new dynamics and complexities.</p>
<p>The boost in growth was among white South Africans, leading to the party routinely being labelled <a href="https://www.news24.com/Columnists/MahlatseGallens/da-has-its-work-cut-out-to-show-its-not-a-white-party-with-a-black-leader-20180413">“white”</a>, and its relevance in a context of a majority of black voters was questioned. </p>
<p>Commendably, significant efforts ensued under Zille to recruit black leaders and break the white glass ceiling in the party. In the 2011 local government election, the <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/da-no-party-for-racists-says-zille-1430039">slogan was</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>reconciliation, redress, delivery and diversity.</p>
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<p>With the promotion of young stars such as Mazibuko and Maimane, and the merger with De Lille’s Independent Democrats <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2010-08-16-anc-shrugs-off-daid-merger">in 2010</a>, the Democratic Alliance’s complexion changed. </p>
<p>But this brought the question of race to the fore.</p>
<h2>Racial liberalism</h2>
<p>For many people who live the experience of being racialised as “black” in the world, it is impossible to negate the effects of race – both negatively, as a system of oppression, and positively, as a source of resistance and identity. As Maimane put it poignantly,</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2019-10-23-flashback-what-mmusi-maimane-said-when-he-was-elected-in-pe/">if you don’t see I’m black, you don’t see me</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These views ran head-long into the Democratic Alliance’s historical white denialism, sparking an intense political battle for the party’s soul. Hence, when Steenhuisen talks about the <a href="http://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/steenhuisen-to-contest-position-of-interim-party-leader/">“slavish race-based obsession of the last few years”</a>, he is sniping at black leaders’ attempt to turn the party away from its legacy of race-blindness.</p>
<p>The white liberal establishment, both inside and outside the party, holds on to its race-blindness by distorting the South African idea of “non-racialism”. Non-racialism is a political concept that hails from the first half of the 20th century, and is included in the country’s democratic constitution. It envisages a society beyond race that would be achieved through anti-racist action.</p>
<p>As a counter position, the Democratic Alliance has defanged non-racialism by presenting it as <a href="https://democracyworks.org.za/race-the-das-elephant-in-the-policy-room/">“colour-blindness”</a>. This convenient misrepresentation of non-racialism fits with what Jamaican philosopher Charles W Mills calls <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25501942?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“racial liberalism”</a>, the most prominent version of liberalism which has been pivotal to Western political thinking.</p>
<p>Racial liberalism has historically been characterised by a double standard, which is reflected in its role in the crimes of colonialism. Only some human beings could lay claim to the essential values of the rule of law and equality in the eyes of the colonial state. Hence, white and male privilege was entrenched. </p>
<p>In the Democratic Alliance’s case, its original predecessor the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/progressive-federal-party-pfp">Progressive Party </a> clung to the 19th century British colonial position of a <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/liberal-party-south-africa-lpsa">qualified franchise for black people</a> until the 1970s.</p>
<h2>Liberalism and historical injustice</h2>
<p>Mills makes the case for a colour-conscious liberalism. Extending this idea to other differences such as gender, this translates into a liberalism that actively acknowledges and advances the correction of historical racial, gender and other injustices. Such an agenda must be driven from the vantage points of those who have been wronged, that is, black people and women.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/liberalism-in-south-africa-isnt-only-for-white-people-or-black-people-who-want-to-be-white-125236">Liberalism in South Africa isn't only for white people -- or black people who want to be white</a>
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<p>The Democratic Alliance’s black leaders embarked on the crafting of what could be called an African liberalism in 2013. Its parliamentary caucus, led by Mazibuko, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/lindiwe-got-it-wrong-zille-1607434">supported affirmative action</a> on the basis of race and gender during the consideration of the <a href="https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/en/news/press-releases/2013/Employment/newly-tabled-employment-equity-amendment-bill-will-enforce-stricter-compliance-with-employment-equity.html">Employment Equity Amendment Bill</a>. A black parliamentarian said at the time that “there is no way that you can solve a problem caused by race without referring to race”. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Helen Zille heads the DA’s powerful federal council.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Efe-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span>
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<p>The white liberal establishment was outraged, including the Institute of <a href="https://irr.org.za/media/articles-authored-by-the-institute/towards-non-racial-aa-in-employment-2013-politicsweb-27-november-2014">Race Relations</a>. Former party leader Tony Leon sounded the bugle about an <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-14-is-black-the-das-new-true-blue">offence against liberal values</a>. The caucus was called to order. A policy conference followed where race was acknowledged as a “<a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/da-rejects-race-quotas-1611643">proxy for disadvantage</a>” but with no corrective mechanism, apart from “expanding opportunities”.</p>
<p>Mazibuko resigned under pressure and was replaced by Maimane. But the contestation intensified. Maimane <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2019/10/23/maimane-and-zille-s-political-bromance-how-it-all-came-to-an-end">called out</a> Zille when she tweeted positive comments about colonialism. Black Democratic Alliance members’ stances on public incidents involving race caused further upset.</p>
<h2>Lost opportunity</h2>
<p>The slight decline in Democratic Alliance votes in the 2019 election has been attributed to far-rightwing white supporters <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-who-why-and-what-of-south-africas-minority-afrikaner-party-116913">shifting their votes to the Freedom Front Plus</a>. Instead of regarding this as an opportunity to confront the party’s racial legacy and advance more inclusive politics, it was used to rid the party of Maimane, at the <a href="https://dailyfriend.co.za/2019/10/01/storm-forecast-winde-with-brighter-prospects/">instigation of the Institute of Race Relations</a>.</p>
<p>This was another one of those watershed moments, akin to when the apartheid regime passed <a href="http://psimg.jstor.org/fsi/img/pdf/t0/10.5555/al.sff.document.leg19680605.042.000.000_final.pdf">a law banning inter-racial parties</a> in the 1960s. At the time, the Progressive Party – the Democratic Alliance’s original permutation – <a href="http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/Collections/liberal.aspx">ejected its black members</a> to become white. Its other option was to disband and reorganise. It chose white politics then, as it does now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christi van der Westhuizen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The white liberal establishment, both inside and outside the Democratic Alliance, holds on to its race-blindness by distorting the South African idea of “non-racialism”.Christi van der Westhuizen, Associate Professor, Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD), Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1014412018-08-21T19:58:39Z2018-08-21T19:58:39ZResearch shows ‘merit’ is highly subjective and changes with our values<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232231/original/file-20180816-2918-1pywl2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6%2C6&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Selection panels interrupt women more than men and ask them more follow-up questions, subtly questioning their competence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-businesspeople-interviewing-woman-office-144677900">Andrey Popov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who is meritorious, what constitutes merit, and how merit and gender targets can operate together are widely misunderstood questions, as <a href="https://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/public-service-research-group/public-service-research-group/research-projects/role-middle-managers-progressing-gender-equity-public-sector">our new research</a> shows. </p>
<p>We spoke with almost 300 public sector middle managers. The vast majority said they wanted “the best person for the job”. They had less idea, however, of just who that “best person” might be. </p>
<p>Merit is assumed to be an objective standard, based on set criteria, which people meet or fail to meet. There are countless examples, however, of public positions that might not have been filled on merit. <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/95942-full-scale-political-row-erupts-over-the-merit-of-three-aps-appointments/">Questions</a> are being raised about several recent high-level appointments in the Australian Public Service. </p>
<p>While generally considered sacrosanct and enshrined in policy, in practice “merit” has been highly subjective and has waxed and waned according to social values. Until the 1960s, seemingly objective recruitment processes were <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2006.00471a.x">highly discriminatory</a> on the basis of class, ability and race. There were requirements for minimum health standards, certificates of good character and passes in subjects offered only in private schools. </p>
<p>These processes were also highly gender-discriminatory. Merit was interpreted in ways that benefited men and worked against women. Examples included limits on the number of single women that could be employed, and a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajph.12465">bar preventing married women from competing for jobs</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, there was a brief spotlight on merit and gender. New equal employment opportunity laws <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/09649420410541263">established clear rules</a> for assessing merit and monitoring gender in employment outcomes. </p>
<p>However, waves of public management reform led to more departmental autonomy and a reduced central focus on merit and gender.</p>
<h2>Two areas of confusion</h2>
<p>Fast forward to today, and this lack of attention to how merit and gender equity can coexist has led to confusion and a simplistic understanding of merit in two main areas.</p>
<p>The first is that managers perceive that they are hampered by process. Public sector managers largely follow a set recruitment procedure. They advertise, develop selection criteria, read resumes, shortlist, interview, check references and then appoint a suitable candidate. </p>
<p>The problem with this is that using the same narrow method and criteria may lead to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition">fallacy of composition</a>, recruiting more of the same without regard to the context and current gaps in a team.</p>
<p>Biases can influence selection panel members’ decisions. Researchers <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2011-04642-001">have found</a> that job advertisements and selection criteria may not be gender-neutral. </p>
<p>Unconscious biases can also come into play when assessing resumes and interviewing candidates. Research shows that selection panels <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/women-face-a-harder-time-than-men-in-interview-recruiting-bias-20170703-gx39j7.html">interrupt women more than men</a> and ask them more follow-up questions, subtly questioning their competence.</p>
<p>The second area of confusion relates to recruitment and gender targets. Some public sector organisations use targets to counter women’s under-representation in senior ranks. In Australia and internationally, <a href="http://www.5050foundation.edu.au/assets/reports/documents/2016-Reporting-Requirements-Targets-and-Quotas-for-Women-in-Leadership.pdf">targets have contributed</a> to an increase in women in leadership positions. </p>
<p>Managers we spoke with, however, were concerned that women being appointed to meet a target were “tokens”, or were chosen over better-qualified men. </p>
<h2>How do you set targets and select on merit?</h2>
<p>Merit and targets can, however, co-exist. Some managers recognised that recruiting to targets can <a href="https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/20131119_PP_targetsquotas.pdf">improve organisational outcomes</a>. Others argued that recruiting a diverse range of employees reflects the community they serve.</p>
<p>Some managers were innovative to advance gender equity while recruiting on merit. We heard stories of senior managers directing selection panels, which had shortlisted only men, to take another look at the women applicants or to broaden their search and encourage meritorious women to apply. </p>
<p>Managers recruiting for an ICT position reviewed the job requirements, realised the skills required were not technical but communication-based, and re-advertised based on an amended job description. This attracted more female candidates and a woman was duly appointed on merit. </p>
<p>Additionally, for jobs requiring technical competence, managers considered that technical skills could be learned on the job over time. They viewed capability as more important. </p>
<h2>Systemic approaches work best</h2>
<p>While training for selection panels is important, systemic approaches can more effectively ensure the merit principle is upheld. Organisations may benefit from approaches that include:</p>
<ul>
<li>recruiting for capability rather than past performance</li>
<li>providing training that recognises the myths around merit</li>
<li>encouraging conversations to counter the pervasive misunderstanding of the merit principle. </li>
</ul>
<p>Some public sector jurisdictions are <a href="https://publicsector.sa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/20070101-Guideline-Protection-of-merit-equity.pdf">providing advice</a> on how to undertake recruitment and selection to minimise biases and promote merit-based processes. But there is still a long way to go for this to become common knowledge. </p>
<p>The public sector has traditionally been considered to be a <a href="http://www.oecd.org/gov/women-government-and-policy-making.htm">model employer</a>. Implementing leading-edge practices that combine merit, gender targets and diversity can ensure it maintains this status.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The New South Wales, Queensland, South Australian and Tasmanian governments participated in, and funded this research; the Australia and New Zealand School of Government was the principal funder. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Colley receives funding from the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) for this research, and from the ARC.</span></em></p>The vast majority of managers said they wanted “the best person for the job”. They had less idea of just who that might be, or how to ensure appointments on merit and equity targets co-exist.Sue Williamson, Lecturer, Human Resource Management, UNSW Canberra, UNSW SydneyLinda Colley, Lecturer, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/951562018-04-23T13:47:40Z2018-04-23T13:47:40ZTeachers feel excluded from South Africa’s schools by race and culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215902/original/file-20180423-133884-8bgkif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers from different backgrounds and cultures are important for pupils' learning.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://ewn.co.za/Topic/Klipspruit-West-High-School">Emotions ran high </a> at a high school south of Johannesburg in 2017 when the largely coloured community rejected the appointment of a black principal. A group of black teachers were also removed from the school because coloured parents didn’t want them there.</p>
<p>The apartheid system delineated people using racial categories – white, black, Indian and coloured – and these continue to influence post-apartheid South African society.</p>
<p>This high school’s story is just one example of the many types of exclusion teachers face regularly. The problem is that debates about exclusion focus almost exclusively on the experiences of learners as they try to overcome barriers of race, culture, gender, sexuality, class, disability and language. </p>
<p>Yet teachers also have difficulties around inclusion, participation and belonging in post-apartheid schools. Many have migrated from historically black to historically white schools because these <a href="http://repository.hsrc.ac.za/handle/20.500.11910/6479">tend to be better resourced</a>, classes are smaller, safer school environments, more learning support services and in some cases higher salaries.</p>
<p>But being employed by a school doesn’t automatically guarantee inclusion. <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1757743815586518">A study</a> I conducted with my colleague Professor Yusef Waghid showed that even when black teachers are hired at historically white schools, they have to deal with constant questions about their “competence” and whether their work is in line with a school’s stated “standards”. <a href="https://www.chet.org.za/papers/race-education-and-democracy-after-ten-years-how-far-have-we-come">Education experts argue</a> that the term “standards” is often used to justify profoundly racialised conceptions of a diametrically opposed “white competence” and “black incompetence”.</p>
<p>The ongoing exclusion of particular teachers from schools – whether on the basis of race, religion, culture, or sexuality – has serious implications for learners as well as the curriculum. On the one hand, learners do not encounter the life-worlds of diverse teachers. On the other hand, learners from minority groups struggle to find points of resonance. This leaves them with no option but to <a href="http://www.nwu.ac.za/files/files/p-saeduc/All_articles/handling.pdf">assimilate</a> into the dominant way of thinking and being.</p>
<p>Learners benefit from being exposed to multiple and unfamiliar teacher identities. They begin to experience those they previously might not have encountered. They enter life-worlds which they otherwise might not have known. </p>
<p>It’s time that policymakers paid serious attention to the problem of teacher exclusion.</p>
<h2>Teachers feel excluded</h2>
<p>One of the people involved in our study – a black woman – was appointed as a maths teacher at a school that taught predominantly coloured children. She was only allowed to teach Mathematical Literacy (a subject that involves basic problem-solving). The school said this was because she required “mentoring”, even though she was qualified and had prior experience as a maths teacher.</p>
<p>Another participant in our study, a South African of Indian descent, was appointed at a school of mostly white learners. He faced continuous complaints from parents whose children apparently couldn’t understand his accent. The teacher left the school after only 10 months. His decision was prompted by the principal asking whether he would be taking leave to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid. The principal had seemingly failed to realise that he was in fact not Muslim, but a practising Hindu. </p>
<p>But these issues aren’t being addressed. Perhaps one of the reasons is that South Africans are preoccupied with trying to adhere to what can be measured in an <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/LegislationActs/Education%20Laws%20Amendment%20Act%20No.24%20of%202005.pdf">employment equity framework</a> as set out in the country’s laws. </p>
<p>As American political theorist and feminist Marion Iris Young, however, <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198297556.001.0001/acprof-9780198297550">points out</a> these frameworks don’t necessarily equate to inclusive processes of recognition, participation or respect. Teachers might be employed at a particular school but their presence doesn’t equal participation.</p>
<p>Humans are caught up in a world of perception and cannot extricate ourselves from it. Consequently, in a country whose history is so marred by racism and colonialism, many South Africans can’t imagine that a “black” teacher is a “competent” teacher anymore than they can imagine that they might be able to learn from a teacher with an “Indian” accent. </p>
<p>What’s needed is a different way of looking at the world. Schools offer spaces where learners can be exposed to difference and diversity through employing teachers from across racial, cultural and religious lines. Policy is insufficient in cultivating these spaces. The onus rests on both school leadership and governance structures to realise their responsibility in preparing learners for what it means to participate in a pluralist society. One way of cultivating a more inclusive and diverse school environment for learners is through including diverse teachers.</p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>Tackling teacher exclusion can create an environment where teachers and learners remain conscious that there’s more to know and more to include. This is because the exclusion of any individual or group within a teaching space is, in fact, a shutting down of the imagination and uncertainty. Exclusion instils a smaller world. It promotes sameness, and defuses dissonance. It diminishes people’s capacity for critical engagement. </p>
<p>Beyond government taking action to remedy the situation, teachers also need to assert their authority and contest historical apartheid-era images of power through race and culture or ethnicity. It’s only through questioning that others can be drawn into deliberative engagements and debates. This affirms people’s presence and is an opportunity to see them as they are. South Africa’s classrooms will be better places if these perceptions begin to shift.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nuraan Davids does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Learners benefit from being exposed to multiple and unfamiliar teacher identities.Nuraan Davids, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/807152017-08-01T02:18:01Z2017-08-01T02:18:01ZSex matters: Male bias in the lab is bad science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179854/original/file-20170726-28585-1wp3t3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=509%2C0%2C3746%2C2828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Male scientists dominate labs, often with little to no female representation in the work or research subjects.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lab-expert-working-on-test-using-654600724">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I first started doing experimental biology, I noticed that we only looked at males. </p>
<p>I was in a fly lab — a very good one — and we could have looked at males or females, or both, but we didn’t. We collected female flies to mate, of course (flies need males and females to reproduce, just like humans), but we ran all of the experiments on males. We weren’t alone. </p>
<p>Many labs I interacted with did the same thing. In fact, most of the labs I talked to only worked with males. Some couldn’t remember when they had last tested a female subject. Maybe coincidentally, maybe not, <a href="https://theconversation.com/study-confirms-sexism-in-science-so-what-are-we-going-to-do-9762">all of the labs I can remember talking with were run by men</a>.</p>
<p>If pressed for a reason why they only tested males, the usual answer was that biology was biology and what we find in males, we find in females, but females were more variable. <a href="http://www.genetics.org/content/182/2/565.long">I’ve even written a sentence stating this in a paper.</a></p>
<p>Is this point important? The majority of post-release drug complications are in women, likely because <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v465/n7299/full/465688a.html">females are underrepresented in clinical trials</a> — in the same way that female subjects are underrepresented in even fundamental biological studies. </p>
<p>Sample size is almost always an issue in science. More samples allow better resolution, allow us to detect smaller changes and more accurately quantify larger ones, but increase time and cost — and time and money are at a premium. This trade-off leads to a common approach: If females are just hypervariable males, then don’t waste resources on them — instead focus on males. </p>
<p>But what if they’re not? What if females aren’t just wonky males? What if female biology is unique? What if male-dominated labs are focusing on male subjects because at some unconscious level men are basically dicks? Or at least acting like them.</p>
<h2>Diversity in flies but not the lab</h2>
<p>For the little more than a decade that I’ve had my own lab, I have made a living connecting genetic diversity and biological complexity. My research group essentially asks: How does the amazing amount of variation that we see in DNA at the genome level translate into the phenomenal amount of complexity that we see in biology?</p>
<p>My group does a lot of work with <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> — the fruit fly that may be buzzing around your fruit bowl as you read this. (Yes, I know how to get rid of them. No, I won’t tell you.) <em>(Editor’s note: In fact, he has told us <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-kill-fruit-flies-according-to-a-scientist-81740">how to get rid</a> of them.)</em></p>
<p>We work with flies for a number of reasons, but one of the most important is that it’s possible to easily look across many lines of flies, each similar, but each genetically distinct. There are hundreds of fly lines available. We can, and have, even worked with flies we collect from the compost bin in my back yard. </p>
<p>This practice allows us to better understand the true biology of a system, to understand biology in general — not just the biology of flies. Instead of getting an accurate idea of how an individual, or even a family (a “line”), of flies react and respond, we investigate how flies in general react and respond. This ability is incredibly important when working with model systems. The first step in this extrapolation is getting beyond the biology of an individual to the biology of the species as a whole.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179697/original/file-20170725-20161-1nnkday.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179697/original/file-20170725-20161-1nnkday.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179697/original/file-20170725-20161-1nnkday.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179697/original/file-20170725-20161-1nnkday.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179697/original/file-20170725-20161-1nnkday.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179697/original/file-20170725-20161-1nnkday.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179697/original/file-20170725-20161-1nnkday.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Female fruit flies —like other organisms — are generally used in research only to breed more of the species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/580339330?src=1OsHRNGdFejnd-EoiSHKEw-1-12&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Each line is similar but also distinct. Think of human families or individuals. Each family is very similar, but with unique genetic features that may, or may not, change their biology. Fly lines are similar. They’re often established from a single female fertilized in the wild and then maintained in the lab. By including many fly lines in an experiment, we can ask questions about the biology of flies in general and then, by extrapolation, about biology in general — about us. </p>
<p>Using this approach, we found that genetic diversity is incredibly important. Different lines of flies, all of the same species and often from very similar areas, respond and react differently. We have shown that <a href="http://www.g3journal.org/content/2/12/1613">genetic diversity impacts how a fly reacts</a> to chemical stress, to starvation, to mutations in the genome, even <a href="http://www.g3journal.org/content/4/11/2175.long">how chromosomes talk to each other.</a></p>
<p>Given the importance of genetic diversity, why have we continued to focus only on males? There are a series of answers. Maybe the easiest is: Because that’s what we’ve done in the past and we’re continuing to work that way.</p>
<h2>Females really are different than males</h2>
<p>Recently, a student in my lab, Courtney Lessel, completed a study in which we actually <a href="http://www.g3journal.org/content/early/2017/06/17/g3.117.043836">tested whether males and females are similar</a>, and if one or the other were more variable. It essentially asked: Are females just hypervariable males? </p>
<p>Broadly, Courtney was studying how genetic complexity modified biological changes driven by mutation in an enzyme, Superoxide dismutase, used by flies — and humans — to neutralize environmental toxins and harmful byproducts of metabolism. The specific mutation we used, called a “knock-out,” shortens their lifespan and generally makes them unhealthy and unhappy. Courtney tested seven different biological characters (phenotypes), across eight different lines of flies (genotypes), and quantified the effect of the mutation, including the magnitude of the effect, the genetic background, and sex. </p>
<p>Now, given that I’m writing this, you can guess what we found: Females are not simply hypervariable males.</p>
<p>Generally, males and females actually did respond in similar ways. By a large margin, the knockout mutation had the largest effect. We expected this response.</p>
<p>The next largest effect was genetic background. Courtney found differences in the biology of all of the lines tested. It was interesting that the genetic background had a much smaller effect than the mutation, given that we had selected the lines we used because of large differences across the phenotypes (the biology that we were studying). </p>
<p>Somewhat to our surprise, genetic background couldn’t overcome mutation. Essentially, we chose the lines to have large effects, but found that even still, the mutation had the largest effect. Unexpected, but sort of cool.</p>
<p>The most striking result, however — and the reason for this article — was that in some cases, males and females were distinctly different. It wasn’t simply that one sex showed a reduced or exaggerated response or behaviour, but that the biology was in fact reversed. </p>
<p>If we had limited our study to only males — as we sometimes have — or only females, not only would we have failed to reach a conclusion, we would have drawn the wrong conclusion. </p>
<p>Equally important, given the variability arguments against including females in studies, females were no more variable than males. Bottom line: Females and males are often similar, but biologically distinct.</p>
<p>I’ve been saying for many years that to understand a system, to really answer a question in biology, you have to incorporate genetic diversity, look across multiple genotypes. This paper, and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231717302343?via%3Dihub">others</a> <a href="http://ajpheart.physiology.org/content/302/9/H1771.long">like it</a>, mean that I need to say just as forcefully: You have to incorporate both male and female subjects.</p>
<p>Many <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/policy-nih-to-balance-sex-in-cell-and-animal-studies-1.15195">funding agencies now require the inclusion </a>of both male and female subjects or an explanation of why studies are only done in one sex. Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem to have translated to studies actually doing just that. Of course, more funding for basic research would help us increase those sample sizes and still stay on budget. And this would be a great thing - as long as it didn’t just lead to continuation of the status quo of more male-biased research.</p>
<p>It’s 2017. We can do better than this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Merritt receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Research Chairs Program. </span></em></p>Research laboratories are dominated by men, and that’s not only bad for lab culture, it can be dangerous for science.Thomas Merritt, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Laurentian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/714992017-01-31T15:55:14Z2017-01-31T15:55:14ZSystemic racism behind South Africa’s failure to transform its economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154938/original/image-20170131-13227-1ihumnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa suffers from high levels of poverty, racism and inequality. This can be almost entirely attributed to centuries of conflict between white settlers and indigenous Africans. Apartheid reduced black Africans to the periphery of the economy. Many were condemned to landlessness and poverty.</p>
<p>The country’s post apartheid government attempted to dismantle this inheritance by adopting a <a href="http://www.dti.gov.za/economic_empowerment/economic_empowerment.jsp">strategy</a> of black economic empowerment. It passed a series of laws designed to redress historical economic inequalities. These include the Employment Equity <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/legislation/acts/employment-equity/employment-equity-act">Act</a> and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment <a href="http://www.dti.gov.za/economic_empowerment/bee.jsp">Act</a> (B-BBEE).</p>
<p>But years after their implementation, these policies largely remain <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/06/piketty-south-africa-inequality-nelson-mandela-lecture">failures</a>. For instance, in 2016 whites still constituted <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/useful-documents/employment-equity/nationalproveap_dec16.pdf">68.9%</a> of top management in all sectors. Yet they are only <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/useful-documents/employment-equity/nationalproveap_dec16.pdf">9.9%</a> of the economically active population. In contrast black Africans, who constitute 78% of the economically active population, hold only <a href="http://www.biznews.com/transformation/2016/11/09/mcebisi-jonas-bee-executives/">14.3% of top management</a> positions. </p>
<p>Empowerment legislation has also been largely ignored. As of February 2016 – 22 years after the fall of apartheid – black South Africans still directly owned only <a href="http://www.biznews.com/undictated/2015/03/02/zuma-stands-fast-on-3-jse-black-ownership-claim-wtf/">3% of shares</a> on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). </p>
<p>There’s a helpful way to understand how a supposedly “rigorous” corporate governance infrastructure has failed to ensure compliance with transformation legislation. The Helmke-Levitsky <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/informal-institutions-and-democracy">framework</a> demonstrates how informal de facto institutions, such as racism, interact with formal de jure institutions to shape corporate governance. It also shows how white people can frustrate transformation by rendering empowerment laws ineffective. </p>
<h2>Models of interaction</h2>
<p>The Helmke-Levitsky framework was developed by political scientists Gretchen Helmke and Steven Levitsky. They argue that four distinct postures guide how the informal institution of racism can interact with formal empowerment laws. These are complementary, accommodating, competing, and substitutive.</p>
<p>Complementary: In this naive case, the interests of whites and those of the African National Congress (ANC) government would be aligned to drive transformation. The informal institution of racism would somehow, magically, complement the effective implementation of empowerment policies.</p>
<p>Accommodating: In this instance the ANC government would be effective in enforcing transformation laws. However, the goals of formal empowerment laws and informal racist agents are in conflict. This would lead to subversion of the onerous transformation laws through petty corruption. Racist agents would also move to largely position themselves in the informal sector. </p>
<p>Competing: Informal institutions striking this posture are exemplified by criminal networks such as the Mafia. In this case racist agents would directly challenge an ineffective ANC government. They would create their own de facto criminal rules of engagement. Their aim would be to totally undermine state institutions.</p>
<p>Substitutive: This posture would also arise where the ANC government is ineffective. The goals between formal empowerment laws and informal racist agents would also be incompatible. However, in this case racist business groups would be so large and powerful that they substitute for the state, or capture it for their own ends.</p>
<p>In my view, South Africa’s bifurcated political economy seems to have reproduced a hybrid of accommodating and substitutive informal postures. This has a negative impact on the political economy and transformation. Essentially, it has reinforced the power of domineering whites and marginalised impoverished blacks. </p>
<h2>By any means possible</h2>
<p>Transformation rules and the interests of informal racist agents have proved to be incompatible. As a result, whites have used racism to crush the perceived threat to their property rights. </p>
<p>They are able to attain their goals since the ownership and control of listed companies and banks is highly <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-must-tackle-dominant-firms-to-achieve-better-wealth-distribution-68759">concentrated</a> in their hands. They are able to use their oligarchic power – and grand corruption – to maintain the status quo.</p>
<p>They stifle black advancement by appointing friends or family members without the requisite qualifications or experience as senior executives. Highly qualified blacks are <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/documents/annual-reports/Commission%20for%20Employment%20Equity%20Report/2015-2016/commission-for-employment-equity-report-2015-2016/">overlooked</a>. </p>
<p>They also engage in grand corruption, for example, by <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/more-than-half-of-bbbee-businesses-found-to-be-fronting-2016-06-29">falsifying</a> their empowerment scores to get large construction tenders, banking and mining licences. In this way, they subvert black advancement and entrepreneurship.</p>
<p>White <a href="http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Business_economics/Oligopoly.html">oligopoly</a> power is so effective in marginalising blacks because it has one or two friends in the ANC government. The governing party does not enforce its own transformation or land distribution laws. Instead, it may use state power to protect white oligarchs. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/marikana-tragedy-must-be-understood-against-the-backdrop-of-structural-violence-in-south-africa-43868">Marikana massacre</a> provides an apt example of the power of this phenomenon. The current ANC Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa didn’t employ his substantial political power to ensure that mining giant Lonmin met its social and labour responsibilities as per legislation. Instead, he seems to have made sure that the <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-06-19-00-marikana-shootings-will-always-stalk-ramaphosa">strike was crushed</a>.</p>
<p>Conversely, the black majority doesn’t have the economic power to counter the discriminatory effect of white oligopoly power. It’s not surprising, then, that where black entrepreneurship exists its marginal, accommodating white discriminatory power. </p>
<p>Black entrepreneurship therefore manifests, largely, in the informal, shadow economy. Examples are spaza shops, the violent taxi industry or tendering characterised by petty corruption.</p>
<h2>Need for reform</h2>
<p>Applying the Helmke-Levitsky framework strongly indicates that South Africa’s captured institutions are effective for protecting white property rights. For blacks, the same “rigorous” institutions are useless for transforming the economy or restoring their land. </p>
<p>South Africa needs honest empowerment and corporate governance reforms to achieve meaningful economic transformation. These reforms must take into account the reality of white racism. To expect white oligarchs to act against their perceived interests is naive.</p>
<p>But corporate governance and empowerment reforms may not be enough to foster transformation. Fundamental reforms addressing the institutional context in which racist oligarchs operate need to be put in place. </p>
<p>Anti-corruption and election funding laws may need to be revisited to counter state capture. In addition, discriminatory white oligopoly power will also need to be directly curbed by, for instance, reducing white control of the banking industry.</p>
<p>In my view, these and other reforms may be necessary to realise the post apartheid dream of a united, prosperous and non-racial South Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thanti Mthanti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The slow pace of transformation in post apartheid South Africa is a reflection of persisting racism that has infected formal corporate institutions.Thanti Mthanti, Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Business Administration, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/457822015-08-11T04:19:54Z2015-08-11T04:19:54ZWomen are still paid less than men in South African companies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91015/original/image-20150806-5260-16ufgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A South African woman needs to work two months more than a man to earn the equivalent salary in a year. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sharing the information on your salary slip is a taboo and most people would not open a dinner table discussion by laying bare the details of their monthly paycheque. So how can you really be sure that you are earning the same as your colleague doing the same work as you? And if you’re a woman, how can you be sure that you are earning the same as the men working in your team? </p>
<p>These questions often cross our minds but we are not sure how to go about finding out more without raising eyebrows. The Women in the Workplace research <a href="http://sabpp.co.za/the-sabpp-womens-report-2015/">programme</a> at the University of Johannesburg sets out to answer these and other gender pay-related questions.</p>
<h2>The size of the gap</h2>
<p>All too often we remain passive when faced with the unknown. Remuneration is one such unknown. What we do know is that there is a definite gender pay gap. The size of the gap depends on, among other factors, the country, industry, job role and level.</p>
<p>The South African gender pay gap is estimated, on average, to be between <a href="http://www.uj.ac.za/EN/Faculties/management/FutureFitBreakingNews/Documents/FoM%20SABPP%20Womens%20Report%202015.pdf">15%-17%</a>. This implies that a South African woman would need to work two months more than a man to earn the equivalent salary that he would earn in a year. </p>
<p>If the gap persists, a South African woman would never catch up with her male colleague. Ultimately she loses out on pension and other benefits that are coupled to her basic salary. Other than the financial losses that she incurs, the emotional fairness of the pay gap is quite difficult to accept. Employers are benefiting unduly from a historic system of undervaluing women’s skills and workplace contributions.</p>
<p>On average, South African services industries are better attuned to the needs of women. These sectors have a high percentage of women employees. Mining and other heavy industries lag behind in terms of gender pay equity. Salaries in government are, on average, better for both men and women than similar comparable jobs in the private sector. </p>
<p>How does South Africa compare with other countries? It is difficult to draw direct comparisons because of major differences between pay practices and legislative environments. But <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_324651/lang--en/index.htm">data</a> from the International Labour Organisation on global wage gaps show they range from between 4% and 36% or more. Among the developed countries, the US has the widest gap. South Africa is in the same region as Vietnam, Denmark, Spain and Italy. </p>
<p>Steps have been taken in South Africa to remedy the situation. The <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/legislation/acts/employment-equity/employment-equity-act-and-amendments">Employment Equity Act</a> sets out the principle of equal pay for equal value. The burden now rests on human resource management practitioners to uncover potential cases of pay inequity, and to address these with innovative remedies.</p>
<h2>What’s behind the gender gap</h2>
<p>The reasons for the gender pay gap are multiple. Some would argue that it would be impossible to eradicate gender pay differences completely. Issues such as the perceived number of hours that women work and the value that is placed on their labour, like nurturing and being supportive, are not regarded as having a high economic value. </p>
<p>Women are often seen to be less loyal to the company and more likely to exit the workplace in their childbearing years. Employers may therefore perceive the long-term value that a woman would add to an organisation as lower than that of a man who does not have care obligations outside the workplace. </p>
<p>Men are therefore paid more than a woman to ensure that the company gets a greater return on the investment made in the development of an individual. </p>
<h2>Don’t be shy to ask</h2>
<p>Although it does remain difficult and highly technical to prove pay discrimination, it is heartening that a proper legal framework exists. But the interpretation of equal value in pay is sticky and uncovering gender pay differences in the same job type that also provides the same value for an employer is quite complex. </p>
<p>It all starts with the identification of a comparator, a person in a job that you think is the same as yours, substantially the same as yours, or a job that is adding the same value to the company as yours. You have to prove that the difference in pay is based on unfair discrimination. The Employment Equity Act allows for greater freedom to interpret instances that would constitute such discrimination. </p>
<p>You have the right to ask your employer about your salary in relation to other positions in your department or organisation. Your company may have a policy directive that precludes you from sharing your salary data with colleagues. If this is the case you should observe the policy. But you are still at liberty to discuss your salary with your manager, the head of payroll or human resources. </p>
<p>You are also at liberty to ask friends in other companies about their salaries and to investigate what your type of job gets paid in other workplaces. Knowledge is truly power and when it comes to pay, you should be careful of blindly trusting an organisational system.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Professor Bosch is the editor of the 2015 Women’s Report of the SA Board for People Practices.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anita Bosch receives funding from the University of Johannesburg.</span></em></p>The South African gender pay gap is estimated, on average, to be between 15% and 17%. Employers are benefiting unduly from the historic undervaluing of women’s skills and contributions.Anita Bosch, Professor of Human Resources Management , University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/448732015-08-04T04:42:26Z2015-08-04T04:42:26ZWhy white men still dominate the top echelons of South Africa’s private sector<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90609/original/image-20150803-5978-tnme9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">White men still rule South Africa's corporate landscape.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is 17 years since South Africa passed legislation aimed at redressing the historical systemic discrimination against black people and women in the workplace. </p>
<p>The ultimate goal of the Employment Equity <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/legislation/acts/employment-equity/eegazette2015.pdf">Act</a> is an equitable workplace profile reflective of the demographics of the country. It was promulgated to give effect to <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng-02.pdf">Section 9</a> of the South African Constitution, which calls for substantive equality to remedy historical structural inequality. Ultimately, transformation is about creating an inclusive workplace.</p>
<p>But the most recent <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/documents/annual-reports/Commission%20for%20Employment%20Equity%20Report/2013-2014/commission-for-employment-equity-report-2013-2014">report</a> on compliance with the law shows that white males continue to dominate top and senior management positions. The picture is relatively better in the public sector.</p>
<p>The good news is that there has been progress. When the act came into effect, whites held 87% of <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/useful-documents/employment-equity/Useful%20Document%20-%20EEA%20-%20Employment%20Equity%20Analysis%20Report%202004.pdf">top management</a> positions. The recent report shows a figure of 70%.</p>
<p>The bad news is that the pace is slow and suggests South Africa has a very long way to go before the profile at the top of companies reflects the demographics of the country. </p>
<p>For black women in particular the progress is dismal. A recent analysis I did, which has not yet been published, of black women’s representation on companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, indicates that if present trends continue, it is impossible to even forecast when equity might be achieved. </p>
<h2>Subtle barriers have replaced apartheid laws</h2>
<p>The pace is so slow that employment equity reports over the last few years read like déjà vu. Why is this? Research suggests there is not a single explanation. A complex web of factors contributes to the slow pace of transformation.</p>
<p>First, far too many companies have not aggressively embraced the spirit of the act and affirmative action. Most have not gone beyond merely complying with the letter of the law. </p>
<p>Second, changing the pace of workplace transformation requires recognition of the difficult starting point and the lingering effects of racism and oppression. Apartheid institutionalised a race and gender hierarchy that placed white men at the top of organisations. This entrenched white male privilege and domination of top positions. </p>
<p>Today, the legalised, overt exclusion has been replaced with subtle barriers that reproduce inequality. These barriers are reflected in the discourse about employment equity heard in some corporate boardrooms and offices. This is reflected in statements such as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Business imperatives require certain competencies so we need to be careful.</p>
<p>Reverse discrimination is not the answer.</p>
<p>It is hard to keep them because they leave for higher salaries.</p>
<p>People should be employed on merit not special treatment. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Hoarding and social closure</h2>
<p>But this kind of discourse is only part of it. The everyday practices and cultures of too many companies are not conducive to attracting, developing and retaining existing black and women talent. Organisational cultures are not neutral spaces and are typically formed and shaped by the values of the dominant group. <a href="http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/18446/Nkomo_Moving%282011%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Research</a> has documented two particular phenomena that can slow the advancement of black people and women: opportunity hoarding and social closure.</p>
<p>Opportunity hoarding occurs when those in dominant positions preserve and hold on to job resources for their own group. The employment equity report reflects this. White males in top and senior management positions continue to receive preference in recruitment and promotion. </p>
<p>The data also show they have greater opportunities for skills development. In many companies emphasis is placed on being ‘sponsored’ by a powerful individual who promotes one’s candidacy. Being part of the preferred network also provides the necessary visibility to those who make promotion decisions.</p>
<p>Opportunity hoarding can result in a double-edged sword for blacks and women who, because of their small numbers, are less likely to be part of the power wielding in-group.</p>
<p>Social closure occurs both consciously and unconsciously and has the effect of keeping blacks and women from thriving in companies. </p>
<p>Social closure practices include limited access to the tacit knowledge required for a job that cannot be found in a job description. It is also reflected in organisational cultures that are alienating and non-inviting to those in the minority. One young man said to me about his experience in banking:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It hurts to see your white counterparts getting the inside story about the business but you have to basically learn it on your own. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another manifestation of social closure is exclusion based on the presumption of incompetence. Many I encountered in my research talked about the stigmatisation of their race or gender and the inability to be valued as individuals for their knowledge and ability. Even though they may have been hired because of their skills and qualifications, those in the organisation assume they received an unfair advantage.</p>
<h2>Crying out for leadership</h2>
<p>Removing everyday barriers cannot be achieved through legislation alone. It requires leadership and a sense of urgency. We need leaders who commit themselves and their organisations to the spirit of the law. They should emulate and take note of the practises of companies that have made real change. </p>
<p>The basics of real change to achieve transformation include aggressive and accelerated development of a leadership pipeline. Succession planning should be a deliberate practice to make sure the face of top and senior management evolves. Progressive companies focus on developing and retaining a talent pipeline. And there is considerable talent in the market. The latest available figures for <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/VitalStats%202012%20Web_0.pdf">graduates</a> in business and commerce show that the number of African, Coloured and Indian graduates is three times that of whites. And women graduates outnumber men.</p>
<p>Companies also need to pay attention to the middle levels of management. <a href="http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/18446/Nkomo_Moving%282011%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Research</a> has shown that often this level is the most resistant to change. A manager’s performance on transformation should be a significant factor in annual performance reviews. </p>
<p>Transformation and employment equity have to be at the core of company priorities. Leaders who lag behind need to do what they normally do when a part of a business is not making the score - come up with a turnaround strategy. Embracing the spirit of the law requires leadership, not just compliance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stella M Nkomo receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa </span></em></p>White males still dominate South Africa’s boardrooms 17 years after legislation was passed to foster the inclusion of black executives and women. Companies have not yet embraced employment equity.Stella M Nkomo, Deputy Dean for Research and Post-Graduate Studies, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences , University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.