0 | P a g e  
 

Gender Discrimination in the Workplace: An Examination of how Women Confront 

Marginalisation in South Africa. 

 

A 

Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand in Partial 

Fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of Critical Diversity Studies.  

By 

 

Masechaba Tekana 

Student Number: 0111966F 

 

Supervisor: 

 

 Dr William Mpofu 

 

June 2020 

University of the Witwatersrand 

 Johannesburg 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



1 | P a g e  
 

Declaration  

   

I, the undersigned, Masechaba Tekana, hereby declare that this research report is my original work. Any 

ideas in this report that are not my own are acknowledged through proper references and citations. This 

report is being submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art in the field of 

Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this report has been 

submitted in the past, or is being submitted, or will be submitted in the future for any degree or examination 

at any other university.   

   

I further declare that:  

• I am aware that plagiarism (the use of someone else’s work without their permission and/or without 

acknowledging the original source) is wrong. 

 

• I understand that the University of the Witwatersrand may take disciplinary action against me if there 

is a belief that this is not my own unaided work or that I have failed to acknowledge the source of the 

ideas or words in my writing.  

  

SIGNED AT JOHANNESBURG:   

  

  

 

 

____________________________    ________________________________ 

Masechaba Tekana      Date  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 October 2020



2 | P a g e  
 

Acknowledgements   

I would first like to thank my Supervisor Dr. William Mpofu. To Professor Melisa Steyn, Prof Peace 

Kiguwa and Dr. Haley McEwen, thank you for being thought-provoking and challenging teachers. I learnt 

a lot from you and thoroughly enjoyed the course work you took us through. 

To all MA and Honours students at WiCDS that were part of my learning process and journey during the 2 

years of my studies, I thank you. It was through your preparation, sharing and the energy that you brought 

to class that I was able to learn and understand the concepts we tackled. I must say I had to unlearn and 

relearn many concepts throughout our engagements.  

To My Family and friends that supported me throughout this learning process, I cannot express enough 

gratitude for believing in me and for your encouragement.  I would not have been able to achieve my dream 

without your support. To my parents, my late Dad (Elliot Mphaisha “Lucky” Kakumbi) and my Mom 

Dimakatso Sylvia “Dimarks” Kakumbi nee Matlenane, thank you for giving me the greatest gift of 

education and for all the sacrifices you made to educate all your children. You both remain a source of 

inspiration, Love always.  To my loving children Kopano, Kutlwano, Andile and Siyabulela.  You are my 

everything and you inspire me. I would not have been able to reach and achieve what I have achieved 

without your love and understanding. To all the participants in my research study, thank you for agreeing 

to be part of my study and for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me. You have enriched my 

research with all your remarkable stories. Most importantly, I thank God for giving me the strength and 

wisdom throughout this journey. It was not easy but I always knew that I could do it with Him by my side.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



3 | P a g e  
 

Table of contents 

Declaration           1 
Acknowledgement           2 
Table of contents          3 
Abstract           5 
Outline of chapters of the study        6 
Limitations of the study          7 
Definition of key terms of the study        8 
1. Chapter 1: Background and Setting of the Study      9 
1.1 Introduction          9 
1.2 Background to the Study         11 
1.3 The Problem Statement         13 
1.4 Rationale of the Study         14 
1.5 Research Questions          14 
1.6 Study Objectives          15 
2. Chapter 2: Decoloniality: A Theoretical Framework and Qualitative Methodology 16 
2.1  Introduction          16 
2.2 Decoloniality          16 
2.2.1 Rationale for Decoloniality        18 
2.3 Qualitative Research Methodology         19 
2.3.1 Decolonial account of Methodology        19 
2.3.2 Qualitative Research Methodology of the study       19 
2.4 Study Design          20 
2.5 Study Area           21 
2.6 Participants           21 
2.7 Ethical Consideration         21 
2.8 Methods of data collection         22 
2.9 Data analysis and interpretation techniques – Critical Discourse Analysis   22 
2.10 Critical Diversity Literacy and Decoloniality       23  
3. Chapter 3: Literature Review: The Liberation of Women     24 
3.1  Introduction          24 
3.2 Efforts to eliminate gender discrimination by various stakeholders     24 
3.2.1 Global Organisations: United Nations Instruments      25 
3.2.2 Regional Legal Framework        26 
3.2.3 National Legal Framework: South African Government      27 
3.2.4 Corporate response          29 
3.3 State of gender discrimination and equality in corporate South Africa                30 
3.3.1 A marginal shift towards gender inclusion of women     30 
3.3.2 Gaps identified in the fight against gender discrimination     31 
3.4 Decoloniality and the discrimination of Women       32 
3.4.1 Patriarchy and gender social construction      33 
3.4.2 Gender construction biological influence       35 
3.5 Gender Stereotype           35 
3.5.1 Why are gender stereotypes not good for women’s career advancement?   37 



4 | P a g e  
 

3.6 Intersectionality           40 
3.7 Organisational culture and impact of gender discrimination on women in the workplace 41 
3.7.1 Organisational Culture         41 
3.7.2 Impact of gender discrimination on women in the workplace    42 
3.8 Strategies to create a gender discrimination free environment in the workplace  43 
3.9 Gender mainstreaming         46 
4. Chapter 4: Findings, Analysis and interpretations      48 
4.1 Introduction          48 
4.2  Thematic analysis of qualitative data        49 
4.3 Different forms of gender discrimination and lived experiences    49 
4.3.1 The Patriarchal mindset in the workplace      49 
4.3.2 The suppression of women voices in the boardroom     52 
4.3.3 Women and the denial of leadership roles      53 
4.3.4 The patronisation of women        54 
4.3.5 Men using foul language / swearing       56 
4.3.6 The material gender gap         56 
4.3.7 Sexual Harassment         59 
4.3.8 Multiple roles a woman has to play       61 
4.3.9 Promotions and development of women       64 
4.3.10 Glass ceiling          65 
4.3.11 Boys clubs that exclude women        66 
4.3.12 Gender discrimination from other women      67 
4.3.13 Intersectionality          68 
4.4 Impact of gender discrimination on women       70 
4.5 Mechanisms to eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace    73 
4.5.1 Speaking up and calling things out       73 
4.5.2 Training and networks         75 
4.5.3 Role-modeling          77 
4.5.4 Policies and procedures         77 
4.5.5 Men’s role in fighting gender discrimination      78 
4.6 General analysis of the findings         82 
5 Chapter 5: Conclusion         84 
6 Budget           89 
7 References           89 
8 Appendix A: Consent Form        98 
9 Appendix B: Interview Schedule        100 
 

 

 

 

 



5 | P a g e  
 

Abstract 

The present study delves into an examination of the gender discrimination of women in the workplace in 

post-apartheid South Africa. The burden of the study is to understand how, in spite of legislation and 

political rhetoric that commits to the empowerment of women in South Africa; women remain 

discriminated against at work and in society at large. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 

1996 bears a number of statutes that declare the empowerment of women as a human right that is central to 

the aspirations of democracy and development in the country. Decoloniality as a theoretical framework is 

deployed to allow the study a critical perspective into how the gender discrimination of women in the 

workplace is a problem in South Africa that is systematically and structurally connected to the coloniality 

of gender at a world scale. Methodologically, the study adopts the qualitative approach that, in line with 

decolonial theory enables the study to understand the life conditions and experiences of women based on 

their testimonies as interviewees and participants in the research. The positionality of the researcher as a 

working woman became a decolonial opportunity to speak and think with the women as equals and not to 

objectify them as objects of research.  Decoloniality which is a theory and a philosophy of liberation that 

seeks to negate the classification of human beings according to race, gender and sexuality amongst other 

objectives is appropriate to this study. It centered in the discipline of Critical Diversity Studies that critiques 

power relations, oppression and domination that are based on human differences. Male power and privilege 

over women are understood as domination and exploitation that are based on systemic and 

structural constructs that should be challenged. Relevant literature from scholars in gender and feminist 

studies has been explored to locate the study amongst other studies as intellectual and also social justice 

work that is academically acceptable. The study notes that some women seek accommodation with male 

power and privilege to locate themselves in the comfort zone as well as some men elect to be allies of 

women in their struggle. The study recommends that durable solidarities amongst women should be forged. 

Training and education programmes that raise awareness to the discrimination of women should be 

promoted. Men should be sensitised to support and champion the empowerment of women as they are either 

perpetrators of patriarchy or beneficiaries of its power and privilege. The pieces of legislation that support 

the cause of women should be known and activism applied to get them to be implemented to their letter and 

spirit. It is in that way that this study is both academic and social justice work. 

KEY Words: Gender Discrimination, Patriarchy, Decoloniality, Coloniality, Colonial Power Matrix, 

Feminism 

 

 



6 | P a g e  
 

Outline of chapters of the study 

Chapter One: This chapter delineates the background and setting of the study. The Problem Statement and 

Rationale of the study are presented before the explication of Research questions and objectives of the 

study. Key terms of the study are defined and the Limitations of the study clarified before the outline of the 

chapters of the study. 

Chapter Two: This chapter presents the Theoretical Framework and Methodology of the study. This 

chapter defines the scientific and compliance of the study as academic work that is theoretical and 

methodological. 

Chapter Three: This chapter is the Literature Review of the study. It explores relevant literature around 

women and their discrimination, at a world scale and in post-apartheid South Africa. This chapter permits 

the study to explore scholars and other studies that have engaged with the present subject. 

Chapter Four: This is the discussion chapter of the study that engages with and interprets the data that has 

been gathered in the fieldwork undertaken for the study. The Decoloniality theory and Qualitative 

Methodology of the study are applied on the data to tease out the observations, arguments and conclusions 

of the present study. It is also this chapter that establishes the study as a Decolonial academic study in the 

area of Critical Diversity. 

Chapter Five: This chapter provides the conclusions of the study and a summation of its propositions. 

Observations and recommends for future research are made and the study is concluded. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



7 | P a g e  
 

Limitations of the study  

There are three limitations that I would like to highlight. The first limitation of this study is that interviews 

were conducted in one sector, the banking sector, and one organization based in Johannesburg, South 

Africa. The study has to stretch the observations to refer to South African society by inference, which can 

be limiting. The research highlighted issues that may only be unique to one geographical area and the head-

office environment of one bank. The second limitation is that the study focuses on CIS gender women, 

which is women that identify as female and heterosexual, which in itself can be construed as a form of 

discrimination against other gender identities such as lesbians and trans-gender women. This limited focus 

was influenced by lack of access to other types of gender identities as well as time constraints due to tight 

timelines set by the university. Masters research can only go so far. Lastly, my ability to collect data and 

intention to conduct a workshop with participants was impacted negatively, as I had to go through a 

retrenchment process when I was busy with my research. I aim to mitigate these limitations by conducting 

further studies in this area, possibly for my PhD qualification or for publications in form of journal papers 

and book chapters. For many years I have worked in the financial and banking sector of South Africa. My 

personal experience should enhance rather than hinder my understanding of the experiences of women in 

the banking workplace.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



8 | P a g e  
 

Definition of key terms of the study 

For this study to do justice to its elected topic, research questions and objections, key terms of the study 

are defined as follows: 

Women: An adult female person.  

Gender Discrimination: Unequal or disadvantageous treatment of an individual or group of individuals 

based on gender.  

Discrimination: Showing of prejudice or bias. It means “unjust, especially in a racist or sexist way” 

(Khan, 1986). 

Gender Equality: Gender equality is understood to mean that the “rights, responsibilities and opportunities 

of individuals will not depend on whether they are born male or female” (Warth and Koparanova, 2012).  

Workplace: A place of employment or a location where someone works for his or her employer.  

Sexuality: it is about sexual attraction, sexual practices and identity. Just as sex and gender do not always 

align, neither does gender nor sexuality. People can identify along a wide spectrum of sexualities from 

heterosexual, to gay or lesbian, to bisexual, to queer, and so on.  

Patriarchy: A system of social structures and practices, in which men dominate, oppress and exploit 

women” (Walby, 1990).  Men hold the greatest power, leadership roles, privilege, moral authority and 

access to resources and land, including in the family. 

Post-Apartheid South Africa: The period after the end of segregation or discrimination based on race in 

South Africa (post-1994). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405883116300508#bib32


9 | P a g e  
 

1. Chapter One 

 

Background and Setting of the Study 

 

The dawn of democracy in South Africa (SA) in 1994, i.e. post-apartheid era came with inherent societal 

gender deficiencies and in all sectors of the SA economy women experienced challenges. 

                                               Sihaam Van Der Schyff (2017). 

 

Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the 

greatest human rights challenge in our world. 

UN Secretary-General, António Guterres (2019) 

 

In South Africa, existing evidence based on previous work carried out by the Commission for Gender 

Equality (CGE) and other organisations continues to show that despite the existence of various relevant 

laws to promote gender equality in the workplace, progress continues to be unsatisfactory. 

Human Rights Equality Report (2012)  

 

1.1 Introduction 

This study   aims to examine gender discrimination in the workplace in a post-apartheid South African 

setting. The study pays attention to how women experience and confront systemic and structural 

marginalisation. Decoloniality is used as a theoretical framework to unmask how behind the legal and 

political rhetoric on the inclusion and empowerment of women in post-apartheid South Africa, women 

remain discriminated and marginalised. Paula Moya (2011) reflects on how decolonial thinking helps 

women to see themselves clearly against societal, systemic and structural marginalisation and oppression. 

Methodologically, this study assumes a qualitative approach that allows the study to read and interpret the 

voices of women in the workplace and make sense of their experiences and aspirations. The epigraphs that 

introduce this chapter are statements that resonate with my personal position in the struggle for women 

empowerment in South Africa and beyond. These statements together with my lived experience have left 

me asking myself the following questions, “Why do women continue to confront discrimination, 

marginalization and exclusion in the workplace, even though equality between men and women stands as 

a universal international precept, a fundamental human right?”. A question for many years I have not been 

able to ask, as I was perhaps afraid of the answers I would get. I decided to put my unpleasant experiences 

of gender discrimination inside a vault due to fear of re-living the unpleasant experience of being subjected 

to various forms of gender discrimination. Moments when my human rights were repeatedly violated 



10 | P a g e  
 

because of my gender. I knew that asking this question would give me answers such as: “You are a lesser 

sex and you belong at home and in the kitchen”. An answer that will leave me feeling inadequate as a 

member of a group the society labeled as “not worthy of being heard”. "Women's issues" have emerged on 

the political agenda, but often are treated as the manipulable claims of a narrow interest group (Abrams K. 

1998) 

So, for many years, 25 years to be precise, I never had the courage to ask this question until now when I 

had to choose a topic for this Masters study in Critical Diversity Studies. Throughout my life, I have seen 

and indeed have experienced discrimination, marginalization and exclusion as a woman especially in the 

workplace. The first two decades of my life I faced racial discrimination being born in the apartheid era and 

starting school in 1976 during the student uprisings. The last three decades I faced blatant gender 

discrimination and racial bias in the workplace. From being accused of not informing the interview panel 

that I was pregnant even though they did not ask me at the time (and I did not have to), to being told that if 

I want to succeed in my new job, I should be at the office at 7am and only leave after 7 pm. This is despite 

me being a young mother of a 5-year-old boy and having the responsibility to get him to school and pick 

him up in the afternoons. 

 

The project of greater inclusion, equality, non-discrimination in the workplace therefore makes sense for 

me to explore given who I am and what I have experienced. As a black woman, I will and I am going to 

concern myself with gender discrimination issues and will join those who have committed to use their 

voices to trouble this form of injustice. Regardless of how difficult and complicated it can be. I have been 

situated on the downside of discriminatory practices, racial injustice, gender discrimination and being 

voiceless as a child.  Paula Moya p.79 (2011) states that “Who we are and from where we speak is highly 

relevant for the intellectual projects we are likely to pursue”. This statement resonates with me especially 

when she says that our identities predispose us to see or not see; listen to or not listen to; read or not read; 

cite or not cite; concern ourselves with specific issues and societal dynamics.  My identity has predisposed 

me to see and experience enough injustice, I have listened and I am prepared to listen to more stories from 

other women who have had similar experiences to mine. I will continue to engage them on how we can 

make this world a better place for all as agents of change. For that reason, I have chosen to concern myself 

with issues of gender equality in the workplace.  Together with my research participants, we will explore 

how we can become agents of change in our own ways and trouble gender discrimination in the workplace.  

 

 

 

 



11 | P a g e  
 

1.2 Background to the study 

As the then Vice-President of South Africa, in the South Africa: Two Nations, speech, Thabo Mbeki 

(1998:68) noted that post-apartheid South Africa in spite of the democratic constitution was still divided 

unequally between prosperous whites and poor blacks. Importantly, Mbeki noted that the poorest of the 

poor blacks were women. This study departs from that reality where South Africa has a history of the 

discrimination and impoverishment of black people whose bitter legacy has been born mainly by women 

in the economy, at home, and in the workplace. The history of South Africa, according to Herman Giliomee 

(1982) has from the beginning been the ‘parting of the ways’ where people were separated into homelands 

and racial and ethnic identities. What is not much reflected upon is how women, especially black women, 

were parted from men inside and outside the homelands, and social and systemic borders were built that 

left women outside mainstream economic life. This study delves into the way women experience and 

confront the social and systemic borders that close them out in the workplace, and that keep them in 

positions of marginality. Decolonial philosopher, Walter Mignolo (2008) reflects in depth on how at a world 

scale coloniality, which is the system of domination of one by the other, has kept women, on the basis of 

their gender and sexuality, under control and domination. 

Gender inequality is one of the important challenges in all modern societies despite the significant advances 

that have been made in the past century (Quffa, 2016, p143). Historically, in South Africa and globally, 

women have been marginalized and regarded as unequal compared to their male counterparts in terms of 

social and power relations (Research brief on gender and equality in SA, 2013, p.6). This challenge of 

gender discrimination is not new. Understanding where it comes from and how it has developed is critical 

for my study, as it will provide me with a good context and background on the issues of gender 

discrimination.   

 

Women’s struggle for equality and the fight against gender discrimination started long ago. Over the last 

decades, women have battled to become equal with men in all aspects of life and work. In America, with 

the passing of the 15th amendment in 1865, African-American men were given the right to vote. It a long 

time (more than 55 years) before women would be allowed that same right. The feminist women’s 

movement began in 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was organized. Women had very few 

rights and limited education, as there were not many colleges they were allowed attend in America. 

Anything women owned did not actually belong to them as they were also considered the property of their 

husband or father. They fought hard to gain the first step in the journey to equality, which was the right to 

vote. The signing of the 20th amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote (Elmuti, Lehman, Harmon, 

& Lu, 2003). The next significant legislations that affected the incorporation of women in work organization 

came in the 1960’s with title V11 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination based on 



12 | P a g e  
 

sex and other categories and the 1965 Pay Equity Act and Affirmative Action regulation for women 

beginning in 1967 (Kalev & Deutsch, 2018, p 258). Anti-discriminatory legislations significantly improved 

and expanded women’s labour force participation especially during the 1970s when it was coupled with 

vigorous enforcement and an active women’s movement. However, given the high levels of inequalities 

that are still experienced in the workplace, the compliance structures put in place by many employers can 

be regarded as ceremonial responses, decoupled from everyday activities that merely legitimize and 

perpetuated inequalities (Edelman, 2016; Acker, 1990).  

 

In the 20th century, women in South Africa also emerged as the primary catalyst for protests that challenged 

the laws of the apartheid regime. On 9 August 1956, several thousands of SA women of all races marched 

to Pretoria's Union Buildings to protest against the amendments to the Urban Areas act of 1950, commonly 

known as the “pass laws”. South African History online ( www.sahistory.org.za ). These laws required 

black people to carry passes when outside their designated areas.  It is evident that the role that women 

played in ushering in the country’s democratic rule speaks of extraordinary resilience, perseverance, 

community building and triumph (Van Der Schyff, 2017, p16,). This phenomenal spirit is still needed today 

to champion the continuing struggle of women for gender equality forward. 

In South Africa, the apartheid regime not only strictly enforced a racial hierarchy, but also enforced strict 

notions of gender and sexuality (Craven, 2011; Gevisser, 1995). According to Bernstein (1985), both black 

and white South African women lived in a society that was not only racialist, but was also deeply sexist 

during the apartheid era. Women could not own land or property, could not vote, and were largely 

unprotected by the laws of the country. Additionally, there was a distinction of the degree of discrimination 

towards women of different races, and Black women were much more subjected to the rigidity of the system 

than white women.  They were subordinated, marginalised and disadvantaged through oppression based on 

race, class and gender and they were prevented from participating in many aspects of the economy and life. 

According to Bernstein (1985), women in general worked in the services sector, agriculture and 

manufacturing.  Some women managed to work as teachers and nurses (Bernstein, 1985). Black women 

mostly worked as domestic workers and in the agriculture sector. What is evident and interesting to note in 

this historical background is that women have been catalysts for change in both America and South Africa. 

They did not sit back and hope that things would change automatically, they actively initiated change. Now 

with the persisting challenges of gender discrimination in the workplace affecting women today, it is 

imperative that they should be in the forefront as agents of change to influence achievement of gender 

equality in the workplace.  

Post 1994, the new democratic government implemented legislation aimed at addressing the past inequities 

created by the apartheid regime (Mathur-Helm, 2004) including those geared at promoting gender equality. 

https://www.sahistory.org.za/


13 | P a g e  
 

Over the last century women have made great advances toward equality but other forms of gender 

discrimination such as total equality in pay, executive positions and high earning positions still elude them 

as demonstrated in various reports such as the McKinsey & Company’s Woman Matter Report (2016). 

Women often are still channeled into jobs that accord them little respect and few opportunities for 

advancement. Guy (1993), SADC Gender Protocol (2010) and Patel (2013) note that, although women’s 

access to decision-making positions has increased women are still predominantly clustered in traditional 

social service areas, such as health, education and hospitality. It is clear that gains such as access to jobs, 

property, and the political arena that women have historically fought for are not enough to create conditions 

in which equality for women is possible. Countless stories that participants share in this study provide 

evidence that hold true to this statement  

 

1.3 The Problem Statement 

Just how the discrimination of women is so legally sanctioned and politically condemned but remains in 

place is a problem that concerns this study. Post-apartheid South Africa has over the past years introduced 

legal frameworks and institutional mechanisms such as the Employment Equity Act of 1988 and the Labour 

Relations Act of 1996 to compel companies and employees to embrace diversity and transformation at the 

workplace. Despite noticeable progress as evidenced by the number of women employed in the formal 

sector, business remains largely a man’s world (The SABPP Women’s Report 2017). Women still face a 

number of barriers and challenges that hinder their advancement and their ability to navigate the workplace. 

Women’s working lives are characterized by high rates of mistreatment throughout their careers in a way 

that men are not.  For instance, a survey conducted by the PEW research Centre study (2017) reveals 

persistent inequalities between women and men regarding working conditions, wage levels, work time, 

work environment and limited career advancement opportunities.  

My struggles are similar to millions of other women who are struggling to make progress in their careers 

and lives. Basing on my own experience of marginalization and racial segregation, I would assume that this 

project that aims at enhancing greater inclusion, gender equality in the workplace therefore makes sense for 

me to explore. My research is a case study and I explore how different women of different races, ages and 

status experience obstacles relating to gender discrimination at the workplace in post-apartheid South 

Africa. I want to find out what forms of discrimination women face in the workplace today despite all the 

legislation, financial and Human Resource investments made in an effort to eradicate gender 

discrimination. Most importantly, I would like this study to come up with practical propositions that will 

empower women to be able to identify all forms of discrimination, and go a step further in taking action as 

a crucial step in order to trouble gender discrimination. Studies, such as this one should unmask how gender 



14 | P a g e  
 

discrimination is able to remain intact besides legislation, political promises and apparent societal 

commitment to eradicate it. 

1.4 Rationale of the Study 

This study comes at a time in South Africa when the social position of women has never been more 

precarious, perhaps. The problem of femicide, the killing of women by intimate partners, has become a 

social pandemic in post-apartheid South Africa. This study, which concerns itself with the position of 

women in the workplace, becomes relevant in that it seeks to observe how women are regarded outside 

homes and intimate spaces. Pumla Gqola (2016) has written of a ‘rape culture’ in South Africa where the 

rape and violation of women has been integrated and naturalised into the culture of South African society. 

Rape culture reduces women to disposable and also dispensable people that can be used and abused in 

society. This happens after a long liberation struggle in South Africa where the political promise was that 

liberation would deliver democracy, development and freedom for all. In 1995, Thabo Mbeki noted that 

“the progress we make towards the attainment of a democratic society can only have full and deeper 

meaning if it is accompanied by significant progress in the struggle for the emancipation of women,” 

(Mbeki, 1998:261). This denotes that very early in the democratisation of South Africa the liberation of 

women was in the agenda. Earlier on, in 1988, African liberation icon, Thomas Sankara (1988: 335) 

delivered the speech, The Revolution Cannot Triumph without the Emancipation of Women. This testifies 

that in the Pan-African liberation agenda the liberation of women was central in the plans. Both Mbeki and 

Sankara delivered their important speeches on the occasions of International Women’s Day celebrations. 

This study may ponder the question, is the liberation of women reduced to ceremonies and rituals of 

Women’s Day celebrations and not enacted in the daily policies and practices of countries that include post-

apartheid South Africa. This study is relevant and important, therefore, because it seeks to ponder the 

continuity of the discrimination of women in spite of societal awareness, legal and political rhetoric in 

Africa, and South Africa specifically. 

1.5 Research questions 

My research study intends to answer the following questions related to gender discrimination and 

marginalisation of women in the workplace: 

1. What forms of gender discrimination do women experience in the workplace? 

2. What are the lived experiences of gender discrimination for women in the workplace? 

3. What do women in the workplace say about their experiences and impact of discrimination? 

4. What mechanisms can be adopted by women to empower themselves to be able to take action against 

gender discrimination in the workplace and be agents of change? 

 



15 | P a g e  
 

1.6 Study objectives 

The major purpose of the study is to establish why women continue to be confronted with different forms 

of discrimination in the workplace despite the legal and institutional policy frameworks that advocate for 

diversity and transformation.  The study will be guided by the following specific objectives that derive from 

the research questions above: 

• Find out the different forms of gender discrimination women experience in their workplace. 

• Understand the lived experiences of women in terms of gender discrimination in the workplace. An 

intersectional perspective will deepen my understanding of gender discrimination and inequalities in 

the workplace. It will also offer insights on how different forms of inequalities interact in the work 

place and how rules, norms, beliefs, values and attitudes can create forms of discrimination that can 

often remain unrecognized in the workplace. 

• Understand impact of gender discrimination on women in the workplace (on practices, work 

commitment, perception of self, sense of belonging and levels of engagement and motivation at work 

etc.). 

• Explore (together with the participants) mechanisms through which women can be empowered to take 

action against gender discrimination in the workplace. Through this study, participant will discuss and 

suggest practical solutions that can help to continuously trouble and eliminate gender discrimination in 

the workplace.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



16 | P a g e  
 

2 Chapter Two 

Decoloniality: A Theoretical Framework and Qualitative Methodology 

2.1 Introduction 

This chapter aims to flesh out the theoretical framework and methodology of this study. Decoloniality is 

the elected theoretical framework of the study while the qualitative approach is the methodology that the 

study deploys in pursuit of the stated objective of examining the discrimination of women in the post-

apartheid South African workplace setting. As Paula Moya (2011) states, Decoloniality helps women to 

understand who they are from where they find themselves in the systems and structures of the world system. 

According to Lichtman (2010:5), “qualitative research represents the way a researcher collects organises 

and interprets information that has been acquired from humans, using their eyes and ears as filters.” Clearly, 

Decoloniality as a theoretical framework and the qualitative approach as methodology are fitting research 

instruments for such a study that seeks to delve into the existential conditions and experiences of women 

in the South African workplace as represented by the financial institution. A theoretical framework and 

methodology are both research instruments and academic tools that give a study scientific and acceptability 

as intellectual work. This chapter begins by delineating Decoloniality and then proceeds to articulate the 

qualitative approach as the methodology of the study. 

  

2.2 Decoloniality   

This section of the chapter delves into Decoloniality as the elected theoretical framework of the present 

study. Decoloniality is the theory and philosophy of liberation (Dussel, 1985) that seeks to unmask 

Coloniality as a system and structure of domination that includes the marginalisation and exploitation of 

women. Paula Moya (2011) notes how in the struggles of women for empowerment and liberation, 

Decoloniality helps to locate women as who they are and where they are  within the countries, systems and 

power structures of the world. For that reason, Decoloniality becomes a fitting theoretical lens for such a 

study as it concerns itself with the discrimination of women and their marginalisation. Walter Mignolo 

(2008), a leading philosopher of Decoloniality observes that one of the key matrices of Coloniality as a 

system of domination and oppression ate the following: the “Control of Gender and Sexuality; Having the 

Christian and bourgeois secular family as the model and standard of human heterosexual relations; and 

heterosexuality as the universal model established by God (sixteen to eighteenth century) first and then by 

nature (from the nineteenth century to the present) (Mignolo, 2008:16). This study is interested in the 

control and domination of women as a gender and sexual identity that has been constructed, classified 

systemically as inferior and has been marginalised from mainstream life in the world system. The other 

matrices of Coloniality that Mignolo (2008) notes are ‘control of the economy,’ ‘control of authority’ and 



17 | P a g e  
 

‘control of knowledge and subjectivity.’ All these stated matrices of Coloniality that Decoloniality unmasks 

are important to the present study. The control of the economy brings to light how some people in such 

settings as South Africa have access to mainstream economic life while others such as the majority of 

women remain peripherised. As the Vice-President of South Africa, noted in the previous chapter, Thabo 

Mbeki (1998) noted the economic and social inequality in South Africa that have put mainly women in the 

very bottom of the social ladder. The control of knowledge and subjectivity that Decoloniality concerns 

itself with as a form of domination entails that women such as myself that operate in a workplace in South 

Africa, have to participate in studies such as this to unmask the marginalisation of women and also seek to 

map out decolonial strategies for women liberation not just in the workplace but in society at large.   

Another decolonial philosopher, Nelson Maldonado-Torres (2008) make reference to the ‘coloniality of 

being’ which is the oppression and marginalisation of one people by another based on such differences as 

genders, sexuality and race. Studies such as this should ponder the continuity of coloniality of being. In 

South Africa, coloniality of being proceed also in such societal problems as what Pumla Gqola (2016) has 

described as structural and systemic ‘rape culture’ where women are left vulnerable and exposed to abuse, 

harassment and rape in a society where they have been rendered disposable and dispensable beings. When 

people as an identity group are endangered and left without adequate protection of the law and society, they 

live in the danger of what Giorgio Agamben (2005:1) called the ‘state of exception.’ The state of exception 

is a legal and societal condition that is not very far from the state of nature where life is proverbially rough, 

short and brutish. True to the state of exception and the state of nature, South Africa ( at the time of this 

study) is generally gripped in a state of what has been called ‘femicide’ where women are prevalently 

violated and also raped and killed by intimate partners. The marginalisation of women and their 

discrimination in the workplace looks like a societal pathology that is part of the coloniality of being and 

that is also connected to a larger and deeper problem of the oppression and violation of women at a society-

wide scale.  

In his decolonial philosophisation ‘against war’ in the book by the same title; Against War: Views from the 

Underside of Modernity, Nelson Maldonado-Torres (2008) talks about the large scale coloniality of war in 

the world system where men are made into women and women are turned into objects in a world of violence, 

evil and cruelty. In its own way, this study is a study of the war on women in the workplace and in society 

at large. The views that this study will gather from women as participants in the workplace can actually be 

considered the ‘views from the underside of modernity’ that Maldonado-Torres concerns himself with. 

Modernity, democracy and legal progress in post-apartheid South Africa have not been able to protect 

women from marginality and discrimination. This study stands to observe that women remain in the darker 

and underside of modernity and its democratic dispensation in South Africa.   



18 | P a g e  
 

In using Decoloniality to study the experiences and conditions of women in the workplace, this study joins 

what Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2014) has called ‘epistemologies of the South.’ Epistemologies of the 

South are knowledges, theories and methods, which seek to illuminate the truths about the marginalised 

places and people of the world in the Global South. The women of South Africa are not only in the Global 

South geographically but they can be observed to be in the south of society experientially and socially. 

Women have been southerned in the way they have been give left-hand treatment and abused as marginal 

and negligible people. As represented by the Philosopher of Liberation, Enrique Dussel (1985), 

Decoloniality is a philosophy of liberation that concerns itself with the struggle for the liberation of the 

oppressed people of the world such as abused and marginalised women, children, colonised and enslaved 

individuals and communities. As an epistemology of the south and also a philosophy of liberation, 

Decoloniality is a fitting theoretical framework for the present study that is not just academic work for the 

purposes of acquiring a Masters Degree in Critical Diversity Studies but also a work of decolonial activism 

and a gesture towards the liberation of women.  

 

2.2.1 Rationale for Decoloniality 

The section above has demonstrated what Decoloniality is and that it is a fitting theoretical framework for 

the present study. It has shown the view that Decoloniality has concerns of oppression and domination 

including that of women at a world scale. This section seeks to directly provide a rationale for the 

deployment of Decoloniality in the present study. Decoloniality makes this study not only an epistemology 

of the south but also a gesture for the liberation of women.  This involves what the decolonial philosopher 

Maria Lugones (2003: 16) calls “travelling,” where the researcher such as myself journeys into the lives 

and experiences of the oppressed, such as women, to discover their true conditions and spell out what can 

be done to free them. Maria Lugones (2003) wrote of the “coloniality of gender” where women, especially 

black women as a gender and racial identity live the lives of the conquered, colonised and dominated 

subjects that need to liberate themselves. Decoloniality, therefore, is not only a fitting theoretical and 

philosophical framework for the present study but it is also relevant and important. Decoloniality because 

of its investment in the liberation of the oppressed is what Paulo Freire (1993) called a ‘pedagogy of the 

oppressed’. It is interested in how knowledge and knowledge production can be employed in working for 

the liberation of the oppressed and the liberation of the oppressors, perpetrators and beneficiaries of systems 

such as racism, coloniality, patriarchy and sexism. A system that have kept women at the very bottom of 

the political and social ladder at a world scale. After providing a rationale for Decoloniality as the 

theoretical framework of the present study this chapter proceeds to flesh out the qualitative methodology 

of the study. 

  



19 | P a g e  
 

2.3 Qualitative Research Methodology of the Study  

 

2.3.1 Decolonial Account of Methodology  

A definition of qualitative methodology is due but before that, a decolonial account of methodology should 

be made. The decolonial theorist Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) in her thesis on ‘decolonising methodologies’ 

notes that as far as studying indigenous people and their cultures is concerned decolonisation and therefore 

Decoloniality should be of primary importance. From the perspective of the colonised and those people, 

like South African women who inhabit post colonies, “the term research is inextricably linked to European 

imperialism and colonialism” to the extent that “the word itself, research, is probably one of the dirtiest 

words in the indigenous world’s vocabulary” (Smith, 1999:1).  What Smith suggests here is that research 

can on its own, if not decolonised, become intrusive and violent on the vulnerable people that are being 

researched on.  

In line with Decoloniality that is the theoretical framework of this study, care has been taken to talk, think 

and travel with the participants that are interviewed and not treat them as objects but powerful subjects of 

the study. This has been beyond the ethical requirements of research that the University of the 

Witwatersrand requires that have been complied with. As defined by Dantker and Hunter (2006:67) 

“qualitative research is an examination and interpretation of observations as expressed by the researcher’s 

words rather than by numerical assignments.” This means that qualitative research does not as much base 

its observations and arguments on statistics and figures but observation, analysis and interpretation of the 

quality of experience and not the quantity of phenomenon. In this study, I seek to observe the quality of life 

and experiences of women in the conditions of the workplace in a given but not named financial institution 

in Johannesburg. 

Qualitative research, such as the one that is employed in this study relies on “interviews in order to capture 

life as participants experience it, the data is mostly in form of written or spoken words or observations, 

which do not have a direct numerical interpretation” (Schutt, 2011:116). Quantitative studies on the life and 

experiences of women in the workplace would dwell on statistics on how many women are employed and 

how many are in management and so on. Such quantitative and therefore statistical studies can serve to 

conceal than reveal the quality and conditions of life that women experience in the workplace. I believe for 

these reasons using qualitative research is an appropriate approach as it intends to observe the experiences 

and conditions of women in a setting. 

 

2.3.2 Qualitative Research Methodology of the study  

This section of the chapter examines and also reflects on the qualitative research methodology that this 

study employs. To start with, “qualitative research takes place in the natural setting, which means that the 



20 | P a g e  
 

researcher will often go to the site where the research takes place and actively participate in the research 

process” (Venkatesh, 2009:17). This study involved the researcher approaching interviewees in their daily 

workplace and interviewing them while they are in their offices and on duty. That means that I became a 

qualitative researcher that was physically present to hear, feel and see the conditions and experiences of the 

participants in their workplace in the appointed financial institution. “Qualitative researchers actively 

participate in the research process and seek to build rapport and actively involve the research participants 

in the research” as such, Marelize Schoeman (2014: 14) notes, “the researchers are sensitive to the rights 

of participants and make an effort not to disturb the research site.” I approached the participants as fellow 

women who like I, do work. 

Schoeman (2014) notes that qualitative research is emergent rather than tightly prefigured, it tends to unfold 

as the research process progresses. The research develops ‘feet’ and a life of its own that naturally unfolds, 

unpredictably and not choreographed or stage-managed. The semi-structured interviews that I held became 

normal and natural frank conversations that people that work and are of the same gender can have 

concerning the conditions and experiences in the workplace. Qualitative research becomes “fundamentally 

interpretive” and the researcher “views social phenomenon holistically” (Schoeman, 2014:15). I was in the 

research site and managed to experience the workplace of the participants with them in real time and used 

my senses to hear, see, feel and interpret their social lives in veracity. I used my experience to observe 

relations, human relations, tones and accents of voices and infrastructure to understand the workplace 

situations and conditions. 

   

2.4 Study Design 

True to the qualitative research design that scholars such as Schoeman (2014) have spelt out, I began with 

the choice of a research topic, formulating of the research problem, data collection, data processing and 

analysis and report writing in that order. As noted above, in this study, I have employed qualitative research 

methodology that bears a decolonial posture.  Qualitative studies are suitable because they provide a deeper 

understanding of the situation one is researching in its uniqueness, presenting what respondents perceive 

about the situation and what their meanings are (Patton, 2002). Put differently, a qualitative study design 

provides a description of what people experience and how they experience it (Patton, 2002).  The study has 

adopted an exploratory approach that aim at understanding forms of gender discrimination in the workplace 

and I obtained insights on how different women experiences gender discrimination in the workplace. 

Participants freely shared their lived experiences in relations to the objectives of the study. 

  

 

 



21 | P a g e  
 

2.5 Study Area 

This is a case study based on a financial services company based in Johannesburg. I have limited my study 

to the experiences of women of different race, age and levels of seniority in their head office. I have chosen 

to use the Case Study for various reasons but mostly because it is a research methodology that helps explore 

real-life situations or phenomenon in detail at a specific site (Yin, 1994). It is considered a qualitative 

analysis (Goode, 1962) and can enable the researcher to accomplish many goals such as exploring and 

creating new knowledge about the chosen topic. Case studies are used in social sciences and when seeking 

to understand and gaining knowledge to solve problems e.g. When tackling issues with regard to education 

(Gulsecen & Kubat, 2006), sociology (Grassel & Schirmer, 2006) and community-based problems 

(Johnson, 2006), such as poverty, unemployment, drug addiction, illiteracy, and in this case, the issue of 

women discrimination at the work place 

  

2.6 Participants  

For this study, I recruited women of different races (black, white, colored and, Indian descent) working at 

a financial services company.  I targeted women serving in executive/senior management, middle 

management and lower level management positions. This has allowed me to source data that gave me more 

insights on intersectional experiences of different participants (Crenshaw, 1989). The intersectional lens is 

a useful approach to understand multifaceted and complex dimensions of gender inequality and 

discrimination. Crenshaw argues that discrimination that black women experience is more than simply their 

race, being black or their gender being female. Rather the two identities intersect and coalesce to form a 

hybrid experience of discrimination and disadvantage, which deserve to be viewed as a separate category 

in and of itself (Crenshaw, 1989). She further argues that the result of intersectional discrimination is 

therefore qualitatively different or synergistic.  

 

2.7 Ethical Consideration 

When conduction a research study that involves individuals and reflections on their lived experiences, there 

are many ethical considerations to take into account. This study, considered the following issues of ethics: 

Confidentiality and anonymity of participant’s identities was and continue to be prioritised throughout the 

research process. All data collected has been stored securely with a protected password. Informed consent 

was secured from all participants (see Annexure A) upfront through engagements where the research study 

and its objectives were explained to participants. They also had an opportunity to ask further questions or 

seek clarity on the research prior to their interviews.  Written approval was granted by the company and all 

the conditions and protocols were followed. 

 



22 | P a g e  
 

2.8  Methods of Data Collection 

Qualitative data collection through interviews. emphasises and demanded listening skills, recording 

technology, organising information and observation (Schoeman, 2014). I have use semi-structured 

interviews as my method of data collection techniques in order to have rich data and strengthen the 

credibility of outcomes of my study. Interviews can be defined as a qualitative research technique that 

involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their 

perspectives on a particular idea, programme or situation (Boyce & Neale, 2006).  Women that participated 

in my research study have different lived experiences and they shared detailed insights with me in the semi-

structured interview process. Using interview technic has thus enable me to collect rich data that has 

provided me with a deeper understanding of this social phenomenon than I would not have obtained from 

purely quantitative methods such as questionnaires as stated by Silverman, (2000). 

  

2.9 Data Analysis and Interpretation Techniques – Critical Discourse Analysis 

Decolonial thinking as my theoretical lens and Critical Diversity Literacy thinking were at the back and 

front of my mind as I engaged with, analysed and interpreted the data collected from the 

participants. Analysis and interpretation of data is where I as the researcher have made sense of data I 

collected, what I have observed during data collection and what the participants shared with me. I used data 

that I have gathered from the interviews (using voice recorder) to develop a transcript.  I then categorise 

the transcribed data into themes by looking for fits and recurring patterns in the data. I further researched 

specific themes for possible meanings and this has made the information more meaningful (Creswell, 

1998). To analyse the data collected, I used Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how the 

respondents are constructing their experiences in relation to the broader social discourses on gender, race 

and class in South Africa (source). CDA stems from a critical theory of language, which sees the use of 

language as a form of social practice. It rejects the notion that language is simply a neutral means of 

reflecting or describing the world, and a conviction in the central importance of discourse in constructing 

social life (Gill, 2000, p172). It recognizes that all social practices are tied to specific historical contexts 

and are the means by which existing social relations are reproduced or contested and different interests are 

served. Discourse analysis as a tool thus assist in finding underlying power mechanisms at work, which 

emerge in the ways people narrate their experiences. For women experiencing gender discrimination there 

needs to be an understanding that their experiences and sense making are not happening in a vacuum. These 

are constructed and interpreted by and through their individual knowledge and experiences within the 

broader social world and interaction with various discourses and people. Discourse analysis thus helps with 

a framework for interpreting the language the respondents use and how their narratives and experiences are 

shaped by cultural, psychological, political and social factors.  



23 | P a g e  
 

2.10 Critical Diversity Literacy and Decoloniality   

As conceptualised by Melissa Steyn (2007) Critical Diversity Literacy under which discipline this study 

falls pays attention to issues of human difference, the distribution of power and privilege. Decoloniality 

which is the theoretical framework of this study and that also informs the methodology of the study uses 

the Colonial Power Matrix. As fleshed out above, it aims to unmask how control and domination impact on 

people and their identities, such as the gender and sexuality difference that defines the women that are 

researched in the present study. In that way, this study is relevant and also methodically and theoretically 

feasible as a decolonial study in Critical Diversity Literacy that examines the experience of women in a 

post-apartheid South African setting. Decoloniality and Critical Diversity Literacy have a conversation and 

an agreement in examining the discrimination and marginalisation of women in the workplace as a societal 

and also systemic problem. Enrique Dussel (1985) observes correctly that theories and philosophies of 

liberation do not study themselves and their disciplines do not have the privilege and luxury to concentrate 

on their disciplinariness but have the urgent intellectual and social justice task to engage with domination, 

oppression and social injustice. It is also in that way that this study, as noted above falls into the category 

of the pedagogy of the oppressed that Freire defined and the epistemologies of the South that Santos 

enunciates. After this delineation of the theoretical framework and methodology of the study, the next 

chapter delves into the literature review of the study that surveys the relevant and available literature in the 

subject of the discrimination and marginalisation of women in the workplace and beyond. There is also 

engagement with literature that suggests solutions and propositions to the marginality and discrimination 

of women. It is in that way in which this study is both academic and social justice work. I, as a woman 

worker in the l industry upon which this research is based, become both a scholar and an activist that ponders 

the experience of other women in the setting of the workplace in post-apartheid South Africa. The literature 

review that follows will also not only be a conversation with other scholars in the subject area of the 

discrimination of women but also a kind of intellectual solidarity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



24 | P a g e  
 

3 Chapter Three 

Literature Review: The Liberation of Women 

  

3.1 Introduction  

The previous chapter delved into Decoloniality as the theoretical framework of the present study. The 

qualitative approach was fleshed out as the methodology of the study. This chapter delineates the literature 

review of the study that seeks to engage with the liberation of women from discrimination and oppression 

in a post-colonial and specifically post-apartheid setting of the South African workplace. Such struggles as 

the emancipation of human beings from racial and gender oppression are struggles that according to Cornel 

West (1993) require frank thinking and conversation. This study attempts frank decolonial thinking and 

conversation on the subject of the discrimination of women. Also contributing to the thinking on black 

struggles of men and women in the context of the United States as West, Angela Davies (2016) notes that 

the freedom of the marginalised and discriminated people is ‘a constant struggle’ whose results may not be 

realised in a short period of time but in a long and permanent struggle. This study, in its own humble way, 

aims to contribute to such long and enduring social justice struggles for the liberation of women that seem 

not to be protected by even such celebrated pronunciations as the South African democratic Constitution. 

This literature review is a kind of survey and exploration of literature and some relevant ideas and theories 

on the oppression, discrimination and liberation of women as both a gender and sexual identity group. As 

enunciated by Enrique Dussel (1985) liberation of the oppressed is not just a policy matter or a political 

subject but also a philosophical vocation that demands deep reflection and activism. In engaging with 

literature on the ideas and theories of liberation of women from discrimination and oppression at large, the 

study applies the theoretical framework of Decoloniality, especially the Philosophy of Liberation part of it 

and a qualitative approach to this literature review.  

 

3.2 Efforts to eliminate gender discrimination by various stakeholders  

The oppression of women is such a deep-seated human problem so much so that philosophers of 

liberation like Dussel (1985) believe that it is central to the liberation of human beings at large. Human 

beings, otherwise, cannot consider themselves democratic and free in any society if women remain in 

subjection. Gender inequality remains deeply entrenched in every society and commitment of the broader 

society is essential for the advancement of women to be achieved especially in the workplace. 

Implementation of gender equality and eradication of gender discrimination requires the involvement of 

diverse stakeholders in a society. These stakeholders include communities, non-government 

organisations, non-profit organisations, private and public sector institutions, as well as political entities 



25 | P a g e  
 

from regional, national, sub-national, and international contexts (Drechsler & Jutting, 2008). Below are 

some of the efforts by various stakeholders aimed at promoting gender equality and eliminating gender 

discrimination in the workplace. The workplace is only a representative site and setting from which this 

study examines the discrimination of women in the wider society and world.  

3.2.1 Global Organisations: United Nations Instruments  

Discrimination of women as a gender and sexual group is extensive in the world so much that renowned 

feminists and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014) concluded that ‘we should all be feminists. She 

calls for the whole of society to pay attention to the oppression and specifically the discrimination and 

marginalisation of females everywhere. The United Nations (UN) has been committed to driving gender 

parity specifically through its Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against 

Women (CEDAW) adopted in 1979, and the Beijing Platform for Action which was established at the UN 

Commission for Africa conference in 1995 (Van Der Schyff, 2017, p24). Women’s rights have also been 

at the heart of a series of international conferences facilitated by UN Agencies that have produced 

significant political commitments to women’s human rights and equality.  

 

The year1975 was declared International Women’s Year and in that same year Mexico City hosted the 

World Conference on the International Women’s Year. The World Conference in Mexico City resulted in 

the World Plan of Action and the designation of 1975–1985 as the United Nations Decade for Women. In 

1980, another international conference on women was held in Copenhagen and the Convention on the 

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was opened for signature. The third World 

Conference on Women was held in Nairobi, in 1982. These three world conferences witnessed 

extraordinary activism on the part of women from around the world and laid the foundation for the world 

conferences in the 1990s to address women’s rights, including the Fourth World Conference on Women 

held in Beijing in 1995. This gave momentum to the fight against gender discrimination by women.  

 

9th March 2020 marked the 25th Anniversary of the fourth World Conference on Women that was held 

in Beijing in 1995.  In her opening remarks at March 2020  World Conference on Women , the Executive 

Director  of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Nqakula noted that , “25 years after 189 countries adopted The 

Beijing Platform for Action, not a single country has achieved gender equality and women continue to be 

squeezed into just one quarter of the space at the table of power.” (UN Women press release, 9 March 

2020). Leaders once more pledged to ramp up efforts to fully implement the Beijing Declaration and 

Platform for Action, UN Women press release (9 March 2020).  These leaders reaffirmed their political 

will for action and also recognized, amongst other things, that new challenges have emerged that require 



26 | P a g e  
 

concerted and intensified efforts to be able to achieve the objectives of the Beijing Platform of Action. 

Focus need to be placed on critical matters such as (amongst others):  

• Realizing the right to education for all women and girls, with attention to areas where they are 

underrepresented such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths);  
• Ensuring full, equal and meaningful participation, representation and leadership of women at all levels 

and in all spheres of society;  

• Ensuring women’s economic empowerment, for instance access to decent work, equal pay, provision of 

social security and access to finance;  

• Tackling the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work of women and girls;  

• Realizing the right to health for women and girls, with emphasis on universal health coverage and 

addressing hunger and malnutrition among women and girls.  

The Declaration also reaffirms that gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls will make 

a crucial contribution to progress across all the Sustainable Development Goals, as the UN Decade of 

Action begins. As much as this is encouraging, the truth is that this is not new. Commitments have been 

made and renewed by member states annually at this gathering but nothing much changes. What will be 

different this time around? As the saying goes, we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect 

different results. Member states that are signatory to the conventions and treaties need to move beyond 

talking and expressing their good intentions if we are to eradicate gender discrimination in the workplace 

and society as a whole.   

3.2.2 Regional Legal Framework  
As noted in the introductory chapter of this study, in Africa, prominent political voices such as that of Thabo 

Mbeki (1998) in South Africa, and Thomas Sankara (1988) in Burkina Faso have added themselves to the 

call for the ‘emancipation of women.’ The trouble with political voices, as noted previously in this study is 

that while they call for the liberation of women, this call remains at the rhetorical and political level. Their 

repeated calls do not go down to the actual implementation and practicalisation of the liberation of women 

in such settings as the workplace in both the public and private sectors. The struggle for the liberation of 

women therefore that this study joins also involves pondering how good ideas on the liberation of women 

can be translated into good practices and actions. These calls together with the South African Government’s 

commitments towards achieving gender equality are a good start as they set a foundation that the struggle 

for the liberation of women can build on.  
 

At a regional level, South Africa has ratified the African Charter on Human and People Rights (the African 

Charter). This charter contains numerous provisions that are directly relevant for equality and non-

discrimination including Article 2 which requires that every individual be entitled to the enjoyment of rights 



27 | P a g e  
 

and freedom without distinction of any kind.  South Africa was also instrumental in the drafting the 

Southern African Development Community’s Protocol on Gender and Development, and signed the 

Protocol in 2008 (Research brief on gender and equality in South Africa, 2013, p8). The Protocol highlights 

a regional commitment to gender equality and recognises the importance of gender equality for 

development.  

   

3.2.3 National Legal Framework: South African Government  

The South African Constitution of 1996 is celebrated worldwide as one of the most democratic and it clearly 

states the rights of women as equal to rights of men, in its Bill of Rights. Gender equality is one of the basic 

rights guaranteed under South Africa’s Constitution. It is an integral part of the country’s system of 

fundamental basic human rights intended to guarantee the right to equality for all South Africans. The 

founding provisions of the SA constitution are based on the values of human dignity, the achievement of 

equality and the advancement of human rights; non-racialism and non-sexism; supremacy of the 

constitution and the rule of law; and universal adult suffrage, among others (Constitution of the Republic 

of South Africa (1996). Women receive specific protection in section 9 of the Constitution, entitled 

“Equality” which states the following:    

“The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, 

including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, 

age, disability, religion, conscience belief, culture, language and birth”. But as Pumla Gqola (2016) has 

prominently observed, it is also in South Africa that the nightmare of’ rape and ‘rape culture’ is real for 

women. Women are systematically and structurally rendered vulnerable to all forms and manner of 

violation including physical and other forms of rape. Femicide, the killing of women by intimate partners 

has also been noted as a catastrophe in South African society. This study is interested, therefore, in how a 

democratic Constitution such as that of South Africa does not get translated to the democratic treatment 

and liberation of women in homes, workplaces and in the public sphere. How treaties and policy documents 

on the liberation of women that have been signed do not actually lead to the concrete and tangible liberation 

of women that they promise and declare. 
 

South Africa has made commitments to eliminate gender discrimination by signing various international 

UN treaties and by participating in significant international conferences. International Human Rights law 

requires state agents to respect, protect and fulfil human rights standards and laws passed. As a signatory 

to the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the South 

African government is obliged to take action against all forms of discrimination against women in order to 



28 | P a g e  
 

protect their human rights and to realise substantive equality (Research brief on gender and equality in 

South Africa, 2013, p7).  
 

The enjoyment of this constitutional right is enforced through numerous legislation and codes of good 

practice intended to eliminate unfair discrimination on the basis of a number of grounds as stated in the 

constitution.  The Constitution also mandates a number of state institutions to promote and protect these 

basic human rights and The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) is one of those institutions. CGE is 

mandated to protect and promote respect for gender equality in the public and private sectors in South 

Africa (Human Rights Commission Equality Report, page 21) 

 The Bill of Rights: The Bill of Rights was introduced in 1993 as part of the country’s interim constitution 

and it promises legislative and other measures as a means to promote equality. The Bill affirms the 

democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom. The introduction of the Bill of Rights enabled 

women to be recognised as equal citizens in South Africa.”    

The South African government has passed various laws and regulations to address the inclusion of women 

in all sectors of the economy and aims to protect them. There are also well-defined sets of legal, policy and 

other instruments aimed at institutionalizing and strengthening the course of gender equality and gender 

transformation in various sectors of South African society. The legal framework developed by the South 

African government makes companies accountable by compelling them to adhere to these various Acts and 

sector Charters. Below are some of the laws enacted post-1994 that establish equal rights between women 

and men and promote gender equality in the country.  

 Employment Equity Act (EEA) of 1998: Employment Equity is a South African Act that was passed with 

the aim of promoting equality in the workplace (Jekwa, 2007). Unfair gender-based discrimination is 

unlawful in South Africa. This is set out in the EEA, which states that no person may unfairly discriminate, 

directly or indirectly, against an employee in any employment policy or practice, on one or more grounds, 

including “race, gender, pregnancy, marital status, family responsibility, ethnic or social origin, colour, 

sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, HIV-status, conscience, belief, political opinion, culture, 

language or birth” (EEA, RSA, 1998). Affirmative action is an Employment Equity (EE) Act measure that 

attempts to correct the injustices of the past by giving people from previously disadvantaged groups (i.e. 

black people) first preference over white people when making appointments (Human, Bluen & Davies, 

1999). 

 Labour Relations Act 1995 (LRA) and Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997 (BCEA): 

One of the milestones of addressing gender imbalance was the development of these acts within which 

employees and employers would operate.  These two Acts have been instrumental in setting out the 



29 | P a g e  
 

parameters under which workers are to be employed and organised to promote fair treatment (Department 

of Labour, 1996).  

 Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination (PEPUDA) Act, 4 of 2000: is the 

national legislation mandated by section 9(4) of the Constitution, and thus enjoys special constitutional 

status. The act recognizes the need to address systemic discrimination and specifically aims at the 

eradication of social and economic inequalities. In terms of section 13 of this Act, discrimination based on 

the prohibited ground of gender is considered unfair, unless it is established that the discrimination is fair. 

Section 8 stipulates that no person may unfairly discriminate against any person on the ground of gender, 

and goes on to list various prohibited forms of gender-based discrimination.  For the purpose of this 

research, the following provision are relevant: d). any practice, including traditional, customary or religious 

practice, which impairs the dignity of women and undermines equality between women and men, including 

undermining of the dignity and well-being of a child; e). any policy or conduct that unfairly limits access 

of women to land rights, finance and other resources). Systemic inequality of access to opportunities by 

women because of the sexual division of labour.   

Commission for Gender Equality (CGE): The Commission on Gender Equality is set up in terms of the 

Constitution and it aims to promote and strengthen democracy and a culture of human rights in the country. 

Its role is to advance gender equality in all spheres of society and make recommendations on any legislation 

affecting the status of women.  The Commission also reports progress on the countries commitment and 

treaties signed at international level e.g. both CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action.  

Clearly there is a plentitude of legislations and statues that declare and even demand the liberation and 

empowerment of women as part of democratisation and development of South Africa. What is not clear is 

how all these otherwise grand and important legal and political instruments for the liberation of women fail 

to translate into the real existential conditions and experiences of women in South Africa, in the workplace 

and society at large. It is also in the public domain that women constitute the majority of people in South 

Africa’s total population. Why the many numbers of women do not constitute the political capital to enforce 

the emancipation of women is a question that bothers this study. It is a question to ask why women, given 

their potential voting power due to their majority in the population,  are not able to utilise their political 

numbers and leverage to force their emancipation. Women are treated as a minority group whose rights 

take a backseat when they are actually a majority of the population. Other studies may need to probe if 

women are not marginalised from voting and from politics itself in South Africa. 

  

3.2.4 Corporate response   

The corporate sector is central in the consideration of the conditions and experiences of women in Africa 

at large and in South Africa specifically. Decoloniality, as noted in the previous chapter, takes seriously the 



30 | P a g e  
 

problem of Colonial Power Matrix where the ‘the control of the economy’ combined with the ‘control of 

gender and sexuality’ (Mignolo, 2008) keeps some human beings in a kind of colonial subjection. This 

study probes how women are marginalised in the economic sector and how their gender and sexual identity 

subjects them to inferiorisation and discrimination. It is important to this study how business or the 

corporate sector participates in the oppression or the liberation of women in South Africa. 

Companies play a critical role in ensuring gender equality in the workplace. Gender discrimination is 

recognized as a problem by organizations, all of which are obligated by law to reduce discrimnation and 

many of which believe that doing so will have positive impact on the bottom line of their Businesses. From 

my experience and observations in the last 25years of being part of  the labour market, there is still 

significant work that needs to be done to achieve the goal of a discrimination-free workplace. Current 

organizational practices vary widely for companies and most of them are not evaluated for their 

effectiveness as established in the investigation conducted by the South African Human Rights Commission 

report on the status of implementation of EEA that was conducted in 2012.  

  

3.3 State of gender discrimination and equality in Corporate South Africa 

3.3.1 A marginal shift towards gender inclusion of women 

This section of this literature review chapter focuses on the state of gender discrimination of women in 

corporate South Africa. A shift towards greater inclusion for women has been experienced and legislation 

from around the world has been adopted in order for this to be achieved. South Africa, in particular, has 

been active in this regard (Morrell, 2001). The African Nobel Laureate and prominent feminist on women’s 

rights, Wangari Maathai (2009) is one of the writers that have forcefully called for the inclusion and 

liberation of African women in public sectors and private corporate settings. Her observation has been that 

women, especially rural women, are neglected in mainstream economies and polities of Africa.  

The hegemonic views of masculinity entailing men’s unquestioned rights to more resources and power have 

been highlighted and scrutinized more publicly (Haralambos & Holborn, 1995). Men have responded in 

varying ways to these changes. Some have attempted to reverse the situation through a variety of formal and 

informal prejudices, which are aimed at excluding women (Connell, 2005). MacInnes (2001, p.313) 

confirms the changes in the gender order by stating that “we are living through the final period, or at least 

the beginning of the final period, of belief in masculinity as a gender identity specific to men which account 

for their privileged command of power, resources and status”. 

The latest statistics according to a =indicates that women make up only 22% of the board of directors in 

listed companies in South Africa and under 10% of executive directors. Important to note that despite 25 

years into democracy, the pace of change in corporate South Africa has been slow. This slow pace makes 

it seem as if companies embrace diversity grudgingly and view it as a compliance issue. There is still a lot 



31 | P a g e  
 

of work to be done to make significant progress in the fight against different forms of gender discrimination 

in the workplace. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2017 Global Gender Report findings revealed that 

gender parity is more than 200 years off.  This gives one an idea of how far we are from achieving our 

ideals of a gender fair society if there is no drastic change in current practices.  

 

3.3.2 Gaps identified in the fight against gender discrimination 

The area of employment remains one of the key challenges, for both the private and public sectors in South 

Africa, in terms of the application, implementation and enforcement of relevant laws to promote and protect 

gender equality (Human Rights Commission Report on Employment Equity implementation, (2012). 

Gender equality in the workplace seem to remain an elusive goal for many employers in South Africa. As 

pointed out by Naidoo and Kongolo (2004), legislation such as affirmative action and others mentioned 

have been used as a key policy instruments that can bring about gender transformation in organisations and 

broader society but at present have not achieved the intended outcome. It is clear that the key challenge in 

advancing gender equality and fair treatment is not the lack of relevant laws. Could it be that “gender 

transformation in the workplace is not receiving the recognition and response required”? Or could the 

challenge be lack of effective implementation of existing laws, lack of effective monitoring and application 

of appropriate sanctions in cases of poor compliance or the complete lack thereof?  

  

According to the recent Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) report for 2018 released on the 27th of 

August 2019, implementation plans to transform the workforce into one that is diverse and representative 

of South Africa appears stalled. The CEE report depicts a picture of top, senior and professional ranks 

dominated by whites and men. This is despite employment equity legislation having been in place since 

1998. The report demonstrates that there has been little progress achieved over the years and what is 

disturbing is that across the board, top and senior management remain male dominated, constituting, 76.5%  

of top and senior positions in 2018, with the number of women top managers increasing by just 1.5% from 

the 22% recorded in 2016. Among senior managers, 65.5% were male and 34.5% women (18th Commission 

for Employment Equity Report, 2017 - 2018). This clearly demonstrates that despite legislative and 

institutional mechanisms put in place, women still face the realities of an unequal and discriminatory 

gender-biased labour market and society in South Africa. Women also remain the victim of a gender pay 

gap that continues to rise thus seeing them paid less than their male counterparts. This is a global challenge. 

The Global World Report for 2018/2019 reported that women on average earn 28 percent less than their 

male counterparts in South Africa. 

McKinsey and Company (2016) noted in one of their studies that the invisible barriers women face in the 

workplace are also poorly understood because companies give considerably less recognition to these 



32 | P a g e  
 

barriers since they are intangible and difficult to articulate. These barriers are possible more dangerous than 

visible barriers because they are so subtle, negatively impacting women’s experiences, performance and 

undermining the efforts of gender equality within corporates (iol.co.za report, April 29, 2019).  Clearly, 

gender discrimination persists despite efforts by multiple stakeholders. Even through progress has been 

made in securing women’s rights across the world in recent decades; gender inequalities remain deeply 

entrenched in every society. There appears to be a gap between policy intentions with respect to women’s 

empowerment and gender equality on the one hand, and actual implementation of such intentions on the 

other hand. This gap needs to be closed if we are to succeed.  

There is no doubt many crucial problems remain and it is still not business as usual for women in the 

workplace. “Making women’s rights real requires more than just legal reform and the translation of the law 

into equal outcomes are not automatic” (United Nations Women, Progress of the World’s Women Report 

2015-2016 - Participant).  Laws that establish that women and men have equal rights provide an important 

basis for demanding and achieving equality in practice but it does not end there if significant progress is to 

be achieved.  

The other challenge with Gender Discrimination is that most of the time it goes unchallenged, it is difficult 

to detect and those affected by it do not know how to respond to it. This could lead to reasons why it gets 

perpetuated. Achieving equality between women and men requires a comprehensive understanding of the 

ways in which women experience discrimination and are denied equality so as to develop appropriate 

strategies to eliminate such discrimination. (Women’s Rights are Human Rights p.1). Calls by such 

prominent African women as Wangari Maathai (2009) signify that there is still work, politically and 

economically, to be done to afford women space for empowerment and liberation in society and specifically 

in the workplace.  

 

3.4 Decoloniality and the discrimination of women  
In the argument concerning “ Decolonising political economy  and postcolonial studies” Ramon Grosfoguel 

(2008:1) characterises the present world system as modern, colonial, racist, capitalist, patriarchal, sexist, 

ethnic and systematically structured against the will and the lives of oppressed and marginalised people, 

such as women. Oppressions of many kinds, in the view of Immanuel Wallerstein (2004) can be understood 

from a world-systems vantage point that allows power and marginality to be viewed from a structural and 

systemic vantage point. Decoloniality as the elected theoretical framework of this study allows this 

literature review to examine theories and ideas that describe the marginalisation and discrimination of 

women in the South African workplace from a world scale to the local and specific level. This section of 

the present chapter explores ideas, concepts and some literature that are relevant to the understanding of 

the problem of the discrimination of women in the South African workplace.  



33 | P a g e  
 

3.4.1 Patriarchy and gender social construction 

From the decolonial stand point that Grosfoguel highlights above, patriarchy is a component of coloniality 

as a world system and structural domination of marginal parts and people of the world of which women are 

a big part. The philosophy of liberation, at a world scale, that Enrique Dussel (1985) philosophises about 

also invests much importance on the problems of oppression and domination of women that is under 

consideration in this study.  The concept that is under consideration here is patriarchy and the gender 

construction of women. 

There are multiple reasons that can be sited as to why gender discrimination persists in the workplace. In 

this section, I look at how the inter related constructs of patriarchy and gender social construction creates, 

influences and perpetuates discrimination against women in the workplace.  With this knowledge, I will be 

able to make sense of different forms of gender discriminations that still exist in the workplace and have a 

better understanding of why it is difficult to eliminate them.  

Sylvia Walby in “Theorizing Patriarchy "calls Patriarchy “a system of social structures and practices, in 

which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (Walby, 1990). Patriarchy is based on a system of power 

relations, which are hierarchal and unequal where men control women’s production, reproduction and 

sexuality. Masculinity and femininity character stereotypes that we see in society are imposed by patriarchy.  

The nature of control and subjugation of women created by patriarchy varies from one society to the other 

and are influenced by differences in class, religion, region, ethnicity and the socio-cultural practice.  Control 

of patriarchy over women has developed historically and ideologies, social practices and institutions such 

as family, religion, caste, education, media, law, state and society, entrench, institutionalize and legitimize 

it.  

The first lessons of patriarchy are learnt in the family where the head of the family is a man/ father and he 

is the most respected and feared figure.  According to Gerda Lerner, family plays an important role in 

creating a hierarchal system as it not only mirrors the order in the state and educates its children but also 

creates and constantly reinforces that order (Lerner, 1986: 127; also see Bhasin, 1993: 10). Family is 

therefore important for socializing the next generation in patriarchal values and this is true for the researcher 

as it mirrors how the I  was raised and socialized in my  home and community.  Boys were taught and learn 

to be dominating and aggressive and girls learnt to be caring, loving and submissive.  

I have seen and experienced how the society’s social and cultural meaning for these biological differences 

results in hierarchical relationships between women and men whereby the distribution of power and rights 

favours men and disadvantages women. Male norms rule and in a society constituted by male norms, 

anything female is not only distinguished, but also devalued and this is a form of subordination. (Abrams, 

1989, p.1186). 

 



34 | P a g e  
 

I was  brought up in a society that taught me that in a household, women cook and dish up for fathers first 

as they are heads of households followed by boys. Women and girls will eat last after all the men have been 

served. I was taught how to cook, clean the house and wash dishes from an early age I despised these chores. 

Unfortunately, I had no choice but to perform them (as expected of all girls in our community) because 

they were defined by the society as female chores and roles. My brothers were taught how to manage 

finances of our family business (a role I found appealing and wanted to do but could not) and taught how 

to drive at the age of 9. I did not enjoy cooking Sunday lunch after coming back from church and dishing 

up for everyone. I wanted to sit next to my brothers and also read the Sunday newspaper and get praises for 

it. I wanted to help in my father’s business and learn business skills. However, the culture and tradition did 

not allow me to do that. Girls were usually not socialised or prepared to develop the characteristics and 

competencies necessary to pursue a career (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987) and that was my experience too. I had 

no choice but to perform my assigned gender role or else, I would be punished. It would be a disgrace to 

my family. It would be shameful for them to have a daughter that could not clean, cook or wash dishes. I 

was no exception as this practice was performed in every household in our community.  According 

to Ngcongo’s (1993) the criteria for a good woman in traditional African culture is one who cooks and does 

laundry for her husband amongst other things. Clearly, I was primed to be a good wife. The pressure to earn 

and look after the family is placed on a man by this system and not on a woman. Women are assigned 

menial and household jobs, expected to take care of their children and even other members of the family.   

Patriarchal constructions of knowledge perpetuate patriarchal ideology and this is reflected in educational 

institutions, knowledge system and media which reinforce male dominance and also in the workplace.  The 

social practices constructed by patriarchy are also legitimized by institutions such as religion as most 

religious practices regard male authority as superior.  

A key feature of Patriarchy is the notion of traditional gender roles that cast men as strong, decisive, rational 

and protective while women are seen as emotional, irrational, weak, nurturing and submissive. Gender roles 

are a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered socially 

appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. Gender roles are predominantly considered within a family 

context as well as within society. The perception of gender roles includes attitudes, actions and personality 

traits associated with a particular gender within that culture in general and may collectively be referred to 

as gender stereotypes that are transferred to members during socialization flow inside a cultural context.  

Gender is not something we are born with, and not something we have, but something we do (West and 

Zimmerman, (1987). It is something we perform as articulated by Butler, (1999) when she says, the 

“reality' of gender is it is constituted by the performance of it”. Generated by patriarchy, gender roles get 

passed on from one generation to the other. Gender is continuously ‘done’ through our actions and words 

and in a sense, we create our gendered reality.  Through a series of investigations Butler (as cited in 



35 | P a g e  
 

Edwards, 2006) attempts to illustrate that the categories of sex and gender are unnatural and artificial 

constructions that only exist at the level of repeated performance. An added dimension is that gender is 

performed according to various social sanctions that could lead to punishments such as social ostracism 

(Edwards, 2006). I have seen (and experienced) how this performance of gender roles perpetuates harmful 

gender stereotypes in the society and more so in the workplace where women are continuously experience 

discrimination and inequality.  

3.4.2 Gender construction biological influence 

According to Parcheta,  Kaifi, (2013 p.242),  the difference in gender characteristics  that has influenced 

how the society construct gender can on the other hand also be explained in part from biological factors. 

The biological sexes get redefined, represented, valued and channeled into different roles in various 

culturally dependent ways (Berger, 1994). Women had the ability to have children and their smaller bodies 

were considered physically weaker than men hence they were assigned to working the home. Women were 

viewed as the weaker sex. Men were considered to be more capable to build, hunt, and protect their families 

due to their large bodies. This continued for hundreds if not thousands of years and as science and 

technology eased the pressure of gender roles, we as a culture have them ingrained in our society.  This can 

be seen today with the different jobs and degrees men and women seek and pursue. They further substantiate 

their argument by highlighting that in 2001, 98 percent of childcare workers, 82 percent of elementary 

school teachers, 91 percent of nurses, 99 percent of secretaries, and 70 percent of social workers in the 

United States were women (Parcheta, Kaifi, (2013 p.242). In the same year, 87.5 percent of the corporate 

officers of the 500 largest companies, 90 percent of all engineers, 98 percent of all construction workers, 

and 70 percent of all financial managers were men.  

  

3.5 Gender Stereotype  
Decoloniality, according to Grosfoguel (2008) and others such as Dussel (1985) understands the domination 

and oppression of women as part of coloniality. As such, women live and work as kinds of colonial subjects 

in patriarchal societies. The relations of the “coloniser and the colonised” is described much usefully by 

Albert Memmi (1974) in a book by the same title: The Coloniser and the Colonised. Colonisers like other 

oppressors and exploiters, Memmi (1974) argues, tend to describe the colonised using stereotypes, 

myths and other prejudiced descriptions. This section of the chapter delves into gender stereotype as a 

component of the understanding and descriptions of women by those that dominate and oppress them. We 

will see how stereotypes are main causes of gender discrimination and impact career advancement of 

women is in the workplace. As will be demonstrated in the analysis of responses received from the 

participants, the most unfavorable experiences of women in the workplace are due to gender stereotyping. 



36 | P a g e  
 

Stereotypes of men and women have always existed and gender stereotypes have been defined as common 

culture wide beliefs about how men and women differ in personal qualities and characteristics (Dennis & 

Kunkel, 2004). Heilman (1997?)  describes gender stereotypes as generalizations about groups that are 

applied to individual group members simply because they belong to that group. Gender stereotypes are 

generalizations about the attributes of men and women (Research in organisational behaviour, 2012). It is 

a psychological dynamic driving the expression of discrimination in the workplace related to societal beliefs 

and thinking (Heilman, 1997). It is important to understand the underlying dynamics of gender 

stereotypes as they drive the attitudes, behaviors and decisions that disparately affect men and women at 

work. Stangor (1998) identifies two forms of stereotypes that are said to be behind the social psychology 

of gender discrimination at work i.e. Descriptive and Prescriptive stereotypes. 

Descriptive Stereotype is the constellation of traits and attributes that are thought to uniquely describe men 

and women according to Heilman & Welle (2005, p.25). These stereotypes are applied to individuals that 

one encounters in work settings, and become the basis for inferring their internal, stable characteristics. 

Thus, even in situations in which persons may have very little knowledge about th