The growing popularity of women’s movements and campaigns such as “Lean In” and “He for She” indicates that gender advocacy in the workplace is penetrating both developed and developing markets.
Its impact on young professional women is evident in a 2015 called The Female Millennial: A New Era of Talent conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which shows that “86% of female millennials value diversity, equality and workforce inclusion as an important factor when making a decision about where they want to work”.
In addition, this growth in gender consciousness also comes at a time when more women than ever are undergoing tertiary education and entering the professional workforce. A study published in 2016 (www.che.ac.za/focus_areas/higher_education_data/2013/participation) by the Centre of Higher Education in SA and the Department of Women reported, firstly, that “women outnumbered men in undergraduate and Honours enrolment” and, secondly, that “women have higher undergraduate and post-graduate success rates than men”.
Furthermore, PwC highlighted that “66% of female millennials earn equal to or more than their partners or spouses.
While it’s clear that sexism is still deeply entrenched in many organisations, the corporate environment is ripe for change – and the millennial generation of empowered career women might be just the catalyst needed to effect it.
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