
UKZN Celebrates International Women’s Day
UKZN’s Human Resources Division together with the Imbokodo Women in Leadership and Academia Programme hosted a webinar to mark International Women’s Day.
Celebrated annually on 8 March, International Women’s Day seeks to acknowledge the achievements of women globally as well as their contribution towards building an equal society.
Themed: Breaking the Bias, the webinar aimed to spark conversations around bias giving both men and women pointers on how to identify it within themselves, and what to do to rectify the behaviour.
Facilitated by UKZN’s Clinical Sociologist, Dr Mariam Seedat-Khan, the guest speaker at the event was the owner and CEO of Mandate Molefi Human Resource Consultants, Ms Nene Molefi.
In her welcoming address, Mrs Busisiwe Ramabodu, the Director: Human Resources Development and the Chair of the Imbokodo Women in Leadership and Academia Programme, highlighted how the day accentuated issues faced by women on a global scale. Noting how bias continued to hinder women empowerment, Ramabodu highlighted how inherent it was in people and how it could be countered ‘by identifying it in yourself and others; and altering those behaviours for the benefit of women, gender equity and gender equality.
‘Part of the goal of this webinar is to encourage men to join in the conversation and examine their own bias towards women and women in leadership and be able to alter their behaviour accordingly.’
In her presentation, Molefi began by discussing the importance of psychological safety, going on to unpack the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (which bias falls into).
Defining diversity as a ‘collective mixture of differences, similarities, related complexities and tensions,’ she noted how related complexities and tensions which contribute to the issue of gender inequality should never be under estimated, she also used the analogy of how ‘diversity is being invited to the party and inclusion is being asked to dance,’ and added that women seldom get to ‘choose their own song’ and feel like they belong.
Molefi highlighted the concept of intersectionality as a ‘complex cumulative way in which the effects of different forms of discrimination combine, overlap or intersect on one individual or group,’ and used that as the starting point of addressing issues of inclusion.
She also listed some key areas that need to be reviewed in order for inclusion to be achieved including intrapersonal development; analysing policies, systems, practices and procedures that reinforce sexist standards in the workplace; addressing systemic and structural eras at a societal level, and exploring internalisation which can also create the imposter syndrome.
Examining unconscious bias ‘as a hidden inclination or preference that influences judgement from being balanced and even handed,’ Molefi said bias didn’t make one a bad person, just human and emphasised the importance of talking about it, countering it and interrupting it.
Reviewing the various forms of bias that exist - such as confirmation bias, affinity bias, bodyshape bias, accent bias and even beauty bias - she encouraged individuals in positions of power to focus on people’s behaviours and not opinions to avoid bias when advertising, recruiting, interviewing, hiring and mentoring in the employee life cycle.
Molefi used everyday examples of micro inequities, defining them as 'the ways in which individuals are singled out, overlooked and discounted because of unchangeable characteristics'.
Quoting American poet Maya Angelou’s ‘people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel,’ she encouraged people to be conscious of what they say and who they say it to.
In closing, Director: University Relations Ms Xoliswa Zulu commented on how the webinar urged both men and women to work together on the challenges they faced in the workplace and in their personal spaces as well as to fight for themselves and what they believed in.
Zulu also thanked the guest speaker, the Imbokodo team and the Corporate Relations Division for making the webinar possible.
Words: Hlengiwe Khwela
Photograph: Supplied