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By Chiedza Simbo.

We have not reached the goal of women empowerment.
Women in management are still very few world wide and we still advocate for more women to sit on boards of many organisations. It has been proven that boards comprising of women perform better than men all boards. The practice of having an all men board has proven to be counter productive sabotaging company growth.

To increase the representation of women sitting on boards, various organisations particularly the not-for -profit women organisations have resorted to having all women boards. The practice is reinforced by donors who also want to fund organisations with all women boards. Such a practice is however (maybe needed, but) counterproductive and dis – empowers women instead of empowering them. To begin with:

1. Women naturally need men and men naturally need women
The cooperation between women and men is not only needed but natural. Women just like men have various in-born characteristics that are hard to dispense. Google “the difference between how men and women think” , you will soon realise that you have a library to read. So much has been written about the subject that we are almost in agreement that it is our differences which bring us more in unison than our similarities. Our inborn different qualities promote growth in all facets of life. Take the subject of emotional intelligence for example. Women are viewed by many as usually portraying/displaying more intense emotions than men (this is not to say men do not have intense emotions). Whilst every women can learn to control their displayed emotions, a combination of men and women on the board has the capability to dilute (sometimes sudden) intense emotions giving the board an opportunity to successfully manage conflicts, develop conflict management skills, and take the organisation forward. The combination of five emotionally charged women does the board no good, neither does the combination of five men hiding their emotions.

2. All women boards isolate women
Experienced board members with strong solid networks take organisations forward. By stating that very few women sit on boards, we are also stating that very few women have experience and networks as board members. The few women with experience cannot possibly mentor half of the whole world even in the next century. What women need is to tap into the experience which man possess if they truly want a chance to quickly get ahead. Women need to tap into the networks men have established over a very long time. Isolating men from the board room only means that more time is invested (this maybe time wasted) in trying to network with organisations whose networks have been established by men. It also means that young women may lack mentorship and fail to get ahead.

3. An all women board exposes women
In my professional life I have met men who say “women cannot work together”. The statement is said every time a woman is in conflict with a woman as if men do not conflict. Truly speaking, right now, the world is in conflict because of men. Besides the various opportunities they have kept to themselves, men have exposed themselves as weak leaders by simply closing opportunities to themselves (excluding women) thereby locking themselves in power struggles. Women risk falling into that trap as long as they close the boardroom to themselves. The inability or refusal to work with men only exposes women by reinforcing the myth that they cannot work together. The myth is true in so far as we agree that “women cannot work together” and “men cannot work together”, we equally need each other.

Chiedza Simbo has sat on-an-all women board as well as boards with equal representation of men and women.

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