Mbombela - Mpumalanga Finance MEC Pinky Phosa has urged the banking sector to invest more in women-led initiatives.
Phosa was speaking during an ABSA Bank Women's Month event in Mbombela on Tuesday.
"The progression of women to positions of seniority is promising, albeit neither fast enough nor adequate to speed up the attainment of the 50/50 gender parity. We need to support women-led initiatives so that they can be able to empower other women," said Phosa.
She said as Women's Month came to an end, more opportunities should be created for women to enter the mainstream economy.
This should be done with the same passion as the 1956 generation of women, who marched to the Union Buildings in protest against inequality.
"We must work harder to ensure that the girl child is nurtured to follow careers in this and other economic sectors that are critical to building a better and prosperous society," Phosa said, adding that women were the most reliable debtors, but they continued to struggle to access credit from financial institutions.
"This is one of the challenges that the banking sector must overcome in honour of the spirited dedication of the 1956 women.
"An increasing number of women, who hold senior finance positions, is an indication of confidence in the ability of women to lead a charge towards economic prosperity," said Phosa.
Phosa praised South Africa for reforming the political landscape in the country in line with gender equality.
She said the increase in the percentage of women who are members of the provincial legislature and executive council in the province was one example.
However, she said while women were climbing the career ladder, they were not earning as much as their male counterparts.
She said according to the Global Gender Gap report of the World Economic Forum, South Africa had made some strides in changing gender disparities in corporate South Africa.
She said the report places South Africa in position 12 in the world compared to position 22 before 2008 and remains top in political empowerment in the region.
"The provincial government has also made strides to ensure that more women occupy financial management positions within departments. Today, women hold 50% of all positions of chief financial officers in the provincial departments," said Phosa.
