The newly appointed executive director of materials science and manufacturing at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says South African women have made strides in the science, engineering and technology (SET) workplace.
Dr Liesbeth Botha, who joined the CSIR this month, says these advances do not mean the glass ceiling has simply disappeared.
“I have experienced this, but it is never explicit,” Botha says.
For Botha the differences in approach and perspectives that women bring into SET disciplines are critical — similar to racial and cultural diversity in all sectors and environments.
“The benefits of diversity in SET fields cannot be underestimated. Different people bring different ideas and perspectives to the table. The more diversity we have in these typically ‘white male dominated’ fields, the more awareness we will have of the social, environmental, economic and other impacts that must be considered in the innovation and research spaces.”
Botha qualified as an electronics engineer a decade before South Africa’s transition to democracy, arguably at a time when gender equity had little or no profile in society in general and the academic environment in particular.
“I consider myself a role model,” says Botha.
“I am not a gender activist, and I am convinced that lobbying for a cause can sometimes do more harm than good.
“But I have worked hard, followed my dreams and have competed — and won — against others in my field and many of them men.
“Being a woman has had nothing to do with my success,” she says. “I was privileged in that I attended the best schools and the best universities, but nothing was different for me because I am a woman.”
Following graduation Botha continued her academic career at the same institution, the University of Pretoria, completing her master’s degree in 1985.
She then moved to the United States to do her PhD, which she completed at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1989, developing an optical computer using holograms and lasers.
Commenting on her international experience she says: “South Africa can easily compete with Europe and the United States in SET environments.
“In South Africa, women have benefited from transformation imperatives because the gender battle was tackled in tandem with the race battle. And given the reality of educationally disadvantaged women here, women do get fairer treatment in the workplace.
Botha, who is a National Research Foundation B-rated scholar, worked at Stellenbosch University as the director of innovation and commercialisation before joining the CSIR.
This is also where her mother, the academic and intellectual, Professor Elize Botha, was the chancellor before she passed away last year. Botha describes her late mother as her role model.
“She had empathy, and never once did she feel the need to prove or show herself in an artificial way.
“She was an inspiration and not just to the Afrikaans community in South Africa. She made everyone she met feel special.”
Botha continues this legacy of being an accommodating and open individual — a management style she has brought to the CSIR.
Looking ahead, Botha says she will attempt to drive excellence and enjoyment among her team in the materials science and manufacturing unit. “We must focus on why we do what we do, on what it’s good for and how it will make a difference to people’s lives.”
The unit does research and development in the field of materials such as light metals, polymers and in manufacturing technologies to support South African industries.