Girls aged between 14 and 18 start applying their minds to career and education choices, so this is a good age at which to prevent their choices from being influenced by gender stereotyping.
This was the reason why, on May 8 this year, more than 2 500 girl children from schools in disadvantaged communities across the country were invited to participate in Cell C’s Take a Girl Child to Work Day.
The initiative, aimed at getting girl children to realise and believe in their own potential, was also aimed at enabling the government, businesses and the public to collaborate publicly in a focused way on reversing centuries of gender stereotyping in South Africa.
‘It is this stereotyped thinking that has resulted in many girl children not being encouraged to reach their potential. Accordingly, most South African women seldom achieve financial — and therefore social — independence,” says Moira Sheridan, Cell C’s acting head of corporate communications.
‘The day demonstrated to them the variety of employment oppor- tunities today, and that women have a right to do any job they like — provided they have the qualifications.”
Sheridan says the girls who took part realised that they need not restrict themselves to the jobs traditionally considered suitable for women, but can aspire to any career. ‘This was a life-changing experience. It gave them a reason to revisit their goals and ambitions, and to think about their future with confidence — a future that will not only benefit them but the whole nation.”
More than 123 companies around the country each hosted 20 girls from a school in a dis- advantaged area in their region, providing them with an insight into the working world that wouldn’t otherwise have been available to them.
Also embracing the initiative were a number of high-profile South Africans, who used their standing in their communities to promote awareness of gender issues and to talk about the rights of girl children and the benefits to the economy of encour-aging women to acquire and exercise work skills.