By Gina Schoeman
South African women hold more senior management roles than women anywhere else on earth. So why does the ladder stop one floor short?
Many years ago, as a graduate trainee at a bank, I emailed one of South Africa’s top economists, asking for an introduction over coffee because I had been reading her column in the Financial Mail.
She was the chief economist at Merrill Lynch and one of the most astute voices on the South African economy, so I honestly did not think she would respond. But she agreed to meet.
I arrived with countless questions about her life and career, desperate to use the hour to work out the path ahead of me. Halfway through our conversation, I realised she was interviewing me.
I grabbed the opportunity, moved roles, and doors opened. Within a couple of years, I was a financial markets economist on a trading floor. This led to me building a twenty-five-year career just because of a cup of coffee that she did not have to take.
I used to tell that as a story about luck, but now I realise it was not really luck, but sponsorship.
We use mentorship and sponsorship as though they are the same word, but there is a significant difference: a mentor talks to you, a sponsor talks about you. From rooms you are not in, to people you have not met, sponsors attach their own credibility to your name.
The research is remarkably consistent: the Harvard Business Review found women to be over-mentored, under-sponsored, but not advancing in their careers. Nothing I have experienced in South Africa contradicts that.
According to SNG Grant Thornton’s Women in Business 2026 survey, women hold 47.3% of senior management roles in South Africa’s mid-market firms. That is well above the global average of 32.9% and something our country must be proud of. Every South African business surveyed had at least one woman in senior management, while only three other countries could say the same.
But let us move one floor higher. Just Share’s latest assessment of the JSE Top 40 shows that women make up 38,0% of board seats and 27.4% of executive roles. Yet only three of the forty companies have a woman as chief executive.
This is not a pipeline problem, or we would have a shortage of qualified women. Rather, the opposite. South Africa struggles with a deep bench sitting one level below the ceiling.
To be clear, this is a pricing problem. The market can see the asset because it already bought it at one level, but is not willing to re-rate it at a higher level. Why? Market mispricing often comes down to information, and if executive appointments are made on conviction, the conviction will come from someone saying your name in a room. Think about it: if you are recommended in private, but never in public, you remain priced at your last trade.
I remember when I was priced correctly. I was interviewing at Citi in London and had just found out that I was pregnant. No matter how nerve-wracking it was to declare this in the interview, I had to. The Head of Emerging Markets Economics did not blink. He- yes, he- paused, smiled and said, “That’s wonderful! And don’t worry, we’re not hiring you for nine months.” He ended up being one of the most inspiring managers to work for.
To this day, it was the most precise pricing I have ever been on the receiving end of. A pregnant candidate is often priced for nine months, but he priced the next twenty years. And fifteen years later, I am still at Citi.
You are not underqualified, but you may be underpriced. And the solution is not necessarily another qualification, but rather a voice to speak up for you. A voice that sponsors you.
This is why I am so hopeful. The 47.3% of women holding senior management roles is not a coincidence and did not happen by accident. A lot of the 47.3% is due to sponsorship compounding over generations. The good news is that sponsorship works. The bad news is that we are doing it one floor too low.
Any economist will tell you that it is rare to solve an economic problem without needing a budget, a change in policy, or someone’s permission. You do not have to be the chief executive to sponsor someone; just be one room ahead of her: say her name when she is not there, recommend her for something she has not asked for, and back her before she backs herself.
Confidence is all too often a lagging indicator, so somebody must believe in you first.
My first hire out of a bank graduate programme was because someone believed in me. My move to Citi later was because someone priced me correctly.
Do not forget that I found my first sponsor because of a column. Two decades later, I am writing one. A woman is reading your work and watching how you handle a tricky situation. She is deciding what she might become.
So say her name. Often.
Gina Schoeman is Managing Director at Citi South Africa, Head of CEEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa) Economics and South Africa Research, South Africa economist.
