International Women’s Day: In-House Efforts to Achieve Gender Equality

Each year, on the 8th of March, the world marks International Women’s Day (IWD) to renew our collective commitment to achieving gender equality. This year we are commemorating the day under the theme: “Invest in women - accelerate progress.”

This theme emphasises the pivotal role of investing in women’s education, healthcare, economic empowerment, and leadership development to accelerate progress towards gender equality.

Within our industry, we take pride in advancing the goals outlined by the United Nations to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With a specific emphasis on the 5th SDG, which highlights the empowerment of women, we have indirectly supported the advancement of other SDGs.

Christine Sithole, a young, determined, and hardworking woman, leads our finishing department. This department is tasked with ensuring that all our products are appropriately packaged and meet rigorous quality standards. Despite being in charge of a department predominantly comprised of men older than her, Christine carries out her responsibilities with confidence and assertiveness.

As a single mother of two, Christine supports her children through her hard work, ensuring they are well-fed and educated. This underscores the profound impact of women's empowerment on societal well-being, aligning with various SDGs including access to quality education (SDG 4).

In many African societies, gender stereotypes confine women to domestic roles, limiting their opportunities in production industries. We've implemented a paradigm shift by training women to operate traditionally male-designated machines.

Nomagugu Zimba leads our silkscreen department, which handles the printing of various items such as t-shirts, caps, gift bags, sunglasses, and a range of apparel, as well as metal, plastic, and paper-based items. By having a woman at the helm of this department, we actively promote a culture of gender equality in leadership, contributing to the construction of a more equitable global community.

To alleviate the workload in that area, our upskilling initiative has empowered Smelokuhle, a young woman at the helm of our housekeeping department, to not only handle silkscreen printing machines but also to operate heat-press and dye-sublimation machines. She has effectively produced wristbands, lanyards, t-shirts, caps, gift bags, and numerous other promotional items for some of our most significant projects.

Additionally, our media and graphics department is led by Yvette, a dynamic woman with a flair for creativity. Yvette's role involves supervising the media division, which is tasked with generating ideas for our social media content and website blog. She also crafts artwork for the majority of our projects, a crucial responsibility given the central role graphic design plays across all our production departments.

We take pride in nurturing and empowering two of our former female employees, Chanell, and Melissa, to establish a company that specialises in marketing solutions. This has seen them, like their former employer, Tanya Naidoo, become female directors of their company – a male-dominated position in a society marred by gender imbalances in leadership positions.

Most importantly, we extend our gratitude to Tanya Naidoo, the CEO of Image at Work, for generously sharing her leadership expertise with these women. It requires exceptional leadership to identify potential and effectively utilise available resources to foster growth. On this occasion, we acknowledge her as a symbol of hope and perseverance for young women striving to become leaders.

Looking ahead, we are committed to providing internship opportunities for young women in our clothing manufacturing department (CMT). In this space, they’ll learn the art of designing and constructing a variety of clothing items, and promotional products such as shark-fin and wall banners, gazebos, mascot outfits, beanbags and many more.

As we mark International Women’s Day, we take pride in our endeavours to advance women and achieve all Sustainable Development Goals aimed at enhancing our communities. Furthermore, we advocate for other sectors to adopt initiatives guaranteeing women receive equal opportunities to their male counterparts.