Voices of South African Women : A qualitative research study on gender equality work as experienced by women in South African corporations

Problem statement: How do South African women experience the current gender equality work in their workplace and how does it affect their working conditions? Purpose: The purpose of our study is to contribute to an understanding of how South African women are experiencing gender equality work in their workplace and how this is affecting their working conditions. The aim is to find personal experiences of working women in South Africa of how gender equality work is being experienced on an individual level. South Africa has a broad range of legislations about gender equality but the perspective interesting for this study is how the individual South African women experience this is being realized. Methodology: A qualitative research method with an inductive approach. The empirical material was conducted with semi-structured interviews and later a thematic analysis was applied. Conclusions: Social structures, organizational culture and motherhood are areas identified by South African women to affect their working conditions as well as how they experience gender equality work within their organization. Although these are hard to change to some extent, the study found that by contributing to an understanding of the women’s experiences and identify the reasons of these, it creates possibilities for organizations to strive for a more gender equal workplace initiated with acknowledging aspects that can result in gender equality being experienced as fulfilled