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Top1. Introduction
Logistics and transport is a fast-growing sector employing millions of people across the globe. In India, it is estimated that the sector employs over 40 million people (Teresa & Kuper, 2010). However, although the logistics and transport sector employ millions of people around the globe, the sector remains largely male dominated (Teresa & Kuper, 2010).
Since the logistics and transport industry has traditionally been regarded as a male-dominated sector, the number of women employed in this sector is far fewer than the number of men (Drury, Sly, & Cheryan, 2011). Drury et al., (2011) assert that although gender parity exists in other sectors in the economy, the gender parity gap in the logistics and transport sector is wide, both in terms of the number of women employed in the sector and in terms of pay. According to the World of Work Report – International Labour Organisation (ILO, 2014), besides being a predominantly male-dominated industry, the logistics and transport industry offers limited opportunities for women to occupy top positions and the pay structure is also skewed in favour of male employees. ILO (2014) asserts that this phenomenon is prevalent in both developed and developing economies. For a long time, society has defined what women can do and what they cannot. ILO (2014) points out that the growing number of unemployed women globally is partly because of unfair recruitment of labour in some sectors based on gender where preference is given to male than to female applicants.
This study assesses the degree of women’s participation in the logistics and transport industry in Namibia. The study further identifies factors limiting the participation of women in the logistics and transport industry in Namibia and recommends strategies for enhancing female participation in this sector. Like most developing countries, after gaining independence in 1990, the Namibian government embarked on a process of ensuring equality of both men and women at the workplace. Some of the initiatives taken by the government to ensure gender balance at places of work include the Affirmative Action Act and the National Gender Policy (2010-2020) besides the provisions spelt out in the constitution. Although the government has made remarkable strides in achieving gender equality in government positions like in the cabinet, some industries, especially those in the private sector and in logistics and transport, have a low representation of women in technical and managerial positions. According to Bösl and Diescho (2009) the presence of women in the logistics and transport sector as well as in key positions throughout the value chain of the sector is not reflective of a pro-gender agenda. Women remain largely marginalised at the workplaces in terms of actual numbers and the positions occupied by them (Bösl & Diescho, 2009). A report by the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC, 2017) shows that by 2017, only 19% of women occupied executive positions across the board although the proportion of skilled women in the workplace was said to be 47%. It is worth noting that although women seem to be fairing relatively well in terms of education, the picture is less encouraging in terms of their participation in managerial and technical positions across the industries (Hubbard, 2010, Affirmative Action Employment Annual Report, 2016-2017). Hence, this study assesses the degree of women’s representation in the logistics and transport sector in Namibia.