Several factors point to the existence of gender inequality in Botswana. First, there are the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that create awareness about and fight discrimination against women. These include organizations such as the Botswana Council of Women (BCW), Emang Basadi, Women against Rape (WAR) based in Maun, the Metlhaetsile Information Centre in Mochudi and the Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), among others. Some of these organizations (e.g., BCW) have been participating in activities to promote gender equality since independence. Secondly, there is elevation of gender equality to become an integral part of the agendas of many development discourses especially since the Nairobi Conference of 1985 (Selolwane 1995). A further acknowledgment of the existence of gender inequalities in Botswana is the increased number of workshops, seminars, and conferences that have been organized by both government departments and women's NGOs to articulate the problems confronting women and to identify specific areas of inequality and the strategies required to eliminate them. In addition, the adoption by Parliament of the National Policy on Women and Development in 1995, the Botswana Government's accession to CEDAW in 1996, and the National Gender Programme Framework in 1998 all point to the increased acknowledgement of the existence of gender inequalities. Finally, there exists some macro-level literature (see e.g., Botswana Government 1995; Mannathoko 1995; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998; UNICEF 1989) that documents the existence of various forms of discrimination against women in Botswana.
2.1 The Status of Women in Botswana
In Botswana, governmental departments and efforts of women's NGOs to reduce gender inequalities have not been able to eliminate the gender gap. Here, women, relative to their counterparts in most other African countries, appear to have made considerable strides in sensitising their lot to the need for equality with men. However, they are yet to become equal partners with men in various spheres of life (Bhusumane 1993; BIDPA 1997; Mannathoko 1995; Selolwane 1995; Sharma 1993; The Fourth UN World Conference on Women, 1995; UNDP, 1998). Women remain subordinate to men in different levels of the society such as the household, the community, institutions/organizations, and the nation (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). They still have unequal access to positions of power and decision-making; they experience limitations on certain rights and freedoms (particularly within the marriage institution), which are not imposed on men and they have limited access to resources in general and thus are much poorer than men (the feminisation of poverty). They have less access to particularly higher educational opportunities and have to content themselves with sexist educational curricula; they suffer escalating violence at the hands of men; they experience unequal employment opportunities, gender stratified careers, and marginalisation in the formal sector; and they suffer male control of their (women's) reproductive choices (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998, 3).
2.2 Legally Grounded Discriminations
In Botswana, women still face certain legal and socio-cultural constraints that put them at a disadvantage relative to men. Although the Botswana constitution guarantees certain rights and freedoms to all citizens, there are certain provisions in customary and common laws and cultural practices that infringe on women's rights and freedoms (Botswana Government 1995). These are embodied in statutes such as the Marriage Act, Married Person's Property Act, the Penal Code, Companies Act, Deeds Registry Act, and the Adoption Act. All of these statutes have provisions that discriminate against women and limit their opportunities. More specifically, the Marriage Act, the Married Person's Property Act, the Companies Act, and the Deeds Registry Act restrict the rights of married women to land, to immovable property and to advancing their career chances in the commercial sector. In addition, the Marriage Act and the Married Person's Property Act confer husbands with the discretionary management and control of family estate without the knowledge and consent of the wife. Discriminatory laws also discourage women from using land and property as collateral for business loans.
Women are also put at a disadvantage by traditional and cultural values which ascribe to them a subordinate status thus qualifying them for male protection in relation to the external world and the management and control of property (Botswana Government 1995). Such traditional values deny women independent access and rights to inheritance of assets such as land and cattle, which are important for making a living particularly in the rural areas.
2.3 Unequal Access to Positions of Power and Decision-Making
The sharing of power and, consequently, the participation of women at all levels of decision-making, both public and private, is an important human rights and democratic issue (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). However, in Botswana, like in most other developing countries, men monopolize power and decision-making positions at all levels of the society. Both the public and the private spheres are characterized by very limited sharing of power between males and females, and women are marginalized in terms of decision-making (Botswana Government 1995; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). Being the heads of households, males dominate decision-making related to family resources. They exercise strong control over women in public institutions such as the national assembly (parliament), the cabinet, and local governments. Women, on the contrary, are under-represented (invisible) and not empowered in the private sphere of the family, at the national (public) level, the workplace, the school, the club, the trade union or any other organisation (Botswana Government 1995; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). For instance, they either are absent or poorly represented in economic decision-making such as the formulation of financial, monetary, commercial and economic policies. Botswana's business management is still predominated by males, and women are conspicuously absent from the boards of directorships of virtually all private and public companies in the country. Indeed, as pointed out in the National Gender Programme Framework, `even in areas such as education and health where women are the vast majority of professionals, key decision-making positions are still held by men' (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998, 35).
2.4 Marginalization of Women in Education and Skills Training
The Botswana government is in principle committed to education as a human right (Botswana Government 1995). This is evident from both its endorsement of the Basic Education Policy that was adopted in 1990 at the World Conference on Education for All held at Jomptien and the provision of a free primary and secondary education that is supposed to be accessible to all regardless of sex, ethnicity, race, creed, social class or place of origin. However, limited spaces after junior secondary (currently forms 1-3) has led to massive dropouts with the majority of the dropouts being girls (Botswana Government 1995; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998).
Female enrolments tend to decline at those levels of education that are a significant stepping stone into the job market (Botswana Government 1995). For instance, girls are at a disadvantage in terms of attendance to vocational and technical training institutions and other tertiary institutions (Botswana Government 1995; Nyati-Ramahobo 1992; Parsons 1984). In vocational and technical training institutions, their (girls') numbers have never exceeded 35%. Educational statistics from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the overwhelming majority of students in vocational training institutions are males; in 1994 only about 30% of students enrolled were females (CSO 1994). Those who enrol tend to be concentrated around traditionally female fields such as secretarial, nursing and textile related courses (Botswana Government 1995). The exception may only be at the University of Botswana where a 50% representation was recorded as of 1995 (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998).
It is in the area of academic performance where the bulk of the gender inequality in education in Botswana appears to be concentrated (Botswana Government 1996; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). Boys tend to perform better than girls do especially at Junior Certificate (JC) and Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) `O' Level examinations (Nyati-Ramahobo 1992; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). This is particularly true with regard to mathematics, science, design and technology. The underachievement of girls in school examinations lowers their chances of participation in many areas of out-of-school education and training and impacts negatively on their employment chances. There also exists evidence suggesting that female students are discriminated against and that gendered power relations do not empower female students thereby exposing them to sexual, physical and psychological abuse (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998) by their male counterparts and/or male instructors.
2.5 Lack of Economic Empowerment among Women
In Botswana, women in general and female-headed households in particular experience more poverty and economic marginalization relative to men and male-headed households (CSO 1993, 1994). The poorest urban female-headed households, for example, have an average per capita disposable monthly income of about 46% of that earned by the poorest urban male-headed households. The disparities are lower in the rural areas where the poorest female-headed households have a per capita income of about 95% of that earned by the poorest urban male-headed households. The income differential between females and males can be understood in terms of legal, socio-cultural and institutional structures that restrict women's access to and control of productive resources and favour men in terms of the acquisition of human capital (education, skills and information) and produce unequal access to employment opportunities, development programmes and resources. It can also be understood in terms of the increasing burden of children's care on women as men's responsibility towards their offspring declines (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998).
2.6 Violence and Harassment against Women
The limited available data suggests that the incidence of violence against women in Botswana and its consequences are on the rise. Like their counterparts in most other (African) countries, women in Botswana experience physical, sexual, and emotional (psychological) violence at the hands of men (Emang Basadi 1994a, 1994b; Botswana Government 1995; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). Indeed, according to the national Policy on Women in Development (see Botswana Government 1995), women often have inadequate recourse from any coercion or violent abuse due to legally recognized control by males. Marriage laws and customs are illustrative in this regard.
The violence experienced by women in Botswana occurs at the family and community levels. At the family level violence against women includes acts such as spousal and child battering, sexual abuse of female children, and marital rape (Botswana Government 1995; United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). Although in Botswana, like elsewhere, violence against women at the family level is `a multidimensional issue rooted in the male domination that characterizes all societies', in the not very distant past it was construed to be `purely a family or personal affair' (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998, 28) that did not warrant intervention by law enforcement agencies. At the community level, violence against women encompasses acts such as rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at places of work. Police statistics and information adduced through studies conducted by Emang Basadi (1994a), for instance, indicate that the period since 1982 has experienced upward trends in rape cases and in the defilement of girls under the age of 16.
2.7 Gender Discrimination at the Workplace
In Botswana, women account for over 50% of the total population but they do not contribute significantly to the formal workforce (Botswana Government 1995). Although the gender gap in employment opportunities is said to have narrowed between 1981 and 1991 (Botswana Government 1995), they remain a major concern in the labour market. By 1991 only about 39% of the workers aged 12 and above were women (CSO 1994). The nature and extent of gender inequalities in the access to employment opportunities and income is clearly reflected in the occupational distribution of the labour force. In 1991, the most important single occupation of females was domestic work. One out of four females in cash employment was a domestic worker (CSO 1994). However, women have the least opportunities in professions: they account only for about a third of all professional posts in the private and public sectors. Women are overly present in the teaching profession where they occupy about 43% of all positions, Local and Central Government - 33%, and Service Sector - 29% (Botswana Government 1995).
Within the workplace itself, considerable gender inequalities persist in terms of earnings, power, mobility (advancement) chances, task allocation, and access to managerial (or authority) positions, training opportunities. In the public service, for example, considerations other than those of merit are said to influence recruitment, placement and promotions (Sharma 1993). Women tend to have access only to mainly lower level managerial positions in both public and private sector occupations (Fourth UN World Conference on Women 1995). The existing data reveals that even the more pervasive presence of women within a particular occupation does not guarantee them a greater presence in higher level/managerial positions (Mannathoko 1995). The health and education sectors are illustrative. These have been major sources of employment for women, but only a minor source of managerial opportunities for them. This is a clear manifestation of the lack of access to promotional opportunities for female employees.
Although not much research has been done on the education institution as a labour market in Botswana, the limited evidence that is available suggests the existence of various forms of gender-based discriminations that put female teachers at a disadvantage (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). The teaching profession has been identified with gender discrimination in career advancement (Bhusumane 1993; Mannathoko 1995). The career advancement of teachers and lecturers is biased in favour of men, and factors such as age and gender remain major barriers to women's entry to administrative positions. In addition, the gendered power relations that characterize schools and other institutions of higher learning empower male teachers. Such power differentials make female teachers vulnerable to acts such as sexual harassment and physical and psychological abuse (Botswana Government 1995) with their male counterparts and superiors as the perpetrators.
Skewed gender power relations in the educational institutions in Botswana are also reflected through the governance of these institutions and the career patterns of female and male teachers and/or instructors (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). While the hierarchical and bureaucratic structures of the educational institutions in general are not implicitly gendered, they appear to have been colonized by men. As such, women remain under-represented (invisible) in decision-making bodies in schools. The only exception is in primary schools where the majority of school heads are women. Even here, the situation is perhaps the way it is mainly because the majority of primary school teachers are women (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). Recent research, however, points to an emerging `vision of democratic management in which participation, shared decision-making, distribution of power, promotion of social justice, importance of autonomy and academic freedom' among male and female (students and) teachers in secondary schools and higher institutions of learning (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998, 13).
2.8 Institutional Responses to Gender-Based Inequalities
In the Southern African region as a whole, `women's organizations have played a central role in advancing the causes of women's rights and sharpening national and regional sensitivity towards recognition and promotion of gender equality' (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998, 2). These have joined hands with national governments to amend laws that discriminate against women. In addition, gender issues have been incorporated into the regional organizations and programmes such as those under the umbrella of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which now houses a gender unit at its secretariat. International Donor agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have also made their contribution by requiring governments in the region to mainstream gender into their policies and programmes (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998).
In Botswana in particular, NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) have put in place various strategies, programmes and projects to address the different types of gender inequalities suffered by women such as provision of different types of services in the area of education, skills training and income generation activities (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998). Other NGOs, and especially Emang Basadi, Ditshwanelo, and Women and the Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), have developed programmes that sensitise women to their legal rights, political empowerment and domestic violence. The Botswana government, despite its prolonged reluctance to initiate direct policy documents to address the plight of women as a marginalized group and to mainstream gender issues into its sectoral policies (United Nations and Botswana Government 1998), has also been involved in addressing the gender inequality problem. It has set up a Women's Affairs Unit at the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1981 and collaborated with Women's NGOs in the preparatory activities for the September 1995 Beijing UN Fourth World Conference on Women, and elevated six out of 12 of the critical areas of concern in the Beijing Declaration and PFA as priority national issues. The six areas in order of priority are women and poverty, including women's economic empowerment; women in power and decision-making; education and training of women; women and health; the girl-child; and violence against women, including human rights.
In what one may interpret to be a demonstration of its commitment to the above issues, during 1995 the government of Botswana adopted the National Policy on Women in Development. The policy, whose aim is to address the plight of women in Botswana in an integrated and multi-sectoral manner (see Government of Botswana 1995 for details), had stalled in the drawing boards since 1988. During 1996, the government also penned its commitment at the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. And most recently (in November 1998), the Botswana government, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has developed and adopted a National Gender Programme Framework to translate the various policy documents into concrete strategies and actions that will make actual improvements in the lives of women. The framework emphasizes the six critical areas listed earlier.
2.9 Theoretical Framework
To comprehend perceptions of inequality and the differential treatment of males and females in the teaching profession in Botswana, we rely on an extended formulation of Blau's (1964) exchange theory. To do so, we treat employment relationships in the teaching profession as forms of exchange taking place between the employer and the employees. Based on the exchange perspective, individuals enter social relations in anticipation of rewards or benefits in exchange for their inputs/investments in the relationship. The rewards could be both intrinsic and extrinsic factors while inputs/investments include factors such as effort, status, skill, education, experience, seniority and productivity. Although exchange theory has its origin in the works of George Homans (1958, 1961), Blau (1964) extended the theory to cover the kinds of social activities observable in complex organizations. As applied to work organizations, the theory argues that individuals perform for, or contribute to, an organization in exchange for certain rewards or inducements (Mowday, Porter and Steers 1982). Prospective members to an organization bring needs and goals, and they agree to supply their skills and energies in exchange for organizational resources (such as rewards or payments from the organization) capable of satisfying those needs and goals. To the extent that there is a favourable balance or match between what the organization provides and the members' expectations (or between inducements and contributions), the members' satisfaction appears to be maximized and performance is maintained.
Central to the broad exchange perspective are three theories, namely, equity theory (Adams 1965), expectancy theory (Lawler 1973; Vroom 1964)) and investment theory. All three theories rely on rewards, costs and/or investments to explain membership and performance in an organization. However, they differ in terms of how these are used. In equity theory, for example, the employee compares reward to inputs relative to those of comparable others to determine the fairness of the exchange. Expectancy theory, on the other hand, uses rewards as expectations that employees bring to the work environment; little attention is paid to the distribution of these among fellow employees. For the investment model, investments have forfeiture implications and this makes them costs to the employee who contemplates leaving. The equity branch of the exchange perspective is considered applicable to this study.
Equity theory, also termed justice theory (see e.g., Blau 1964; Jasso 1983a, 1983b; Markovsky 1985) was originally formulated by Adams (1963, 1965) who stressed equity and inequity as criteria when rewarding or punishing employees. Utilizing the inducement/contribution notion advanced by the exchange perspective, Adams (1963, 1965) considered the process of social exchanges in which individuals' give and take to be central to the concept of equity. Such exchanges involve reciprocity and social comparison processes in which people expect to receive something in return for effort or a favour given. An employee who works hard, for example, expects the employer to recognize this and reward him/her accordingly. The primary proposition of equity theory is that individuals compare their inputs (or contributions) - such as status, seniority skills, experience, task performance, education and effort - and outcomes (or inducements) with those of comparable others to determine what their equitable return should be and, consequently, the fairness of the exchange. The comparable others could be individuals within or outside the same work environment. The rewards are usually valued goods that are obtainable in a social context (Markovsky 1985) and may include material goods such as pay and related monetary benefits, social goods and social opportunities such as promotion opportunities in a work organization, or other working conditions such as autonomy and job variety. Individuals working in situations of inequity experience greater distress (or a feeling of injustice) than those working in equitable situations (Adams 1963; Blau 1964, 1965; Homans 1961).
Attempts have been made to refine Adams's (1963) equity theory. Notable among these are the works of Jasso (1983a, 1983b) and Markovsky (1985). Jasso (1983a, 1983b) presents what amounts to a new justice theory in which she stresses under-reward as opposed to over-reward. She argues that justice will be perceived by an actor if the amount of reward the actor perceives himself/herself to have, termed the `actual share' in the theory, and the amount of reward the actor believes to be fair, termed the `just share' in the theory, are equal. If the actual and just shares differ, injustice will be perceived. Markovsky (1985, 822), on the other hand, presents a formulation of justice theory in which he argues, `issues of distributive justice or equity arise when money, praise, or pieces of pie do not seem to have been meted properly.' He sees actors as comparing rewards and investments to those of a reference standard to decide what level of reward is fair. The reference standard can be a generalized other, a specific person, or a specific group. The importance that an actor attaches to justice in given situations or comparisons, however, will affect the justice evaluation. Hence, if an actor is indifferent to justice, no or only a minor sense of injustice will ensue; thus, justice-restoring behaviour may not be forthcoming. However, if justice itself is highly valued, the actor is not likely to be indifferent, and any justice-restoring behaviour is likely to be especially vigorous.
Applied to the study of perceived gender discrimination in the workplace, equity theory suggests that, using their male counterparts as comparable others, female employees will experience injustice or discrimination if they consider their rewards to be lower than those of males who have comparable inputs in the organization. In such a case, the ratio of investments to outcomes for females is considered unequal to that of the comparable persons (males). However, to provide a more encompassing comprehension of the differential treatment of males and females in the workplace, we may extend equity theory to capture non-educational status characteristics that employees bring with them to the job environment. Of particular significance are the attitudes learned through socialization process and the ascribed status of being either male or female. It is argued that the exchange process in general and the actual nature of the treatment, in particular, accorded to women employees in the teaching profession could differ from those experienced by their male counterparts simply because of their being female. This is particularly so in societies (such as Botswana) where the system of patriarchy is still strong.
A major characteristic of a male-centred (patriarchal) society is gender-stereotyped socialization. Through it, the boy-child is socialized into roles that prepare him to exercise power over females and to make decisions in private and public spheres of life such as the family and the workplace. The girl-child, on the other hand, is socialized into roles that do not prepare her for the exercising of power and decision-making over other people or resources. The structural differences, inequalities and subordination emanating from such biased socialization may manifest themselves not just in the domestic front but also in institutional structures such as labour markets and social and political institutions thereby causing the subordination of women. As such, women's contributions in the teaching profession may be both undervalued and less rewarded. In addition, women may be subjected to other non-reward discriminatory practices such sexual harassment, intimidation, and coercion.
2.10 Study Hypotheses
Based on the literature reviewed above, the following hypotheses are derived:
· H1. Relative to males, females in the teaching profession in Botswana perceive greater gender-based discrimination in hiring/recruitment practices and greater global discrimination within the workplace.
· H2. Relative to their male counterparts, females in the teaching profession receive inferior intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
· H3. Female teaching professionals perceive their work environments to be less supportive in their job performance than do male teachers.
· H4. Relative to their male teaching professional counterparts, female teaching professionals perceive their jobs to be characterized by high levels of workplace stresses.
· H5. Compared to male teachers, women teachers are likely to display lower levels of job satisfaction but are characterized by higher organizational commitment and intention to stay in the teaching profession.
