During an interview on Cliffcentral.com, Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos, made a comment that has come under a lot of scrutiny – especially by women. He said that females have a ‘bitch switch’ and also said that Cell C employs ‘good-looking women and clever women’.
Human resources graduate, Monique Everton; and youth councillor, Nomaswazi Nkosi, explain why sexism in any environment is such a problem, specifically the workplace.
There are two legal terms that one needs to understand in this context and they are hate speech and sexism.
Everton said, “Sexism in the workplace has a negative impact on all employees – not just females. Discrimination based on gender in the workplace is not only unlawful but is bad for the morale of all workers in that working environment. Using the term ‘bitch’ to describe a woman is offensive and no individual in a leadership role is advised to use this sort of language.”
She went on to say that all employees are encouraged to report sexism to human resources as soon as it occurs in the workplace as it has been proven to have a negative impact on the quality of work produced.
Attorney Claire Waldeck defined sexism as ‘discrimination based on gender, stereotypes and cultural attitudes’. She said, “Hate speech is speech that offends, threatens or insults groups based on inter alia race, colour, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. Often it may incite violence or prejudicial action as it is disparaging.”
Nkosi added that sexism is not a simple thing to define and that one needs to take a holistic approach. She said that one cannot be labeled as a sexist based on one comment. However, she added, “It goes without doubt that Dos Santos will face quite a lot of scrutiny and backlash for his commentary. This backlash will come from society, the media and women. From a psychological perspective, to assume that he is sexist would be an unfair conclusion. I do not mean that I am excusing or justifying his comment but rather considering another perspective.”
