Mobile operator Cell C has signed up 300 public and private sector organisations to participate in this year`s Take a Girl Child to Work Day.
This programme began in 2003, and aims to highlight the importance of broadening female participation in the South African economy.
Taking place on 26 May, the day aims to provide female learners in grades 10, 11 and 12 with the type of workplace experiences that broaden their career thinking and highlight the important role women have to play in South African society.
"About a third of the corporates involved will be running their own programmes - some of which will take girls well beyond the minimum of 20 girls per organisation," says S`bu Mngadi, Cell C`s chief corporate and strategy officer.
"For example, power parastatal Eskom has committed to hosting 420 girls countrywide and the Gauteng Provincial Health Department will host 200 girls in its hospitals across the province."
Mngadi says the company also supports the call by the Businesswomen`s Association (BWA) to increase women`s participation in the country`s mainstream economy, which was made when it released the SA Women in Corporate Leadership Census 2005.
According to the census, women make up 52% of the country`s adult population, but only 41.3% of the working population, while women constitute only 19.8% of all executive managers and 10.7% of all directors in the country.
"We all share the responsibility towards the youth of today and the children of tomorrow. To enable them to sustain themselves and their children, we simply have to equip them with the tools and the know-how to start and sustain their own businesses," says Tina Thomson, CEO of BWA.
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