Women in Leadership: How Africa's largest stock exchange approaches diversity

To mark Women's History Month, we're bringing you a special series of the ESG Insider podcast focused on women in leadership. We're speaking to women CEOs and executives from across industries and around the globe. 

In this episode, we interview Shameela Soobramoney, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. She explains how the JSE approaches gender equality internally and in its role as an exchange listing the stocks and bonds of hundreds of companies. 

"At the JSE, there's a strong advocacy for women empowerment and female representation. And we do believe that it starts with leading by example," she says. "We're the largest stock exchange in the continent, a key player in the South African economy. And [the JSE] has an acute understanding of the role that exchanges must play in driving diversity in all its forms and inclusion beyond just our organization." 

She also talks about the challenges she faced starting her career as a woman of color just as South Africa was coming out of apartheid.  

"The challenges that women anywhere will face, it feels like were exacerbated for someone like me in a country like South Africa with its past," she says.  

"Women need to be each other's supporters," she adds. "That is what we should be doing —and opening the door for others and helping younger women along who are facing some of the challenges that you might have had earlier in your career." 

Diversity in leadership has received increasing attention in recent years from stakeholders in the sustainability world. Investors have pushed for diversity on company boards and management teams, and in some parts of the world, that push has extended to laws and regulations. But the number of women in top roles remains low. Read recent research from S&P Global on women in leadership here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/featured/special-editorial/women-ceos-leadership-for-a-diverse-future  

And here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/featured/special-editorial/the-path-to-gender-parity  

You can listen to previous episodes in our Women in Leadership series here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/featured/special-editorial/women-in-leadership  

Photo source: JSE 

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