Women's Month Feature

Shireen Motara

Shireen Motara is a Certified Coach and Founder CEO of Tara Transform.

She is deeply passionate about the potential of Women and Africa, addressing inequality, and committed to social change that values and recognises women’s rights and contributions.

Her conviction is that women should be able to claim their space anywhere. 

As an experienced strategist and consultant, Shireen supports clients to design, implement and review strategies that advance social justice and address inequality - nationally, regionally and globally. Her clients include UN agencies, funders and philanthropic agencies; corporates and non-profits. For over two decades she has been working and volunteering for social justice.

Shireen has held roles in management, coaching, executive leadership and consulting in South Africa, SADC and the United Kingdom.

As a Board Leader, Shireen has been serving on boards since 1999. She has deep expertise in governance, and has supported organisations in building effective governance practices; with capable leadership.

Shireen believes in giving back and does so through her board services; as well as serving as a Mentor to youth entrepreneurs at the African Leadership Academy and the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation.

Her qualifications include a Masters degree in Law and post-graduate certifications in Coaching, HR and Business Administration.

Transcript

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[00:00:15] Shireen: My name is Shireen Motara, and I'm a, um, women's coach, a certified coach. And I work only with women and I also run my own consulting practice where I do various types of work around, um, gender and development.

[00:00:33] Candice: So tell me a little bit about how you got into that particular, um, field of work. Um, what kind of led you there? You know, just a little bit of your background. 

[00:00:42] Shireen: So I, I studied law at university and I was at the university of the Western Cape. So, and also I come from a family that was already very much involved in the anti-apartheid movement, which is why I went to UWC.

[00:00:59] And, um, at the university I connected with a group of women, um, and we, we called our group Kopanang and it was a women's group. And really the idea was about educating ourselves around women's rights, um, and understanding, you know, how the world is not ready for women or how the world doesn't just embrace women with open arms.

[00:01:24] So understanding the dynamics around that and how to engage with it. And then when I left university, you know, initially I did look at doing articles and so on, but I had a lot of conflicting emotions about representing, for example, an alleged rapist. Um, you know, it just didn't sit well with me to do that kind of thing.

[00:01:47] So I decided, I mean, well, my first job was at customer services, but after that, I was just looking to work in the women's rights sector and so my second job was in the women's rights sector. And I basically haven't looked back since, so even in my own business, you know, that's my focus. Okay. 

[00:02:05] Candice: So that leads me to my next question.

[00:02:07] What are you most passionate about in your work and what drives you or motivates you to, to keep doing it? 

[00:02:17] Shireen: So, I mean, I say that I, I exist to make the world a better place for women. In a nutshell, that's what I, um, you know, what I'm passionate about. So everything I do revolves around that, making the world better for women and girls, but coming from a trauma perspective and understanding.

[00:02:38] You know that even if women do a lot of development on themselves, educate themselves, you know, look for opportunities and so on, they still have to understand that there's a system that is holding them hostage or keeping them out. So they have to be able to understand that. So I try to bring both things together in my work.

[00:02:59] So even when I work with women in a coaching way, Um, I very much strive to work, to get them to understand that they have to build their voice and agency so that they can challenge the system and the systemic discrimination wherever they are, because unless we do that, um, you know, we will continue to struggle, um, to reach the kind of levels to achieve the kind of goals that you want to.

[00:03:24] Candice: Then just some context, let's, let's look at this, 

[00:03:28] um, the world 

[00:03:29] for women. How would you describe the world for women in 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? What kind of challenges do women face in this world? 

[00:03:43] Shireen: Yeah. I mean, having this conversation now in 2021 with COVID and so on, it's it, it's not a good thing.

[00:03:51] Um, so we are not in a good space. Uh, in fact, over the last few years, we've moved backwards, as far as women's advancement is concerned. So COVID has in a sense, put us back. Um, so the world economic forum in their most recent global agenda report indicated that it's now going to take us 136 years to achieve gender equality, um, you know, and covid has exacerbated that.

[00:04:16] And so the issues that we face, uh, in general, we face issues around discrimination of women. Um, based on the fact that we are women. All right. So we kind of assume that we need to have nurturing roles. You only good enough to be  mothers and cooking and so on. That has changed to some extent. So yes, some of us, um, are getting education.

[00:04:37] In fact, if you look at education and even in the south African context, we are more women than men in tertiary education, um, all achieving graduate, but then when you start looking at the workplace. Um, women get stuck at a certain level in the workplace. So women get stuck for example, at the professional level in the workplace, but they don't move up into the senior top management levels of the workplace.

[00:05:02] Um, so even when we say, you know, we have transformed boards and so on. The challenge is that boards are not driving a change narrative for women. So women continue to be affected by that. And the other thing that women are affected by is the gender pay gap. So on average women earn 30% less than men in same or similar roles.

[00:05:23] Um, so that also is a big issue. And we have to understand that in the context of, for example, in South Africa, where over 41% of households are headed by women only. So, which means that, you know, the majority of households are looked after by women. And, um, if women are not earning enough, if they don't have meaningful jobs, if they don't have decent work, then it means they are unable to look after their families.

[00:05:51] And that's also in the context where we know we have extremely high levels of poverty inequality. Um, and I mean employment for women as well. And in the south African context, we've seen that over the last two years with COVID as well. So those that are most affected by unemployment are young black women. They are the ones that are the least able to access employment opportunities.

[00:06:15] And they are also the ones that are kind of stuck in the system. So we heard this week about teenage pregnancies. Um, and then we stopped blaming young women for that, but essentially we are not interrogating the system that is a leading to that. You know, how old are the men or the boys that have been having sex with these girls?

[00:06:33] Um, you know, what is happening in the family and the community and the society and all of these issues, um, because we want to pretend that sex is taboo. And then when these things happen, then we want to blame girls. And from a COVID perspective, I mean, the other thing that we've also picked up is that, um, In relation to, for example, the teenage pregnancy issue, but also GBV.

[00:06:56] We had significant lockdowns, you know, and in many of those cases, women, younger women, girl children, boy children for that matter was stuck in homes with abusers were not able to go anyway. Were not able to do anything and as a result we saw that spike in gender based violence as well. And then the unpaid care up to three times more, um, Women's role in unpaid care has increased by three times more than what it usually is, and it already is a lot.

[00:07:25] And now we know with health issues or COVID issues, uh, in the beginning, men were primarily affect. The most. Um, and so women often have to bear that caring role. And then the working from home scenario where employers did not recognise or understand that, you know, working from home. So not, it's not just, I'm moving my laptop in my home.

[00:07:47] And then we all find I can sit there and talk to you for eight hours. It's understanding that when we say it's lockdown, it also means children have to stay home. Education has to be done at home. Um, we have to take care of the household. We have to feed people, et cetera, et cetera. So. Those are some of the things that are happening.

[00:08:07] And essentially we are in a space where globally, and in South Africa, we are moving backwards as far as women's rights are concerned. 

[00:08:13] Candice: So that sounds so bleak. I mean, I know it's bleak, you know, that nothing you told me, just shocked me at all, but that sounds bleak. How do you, how do you coach women to navigate that space? How do you kind of break that generational curse?

[00:08:31] That system, because it's been in place for, for, for, for centuries. Um, how do you help women in that space

[00:08:37] Shireen: So, I mean, it's not being totally doom and gloom because you know, you and I can have this conversation because to some extent we have some agency in, in being able to kind of control our lives, right. So it's not totally doom and gloom.

[00:08:54] It's just that we are moving backwards with the regressing based on the progress that we made from, you know, when we became a democratic country and in the early two thousands and so on. So women do have opportunities. For example, my coaching clients are generally women who have who are professionals, um, they have fairly good roles.

[00:09:16] Um, they have fairly good salaries. Bearing in mind the gender pay gap. Um, but the, the problem is always how they have to navigate a system that is set up to keep them out. Um, and you know, this is often the message that I have to tell I have to convey to them, which is, it's not just about you and firstly, it's not you having to fix yourself.

[00:09:39] It's the system having to fix itself, uh, to open up the door for you. You are doing a lot and we see that women go. The extra mile from the education I've seen. Uh, I've had recently a coaching client. She's got two master's degrees because she wants to move into a new area of work. So she decided she must do another master's degree, just so that but she has over 20 years of work experience.

[00:10:05] So, you know, we, we kind of try to think that we have to keep building ourselves doing better, having more degrees, having more experience in order to achieve opportunities, but we can do a lot of that, but the system is not opening up. So we have to work together to challenge the system. And which is why I say to everyone, I mean, any place where you are you have to build, like, one of the things we talk about is building voice and agency, because yes, you have degrees and so on, but if you just keep quiet and you just allow things to happen, then it means you are also letting the

[00:10:42] system do what it does. So we have to start building voice and agency to start challenging that wherever we are. So how in the workplace do we question policies around gender equality? How do we question the structures that are supposed to be supporting us commission for gender equality commission for employment equity, et cetera.

[00:11:00] We need to be holding those people accountable, but then also solidarity, right? How do we support each other? Um, so instead of, you know, standing with our employer in the workplace, because we know what's, you know, what's best for us, we should be supporting other women who are affected. So, you know, for me, it's really about, um, doing that and not being a bystander.

[00:11:27] Um, so, you know, nearly challenging the system in the ways that you possibly can and still be safe because, you know, that's also an issue. So that's what I try to do with my clients. It's, it's the ability to build their own resilience and agency, but also their ability to see the system for what it is, and to think of how they can intervene in that system.

[00:11:53] Candice: Wow. That sounds amazing. When, when, when can you start working on me?

[00:12:01] Shireen: Well I work with you and you work on yourself 

[00:12:02] Candice: um, some of your, some of your clients include, uh, UN agencies. Um, just, just tell me about some of the work that you've done in the NGO space for the UN for some of these clients. 

[00:12:16] Shireen: Yeah. So in my consulting practice, I do a lot of work around gender in different ways. Um, so for the, I've done a lot of work, for example, with UN women and the UN in South Africa.

[00:12:28] Um, so I don't know if you know about CEDAW. So the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women it's been around for many years, South Africa is a signatory. And, and every year we have to submit that report as a country on our progress. So, um, uh, last year in the beginning of the year, I did the CEDAW report for UN, for all the UN agencies in South Africa.

[00:12:50] Um, and that really requires assessing every aspect of women's lives and where we are at in relation to that convention. And then making, um, recommendations on how to deal with it is, you know, that's where I also got a picture of how we are moving backwards and how things are stuck. Um, so that's part some of the work that I do, I do work for international

[00:13:16] Um, governmental who are located in South Africa. So for example, example, the German development corporation GIZ. I do a lot of work on gender analysis for them on different programs. So they run a number of different programs with the south African government that looks at addressing poverty, addressing unemployment and so on.

[00:13:40] So those would look at, um, new energy, um, you know, new energy models. Accessing biodiversity or leveraging biodiversity as a form of, um, you know, using our what we have the resources we have to improve, um, employment and job creation and so on. Um, and so within those, I would often look at what is the situation of women?

[00:14:04] How are women being affected? How are women needing to be supported in that program? How are women missing from that? And then making recommendations again for them in terms of how they proceed with the program and make sure that they incorporate, you know, the understanding of like men and women's needs are in the system and then how to fix those or support those better.

[00:14:27] Um, I also last year did some research for UN women around covid, the impact of COVID on women. Um, and I've, I've supported UN women on doing, um, uh, workshops on, um, women, small businesses, um, in relation to procurement. I most recently I published an article actually in the, in the business day around this issue of preferential procurement, because our government, um, well, our President

[00:14:55] Uh, most recently at the generation equality forum, which is the global forum that looks at gender equality said that we will now South African women will now be prioritised for 40% of procurement. You know, although that's something he said last year with the womens day, uh, but that we have not made real progress on that.

[00:15:16] And you know, that we’re very quick at throwing out statistics and commitments and so on, and similarly to this year, but we're not moving forward. I kind of bring my, my, my experience as a woman I kind of bring my experience in the women's rights sector. My experience working with women and my technical expertise around gender, too, working with these different agencies, many of them who are here to support the south African government and to help South Africa advance its goals.

[00:15:47] Candice: Awesome. Tell me, tell me a bit about your work on boards and with the African leadership academy and the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation..

[00:15:57] Shireen: Okay. So, uh, for the African leadership academy and the Allan Gray Orbis foundation, I see myself as a youth mentor. Um, so my role in those with the African leadership academy that would include, um, they have a very different model of education, right? So they kind of a high school but a very different kind of high school.

[00:16:17] Um, their emphasis is on leadership, building leadership and entrepreneurial skills. So they have, uh, all the students, um, um, organise themselves into little businesses and they have to kind of sell products or services. And so then each, um, each business needs to have its own board. So I, for the last two years been sitting on some of those boards and the idea is really to support

[00:16:40] these young people to think about how to set up businesses, to think about their market, to think about operations, finance, but also their own role in kind of running a business. Um, so that's, that's what we do with the African leadership Academy and it's really supporting young people to, to, um, to be leaders at a young age and also to embrace entrepreneurship.

[00:17:03] And then similarly, with the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, I'm also a mentor. And there again I don't know if you know, the foundation is also very much about supporting and, um, use, um, and, and wanting to drive entrepreneurship as the answer to south Africa's problems. And so they support the students from primary school up to university after they have businesses and so on, um, with funding and other support mentoring and so on to kind of drive that goal.

[00:17:37] So I serve as a mentor, uh, on the foundation and I currently mentor, for example, a young man, who's now going to do his masters in, uh, artificial intelligence at Cambridge university. Who's wanting to develop his, um, emotional intelligence and relational skills. So that's the role I play as a youth mentor.

[00:17:59] I also have on my own project, which is called young women thrive. Um, we just started that project this year, which is, um,