Update: Jose Dos Santos has now apologized for his comments, writing in an emailed statement: “I regret my choice of words, which I realize were offensive. I mentioned that in my experience, I have seen instances where women do not support each other to get to the top. This has purely been my observation.”
Original Story: Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos touched upon the subject of female empowerment in the workplace during an interview, specifically focusing upon their appearance and how it impacts upon male workers, while also referring to a “bitch switch” that makes women more aggressive than men.
Speaking to CliffCentral (via MyBroadband), Dos Santos spoke of how the South African Telecommunications company has employed “good-looking women, clever women and smart women,” and how that has “created a different environment” in the company. He added: “I think we have to empower the female individuals. We no longer live in a world where the women stay at home… today a lot of women are independent. They bring up their kids by themselves, they’re financially stable, but somehow we’ve failed as a nation to empower them. There’s not too many women in leadership roles. “
While his prioritization of the appearance of female workers in that particular statement was questionable, he spoke of how the Cell C’s staff complement sits at over 60% female, with many women filling out the senior executive and managerial roles in the company. He then went on to discuss how he’d like to see a woman become the CEO of Cell C in the future, saying: “I’m hoping that one day when I step down from Cell C, a woman will be the CEO of the company. They have a different way of managing, they have a different way of engaging in meetings, it creates a different dynamic.”
A Cell C commercial debuted last year.
But this is when things took an unfortunate turn, as Dos Santos referred to women as having a “bitch switch” that made them inherently aggressive. He continued: “If I can use the term on your radio station, you know women do have a bitch switch, and boy if you see two women fighting it is worse than two men having an argument.”
He also spoke about the company’s sponsorship of the Miss South Africa pageant, which sees the finalists being offered a one-year internship at the company. When discussing how this impacted upon the company, Dos Santos continued: “It brought a whole different atmosphere. Can you imagine you got 12 gorgeous women and you say four or five of them walk into your company – do you know what it does to the atmosphere in that company? The men dress better, they shave every morning.”
Considering Dos Santos’ progressive views in regards to the greater representation of women in the workplace, it’s disappointing that he would then go on to spout remarks that suggest he values the appearance of his female employees over their work ethic, not to mention that him referring to them as having a “bitch switch” is highly sexist and troubling considering his position as CEO of the company.
