EENHANA – Women are a common sight in shops and supermarkets operating cash registers or manning tills across the country, a development that prompts questions. Is it an issue of trust or market gimmick used by shop owners to attract customers?
Time Out’s Clemence Tashaya conducted a quick survey among shops and supermarkets in Eenhana and discovered the dominance of women on tills. Random interviews with shop owners fail to give convincing answers on why they deploy more women than men at cash registers. A few responses reveal most business owners trust women, mostly young beautiful ladies. “What I can say is that shop owners and managers believe women are trustworthy and cannot steal. When our boss is going out for a while, he picks a woman to take charge of tills. There has never been a day a man has taken charge,” says Johanna Nakwafila, a assistant at one of the Chinese shops here.
One woman working for ‘O Save’ supermarket gives a different opinion. She does not believe it is an issue of trust but rather a marketing strategy. “Most owners believe beautiful women attract customers and most people particularly men prefer to shop in such an environment. Some men leave short-lines to queue on longer ones just to get a good glimpse of a girl at the till,” says Maria Muvai
“A lot happens in these shops and most girls are employed dubiously. You should not be surprised that most of them are beautiful. Some are in relationship with managers. On the other hand, most of us did not go far with education and so anything they offer us is enough,” she says. However, a supervisor at Pick and Pay supermarket at Okongo, Benson Mwala, insists women are responsible, careful and trustworthy when doing their jobs. He adds that women rarely resign, that they are placed in places where there is need for transparency and consistency.
Priscilla Namundjebo, a nurse and psychologist says, “There is a message we are sending by doing this. I know the world still uses women for advertising and it is undisputable that this risk women to several abuses. It is time we stop using women to attract others and give them equal opportunity with men. What we are doing today shape the future and if we can’t stop now, this will live forever.”
A Women and Action for Development (WAD) representative in the Ohangwena region, Claudia Neshiko, describes the trend as exploitation and resistance to appreciate the need for equal opportunities. She says the saddest part is that the majority of people still consider women as weak and befitting small and less paying jobs. “The environment is not conducive. Most women do not think they can manage companies or hold senior positions hence apply for junior posts. Employers know women are easy to exploit by offering peanuts for salaries. While we say there are more women at tills machines, if you check the list of senior positions, many are men and this tells us where we are as a country,” says Neshiko. She calls for an end to this practice with equal job distribution, equal opportunities and women empowerment.