Women’s place is among the winners

When Dawn Nathan-Jones walked onto the stage on Sunday night to receive her Business Icon Award at the 2026 Investec Jewish Achiever Awards, my eyes welled up with tears. No, she isn’t a close friend, but she is someone I admire for her extraordinary accomplishments and her belief in and work towards women flying high in what is still, at its core, “a man’s world”. 

It was a historic moment as the first female business icon in the history of the Jewish Achiever Awards was honoured. And it was this former chief executive of Europcar, a social entrepreneur, and leader, who had never won a Jewish Achiever business leader award before. She had been nominated, often as the only woman, but never won. 

Her own experience made Dawn realise how important it is for women to go through the Jewish Achiever nomination and interview process. She put her then company’s support behind creating what is now the Europcar Women in Leadership Award. She recognised that it was an empowering experience that brought out the competitive spirit in women and built their confidence, whether they won or not. 

Dawn is a visionary and an exemplary business leader. And the point was clear: women were not really winning business leader of the year at the Jewish Achiever Awards. 

Many incredible women have since won the Women in Leadership Award, but few have won the business leadership, entrepreneurship, or other non-gender specific but clearly male-dominated business awards. Hopefully the tide has turned. 

However, Dawn would be the first person to tell you she is not the only woman of her calibre and should not have been one of only few winning such awards. 

Perhaps women choose not to accept their nominations, as is their right, perhaps because they are already spreading their time and energy thin across their careers and other responsibilities. 

“I don’t think it’s a reflection of lack of talent or ability,” said Dawn. “I think historically women have had fewer opportunities. Maybe they’ve been less visible, and sometimes less confident in putting themselves forward.” 

Dawn believes that women make exceptional leaders, naturally bringing a different perspective to the table. “We have a lot of strengths that our male counterpart don’t have. We have a lot of empathy and can be far more collaborative, although I don’t believe there is one style of female leadership. What matters is their competence, courage, integrity, and the ability to bring people along with them.” 

I know this may not be popular thinking and perhaps I may even be called sexist for saying it, but I live in this world. My experience of what my “sisters” live through in South Africa makes it clear that, while we may have the most progressive Constitution in the world in terms of gender equality, everyday realities reflect a society where men still hold disproportionate power. 

In the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE’s) top 40 companies, only three of the chief executives are women, with 27% of the executive roles taken up by women, and six of the 40 board chairs female. In the JSE’s top 200, only 8% of chief executives are women. There is no doubt this is an improvement on 10 and 20 years ago, but there is still a clear disparity. 

I hope that this year’s awards herald change. In addition to Dawn, three other women were recognised, Ariella Kuper, who won the Women in Leadership Award, Joan Block for Community Service, and Kim Berman, in the Art, Sport, Science, and Culture category. 

And while the Jewish Achiever Awards are always based in Johannesburg, it is very much about the national Jewish community. It is as wonderful that this year there were four winners from Cape Town: Dawn; Paul and Saul Berman, who won the Entrepreneur Award; and Kuper. We also had a winner from KwaZulu-Natal, our Rising Star, running champ Adam Lipschitz. 

For anyone who was at the awards ceremony, or perhaps watched it online, it was truly uplifting and an evening that evoked such intense pride in who we are and the calibre of people we have in our community. More than 800 people came to celebrate the winners. But what is so important to note is that while there were only 10 people recognised at the event, the number of phenomenal people who were nominated and didn’t win was incredible. Each one of them has a unique and incredible story of achievement. 

Behind the scenes are the judges, each of whom in their own right is someone to be proud of. They give a substantial amount of time to ensuring they go through everything they can to decide the best winners of their category. It is a tough ask, but they do it with such aplomb and willingness. As for the sponsors of the awards, there aren’t enough words of thanks. 

Throughout this year, we have dealt with so much unpleasantness towards Jews, both in South Africa, and abroad. It is such a wonderful experience to be able to set that all aside for a night to celebrate all that we are and all we have achieved. 

It was also exciting to be able to celebrate Jews from around the world in our theme, décor, and delicious food. There is something internationally bonding in doing this, considering how our Jewish world has grown smaller thanks to rising antisemitism. 

Being able to honour Jews from all the different parts of the world leaves a real sense of warmth. Not to mention the different flavours and cuisines that warmed our insides. 

Kol hakavod to everyone concerned! 

Shabbat Shalom! 

Peta Krost 

Editor