Mlambo-Ngcuka at launch of the Progressive Womenâs Movement, Bloemfontein
6 August 2006
The full emancipation of women is a pre-condition for a successful democracy
in South Africa and the world.
We are celebrating women who contributed in the liberation of our country,
women who engaged in fighting the triple oppression as experienced by most
women in South Africa: that of class, race and gender.
We salute women such as:
Charlotte Maxeke
Lilian Ngoyi
Helen Joseph
Sophie du Bruyn
Bertha Gxowa
Amina Cachalia
Albertina Sisulu
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and
many more
Amongst women who held the light high in the darkest days we draw from women
who held their own intellectually, as revolutionaries, activists and
liberators. The women we celebrate left a legacy as fighters against pass laws,
they opened doors for women in organisations that were closed to women
including the African National Congress, which only extended membership to
women in the 1940s. They were outstanding freedom fighters!
They focused on the emancipation of women and a better life for the whole
society.
Some of the outstanding accolades of our heroines include:
* In 1905 Charlotte Maxeke graduated with a BSc degree in the United States
of America and she came back to advance the course for her people in politics
and education. She and her husband founded the Wilberforce Institute, which
became a leading teacher training college in the then Transvaal.
* Lillian Ngoyi, in addition to being a leader of womenâs struggles, and a
founder of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), she was also at the
forefront of the womenâs march as well as being a prominent trade unionist.
* Helen Joseph, a founder member of the Congress of Democrats, a trade
unionist, she was one of the leaders who was instrumental in the compilation of
the clauses in the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People. She was also
pivotal in the formation of FEDSAW and in the preparations for the march to the
Union Buildings. She wrote three books: If this be treason; Tomorrowâs Sun; and
her biography, Side by Side.
The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was launched in 1954 with the
following key objectives:
âTo bring women of South Africa together, to secure equality of opportunity
for women regardless of race, colour or creed, to remove social, legal and
disabilities constraints, to work for the protection of the women and children
of our landâ
These women went on to launch the Womenâs Charter, which called for the
following:
* The âEnfranchisement of men and women of all races, equality of
opportunities in employment, equal pay for equal work, equal rights in relation
to property, marriage and children, and removal of all laws, and customs that
denied women such equality.
The charter further demanded paid maternity leave, child care for working
mothers and free and compulsory education for all South African children.
By and large these demands have been adopted by the democratic government in
its legislation and in our Constitution, though there are challenges of
implementation. It was a modest set of demands though radical for that time but
very thin on economic transformation. It was the Freedom Charter, which
followed in 1955, that had more economic demands. It is clear today that
without economic equality some of the hard-won gains, social and political
rights, get eroded by the patriarchal and racial economic system.
Though outlawed, patriarchy and racism still rear their ugly heads in our
country. The classical definition of patriarchy is âa social system in which
men have all the powerâ. In South African men do not quite have all the power
yet patriarchy is still exists and it bites! It is particularly so as we battle
against an economic system with a racial and sexist foundation. Patriarchy is
very vicious on the poorest woman with limited capacity to defend herself, at
home and in her community.
Full emancipation of women, like the struggle against passes and apartheid,
needs us to take actions that are as significant as that of marching to the
Union Buildings and the sustained struggles that were fought by all those women
who attained our freedom. We have to travel the complete journey and to achieve
the total goals of liberation.
Samora Machel captured the importance of womenâs status in revolution and
the desirable outcomes of our liberation in the following words:
âThe liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for revolution, the
guarantee of its continuity and a pre-condition for its victory.â Economic
liberation is still a missing piece.
Women leaders in politics, economy, professions, government,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs) and
general civil society must take this struggle forward, and men must not be
isolated and excluded from this critical national task. In its best intention,
broad based economic empowerment and women empowerment is meant to induce
commercial profitability with the positive impact of capital at a broader
community level, an ambitious task indeed.
The insistence of inclusion of womenâs groups in transactions is a mechanism
to institutionalise wealth sharing, which has been trivialised and not
appreciated by transactors for the value it brings. Women have in most cases
been relegated to 5 percent shareholders in transactions, even when they have a
much bigger beneficiary base or ability to raise capital. Sharing wealth with
good-cause-institutions has also been ignored as the wisdom of investing in
social and charitable causes is not seen as strategic.
Impact of womenâs economic empowerment
Severe skills inadequacy and women economic disempowerment traps women in
poverty, while early childbearing often means an end to a young womanâs
education, and having a large family severely limits her job choices, work
productivity, and mobility.
In a United Nations (UN) report the following arguments are made on women
and economic development drawn from cross-country studies. It reveals that
there are large social returns to investing in womenâs education and health.
Improved education for women results in the reduced childbearing and mortality
rates. Women who are healthier and more educated will be more productive
members of the society.
Furthermore, improving the health and education of grassroots women, as
opposed to men, produces long-term benefits for society by improving the health
and productivity of their children. By having better educated and healthier
women, we arrest hereditary poverty en masse. Access to health and education
makes a high impact if the masses have access to quality healthcare and
education.
The UN argues that poorly developed womenâs human capital will hurt the
economy and maintain gender inequalities in the economic arena, by not
equipping women to reap the benefits of economic opportunities. It goes to
reason that we sacrifice economic development. In our context it means the
growth we aspire for will not be shared. Women are the most reliable indicators
to use in gauging positive economic trends.
Gender, poverty and trade
A publication of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) entitled
âTrade, Gender and Povertyâ, argues that:
âThe success of trade policies needed to be evaluated in terms of whether
they promoted the desired social outcomes, such as equity, social inclusion,
freedom from poverty, development of human capabilities, realisation of
internationally accepted human rights and democratic forms of governance in an
environmentally sustainable manner. The paper also argues, amongst other things
that trade liberalisation and export-oriented policies in developing countries
increase womenâs share of paid employment without a corresponding decrease in
their household and care responsibilities.â To offset these trends men need to
take greater responsibility both as parents and partners.
The paper concluded that to generate sustainable enhancements in human
development, gender-based inequalities must be considered as an integral part
of the social content of trade policies at both national and global levels,
from the very inception of policy formulation.
That would require a deeper and contextualised understanding of the
interactions between gender inequalities and poverty, on the one hand, and
trade policies and performance, on the other. These are the challenges that
those of us who are in policy-making have to rise up to.
Country-specific studies on the way in which gender relations and
inequalities affect trade performance would be equally necessary.
Another study argued that a growing body of literature shows that a
countryâs economic productivity is reduced when access to productive resources
is slanted towards men. With the observed trend in South Africa, we can only
cheat men and women of our country of the benefits of growth that help many
more and secure a better life for generations ahead.
Gender Make up of South African Women
Women in the South African Economy
(I) Education by gender: Women in South Africa
No schooling: 1996 - 25.35%; 2001- 11.93%
Some primary: 1996 - 40.65%; 2001-51.65%
Complete primary: 1996 - 7.9%; 2001- 8.11%
Some Secondary: 1996 - 23.36%; 2001- 24.77%
Standard 10: 1996 - 2.57%; 2001- 3.25%
Higher: 1996 - 0.1%; 2001- 0.28%
(II) Women unemployment â September 2005
African: 37.1%
Coloured: 24.6%
Indian: 18.6%
Whites: 6.9%
Average women employment is 31.7%
(III) Earnings by Women
Unskilled women only: 87% of male counterparts
Semi Skilled: 106.4 %
Skilled: 82.8%
Highly Skilled: 73.8%
Managers: 80.3%
Furthermore, disabled persons make up 5 percent of the South African
population. Clearly, disabled women have an additional burden.
The decrease in representivity of women executive managers from 19, 8
percent in 2005 to 16, 8 percent in 2006 is a worrying factor.
Particularly, because the numbers indicate that there has been a significant
increase in the number of executive manager positions (from 5 558 in 2005 to 7
890 in 2006). This implies that there were opportunities to hire female
candidates, but the appointments shifted the pendulum away from the desired
goals of gender equity.
Even the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which generally do well on the
improvement of representivity, made more appointments of male executive
managers than female. The SOEs increased their executive management positions
from 99 in 2005 to 149 in 2006. From the 50 new appointments only 10 were
women.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Securities Exchange (JSE) companies
moved from 1 102 female executive managers in 2005 to 1 323 female executive
managers in 2006. However, more men were in executive management positions than
women in that period. This indicates that there is still a culture of
prioritising men for leadership positions and that unless criteria and
selection processes are monitored it will be difficult to maintain the momentum
of improvement. While women make up 52 percent of the adult population in South
Africa, and only 41 percent of the working South African population, they
constitute only 16, 8 percent of all executive managers and only 11, 5 percent
of all directors in the country, and only 6, 4 percent of Chief Executive
Officers (CEOs) and chairs of boards are women.
All of this does not take away our advances in women development and
support, but rings alarm bells on the challenges we still have.
What is to be done? What will our legacy be?
How do we deal with the pyramid and the women masses at the bottom of that
pyramid? How can we change the pyramid into a diamond shape? How can we place
women at a much better position in society?
Organisation
The women who made the contribution to our struggle that has given us so
much could never have done it without devotion to organising and organisation,
in particular at grassroots level. To get twenty thousand women marching to
present over a hundred thousand petitions, without present day connectivity,
means this was hard-earned organising capacity, which we have lost.
Education
We have to organise around issues that matter to the majority of women. Only
5 years ago 11 percent of women had no education, today 40,65 percent have some
primary education. Of those who are educated less than one percent make it
beyond high school, while many still need enhancing of capacity to be
productive at the workplace and also we have the challenge of unemployed
graduates.
We still have to fight to be CEOs, to be in boards and executive management.
We have to use these positions to change things in the private, public and
social sectors once we are appointed and not maintain the status quo. Education
for women therefore is a must. It is needed to change the position of women
dramatically.
The role and investment that has to be made in education must mean we
decrease teenage pregnancy and growing levels of dependency on the State.
Quality of education and functioning of the public schools, adult basic
education and training should be prioritised as women issues.
Leadership with Purpose
The discussions we will be having here must lead us to commit to a united
purpose. All of us can and must aim to make a difference. I am talking about
leadership at all levels not just to women in prominent positions. None of us
started, by being national leaders. We were nurtured and tolerated by many
other people our peers, and older women. We, therefore, must create room for
younger women and in all walks of life to allow them to lead and
contribute.
Let us mentor those who are younger, above all, letâs forget about fighting
for positions and focus on the much-needed service.
Creating safety nets
Women and children in difficult situations need urgent intervention!
Government has done and is doing a lot to provide safety nets and poverty
alleviation programmes. Pensions, child grants, food parcels, RDP
(Reconstruction and Development Programme) houses and free basic services, but
government cannot do it alone. Interventions to address the health status of
women and to reverse the HIV/AIDS impact and spread in our society need
everybody. Women who are caregivers need our support and sustained commitment
to make the work of care-givers sustainable. Dependency on the public sectors
to fund NGOs is unrealistic. The private sector can and should spend Corporate
Social Investment (CSI) money better. We see year after year caregivers who do
so much with so little and always struggle for funding.
We also see women in private sectors and in government not using their
influence and budgets to buy from producers who desperately need that in order
to survive, but instead buying corporate gifts made in China instead of from
women in Soweto, Sekhukhune, Magadini etc.
When we donât go the extra mile, we perpetuate the exclusion of women and
continue to take bread from the mouths of the poor.
Economic mainstreaming of women
Having made great strides in politics, human rights, and enabling
legislation our women remain outside the mainstream economy. If we do not
together make an entry into the economic battleground, women will remain poor
despite great progress made by our government. We must shift the economic
paradigm that is anti-womenâs emancipation.
This we have to do not only for women. We have to do it because everything
we struggled for and all the freedoms, even of those who control the economy,
are equally at risk. There will never be shared growth or meaningful growth if
we do not bring women and young people into the mainstream economy in large
numbers and not just a handful. The changing of an economic paradigm and
education has to be our legacy that will resonate 50 years from now at the very
least.
That will need to go hand in hand with values that do not only define
success as wealth. We must highlight all kinds of successes and challenges that
define poor people as a burden to the private sector and a responsibility of
government. The connection that sees the creation of value for only a few,
without women as a significant group cannot be left unchallenged. Private
enterprise and capital must prove its value to greater humanity before it is
too late for all of us. Without a better life for women there is no brighter
tomorrow for all South Africans, without a better life for women in Africa,
there is no brighter life for Africa.
I thank you
Issued by: The Presidency
6 August 2006
