Mlambo-Ngcuka at launch of the Progressive Women's 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: the class, race and gender.
We salute women such as:
Charlotte Maxeke
Lilian Ngoyi
Helen Joseph
Sophie du Bryun
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 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 outstanding accolades of our heroines:
* 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 women's struggles, a
founder of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), she was also at the
forefront of the Women's 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; Tomorrow's Sun; and
her biography Side by Side.
The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was launched in 1954 with the
following key objectives: "To 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 land"
These women went on to launch the Women's Charter, which called for the
following:
* The "Enfranchisement 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 "a social system in which
men have all the power". In South African men do not quite have all the power
yet patriarchy is still exists and it bite! 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, we are 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 women's status in revolution and
the desirable outcomes of our liberation in the following words:
"The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for revolution, the
guarantee of its continuity and a pre-condition for its victory". Economic
liberation is still a missing piece.
Women leaders in politics, economy, profession, 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 a positive impact of capital at a broader community level,
an ambitious task indeed.
The insistence of inclusion of women's 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 five 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 cause is not seen as strategic.
Impact of women's economic empowerment
Severe skills inadequacy and women economic disempowerment traps women in
poverty, while early childbearing often means an end to a young woman's
education, and having a large family severely limits her job choices, work
productivity, and mobility.
In a United Nations report the following arguments are made on women and
economic development drawn from cross-country studies; they reveal that there
are large social returns to investing in women's education and health. Improved
education for women results in the reduced child bearing 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 grass-roots women as
against 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 mass. Access to health and education makes a
high impact if the masses have access to quality healthcare and education.
The United Nations argues: poorly developed women's 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
"Trade, Gender and Poverty", argues that:
"The 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, among other things,
which trade liberalisation and export-oriented policies in developing countries
increase women's share of paid employment without a corresponding decrease in
their household and care responsibilities". 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 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
country's 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
1. Education by gender:
* Women in South Africa 1996 2001
* No schooling 25.35% 11.93%
* Some primary 40.65% 51.65%
* Complete Primary 7.9% 8.11%
* Some Secondary 23.36% 24.77%
* Standard 10 2.57% 3.25%
* Higher 0.1% 0.28%
2. Women unemployment - September 2005
* African â 37,1%
* Coloured â 24,6%
* Indian â 18,6%
* Whites â 6,9%
* Average women employment is 31,7%
3. Earnings by women
* Unskilled women only - 87% of male counterparts
* Semi skilled â 106,4 %
* Skilled â 82,8%
* Highly Skilled â 73,8%
* Managers â 80,3%
Further more, disabled persons make up five percent of the South African
population. Clearly, disabled women have an additional burden. The decrease in
representivity of executive managers from 19,8% in 2005 to 16,8% 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) companies moved from 1 102 female
executive managers in 2005 to 1 323 female executive managers in 2006, however,
more men 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% of the adult population in South Africa, and only 41% of the working South
African population, they constitute only 16,8% of all executive managers and
only 11,5% of all directors in the country, and only 6,4% Chief Executive
Officers and Chairs of boards are women.
All of this does not take away our advances in women development and support
but it is to ring 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 20 000 women marching to present over
100 000 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
five years ago 11% of women had no education, today 40,65% have some primary
education. Of those who are educated less than one percent make it beyond high
school 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 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 school's, Adult Basic
Education and Training (ABET) 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, let us 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, Reconstruction
Development Programme (RDP) 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 care givers 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 care givers 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 order to
survive, instead buying corporate gifts made in China instead of women in
Soweto, Sekhukhune, Magadini etc.
When we do not 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 battle ground, women will remain poor
despite great progress made by our government. We must shift the economic
paradigm that is anti-women's 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 or 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 not 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
Source: SAPA
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