Programme Director; Ms Zanele Hlatshwayo;
Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities; Ms Lulu Xingwana;
Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Mr Gugile Nkwinti;
Deputy Ministers and Members of Parliament here present;
Mayors and Councillors here present;
Leaders of the Progressive Women’s Movement and other leaders of the women of our country;
Comrades and friends;
I would like to congratulate the Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities for organising this historical national conference under the theme: “Working together for equal opportunities and progress for all women”.
This conference marks an important milestone which is the 16th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA). As one of the most important legacies of the previous century’s advocacy for women’s rights and empowerment, the Beijing Conference of 1995 served to strengthen the agenda for women’s empowerment in all spheres of life. Comrades and friends, we can have a thousand more Beijing’s and other conferences but none of them will matter if we do not take stock of where our journey for empowerment and equality is today. As women leaders, whether it is in business, politics, trade unions or Non-governmental Organisations we need to review our achievements and to assess the many challenges that still face women.
This assessment of our struggles for a society free of oppression and for full equality must be taken into account, the day-to-day challenges facing in particular poor and still marginalised women. This kind of review must lay the basis for renewed activism to remove any forces impeding women’s attainment of fundamental human rights and economic and social emancipation.
It is our task as women to find solutions for the challenges that African women continue to face.
Comrades and friends - forgive me but today I feel comfortable to use those terms - though women account for one half of the world's population, we are still not treated as equal and many are indeed still actively oppressed. Through the struggles of women's rights movements and feminist awareness over the last 100 years, this inequality has been reduced but by no means eliminated.
It is just more than 100 years since, on 8 March 1909, American women's societies held a demonstration in Chicago to demand equal treatment. The movement help to unify women's organisations around a common cause and marked a significant advance in worldwide feminist consciousness and activism. At the 1910 International Women's Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark, women continued this momentum by voicing demands for "equal pay for equal work," women's protection, and other issues. A resolution was passed at the conference to make 8 March "International Women's Day," in memory of the Chicago demonstration.
Comrades and friends, more than 100 years after the first official International Women’s Day, we have made great strides globally and of course, here in South Africa but for many women here and in other parts of the world the fruits of such struggles have not been realised. Our struggles are not over when women bear the brunt of epidemics like HIV and AIDS, are invariably the poorest in all societies, face sexual violence and are still marginalised in the politics and business. Also, there are indications of concerted efforts to erode and challenge the rights that we have won. I became aware of this when at three different United Nations conferences this year, even the basic concept of gender equality was challenged by some countries, including the Holy See, and indeed, many African countries.
As women leaders and activists we need to be vigilant and also conscious. This consciousness must ensure that we build and strengthen women’s movements and organisations. Without a strong women’s movement, then, there is a very real chance that many of the gains we made over the last decades may be diluted and even undermined. My key message here today, is that we should discuss ways to defend our gains and enhance our struggles through renewed activism and through strengthening our organisations. Indeed, consciousness is measured through the numbers and quality of individuals and organisations engaged in struggle for a particular cause. The cause of women empowerment and equality deserves such conscious action.
Comrades and friends, central to the struggle for full equality of women is the struggle against poverty and inequality. These struggles require a critical mass of progressive, development-oriented women within the decision making processes of government, business and political institutions that determine the course and quality of life.
As women leaders in politics, government, business and in the social organisations, we must work together to encourage the enrolment of girl-child in schools, government departments, business and all other kinds of institutions and services. A great part of the responsibility of the struggle for the emancipation of women falls upon us in positions of power.
Presently, various institutions, both private and public are grappling with the challenge of how to eradicate poverty. The challenge is that their efforts are minimal in scale and impact. Poverty, with its associated challenges of underdevelopment, illiteracy and HIV and AIDS remains one of the toughest obstacles standing in the way of women empowerment.
Our endeavour to secure the rights of all women in our country and open the doors for them to education, work and liberate themselves in every respect are therefore one of the essentials in our thinking and in our determination to eradicate poverty.
Comrades and friends;
As women leaders I believe that we all have a collective responsibility to fight to eradicate poverty so as to translate our slogans and our tenets into a tangible living reality for women in our country and throughout the continent. One way in which we do this is through the provision of social grants to eligible women and children. To date, we provide social assistance to over 15 million vulnerable South Africans.
The expansion of education and the provision of equal opportunities for women is another move in that direction. More important than anything is the need to liberate the women of our country through the creation of job opportunities and participation in the mainstream economy. The interventions and programmes led by our government are determined to liberate women of our country. But we need to scale up and improve the impact of these programmes on the lives of women.
To address this challenge, we need to adopt multi-pronged measures to mainstream gender perspectives into the development process, including improving the capacity of the national machinery for incorporating women’s perspectives into the development process, improving access to education and training opportunities.
Gender mainstreaming continues to be a challenge, not only for us here in South Africa, but in most of the countries in the African continent and throughout the world. The challenges include the feminisation of poverty, and the concentration of the majority of women in the informal sector and low-paying jobs.
This conference is very significant because it draws our attention to the real work that needs to be done if we are serious about steps that we take to ensure that we emancipate women from the shackles of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment. It draws our attention to the real work that we need to do as a collective if we are serious about steps that we need to take to ensure that the spectre of discrimination, patriarchal domination and hurdles to business opportunities are eradicated. This will benefit our nation.
Comrades and friends;
I hope that this conference will play its role in developing the principal ideas which will have their bearing not only on the work of our government but also on the whole progress of our continent.
Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi! Wathintha bafazi!
I thank you
Source: Department of Social Development
