His Excellency, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe
Honourable Minister in the Presidency, Mr Collins Chabane
Director-General in the Presidency Dr Lubisi
Senior management in the Presidency
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
I would like to first express my sincere appreciation to the organisers of this event. The Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities is extremely excited that the Presidency is taking the lead in the efforts to ensure that gender is mainstreamed in operations of government departments.
Achieving gender equality entails that we need to achieve social change. Government departments have a two-fold obligation. Firstly, we need to change the workplace in the public sector to suit the needs for women and people with disabilities that we have to recruit and retain as employees. Secondly, departments need to change the lives of women through the programmes they implement in their respective sector or in line their departmental mandate.
In this process, we have to deal with challenges of resistance to this social change may either be overt or covert and those involved maybe aware or not aware of the implications of their actions.
It is overt resistance - when we fail to increase representation of women at the workplace as a means to achieve equality. In the public service, we are proud to say that we are narrowing the gap and increasing the number of women in SMS positions. At the lower levels of the public service there are more women than men. We must make space for career progression. It is overt resistance when we refuse opportunities for promotion or advancement of women into decision making positions.
Covert resistance is when the organisational culture of the department does not change with the changing profile of the public service. Such examples include lack of child care facilities at the workplace; times of meetings and length of meetings; lack of flexible working hours; limitations of family responsibility leave; etc. There are also issues of attitudes, practices and habits that perpetuate patriarchal thinking and sexist stereotypes. People may be aware or not aware that what they regard as traditional way of doing things in an organisation is actually sustaining organisational culture that is hostile to women and people with disabilities.
Engagements like this are therefore important in building awareness about the need for organisational culture that encourage participation of women and people with disabilities. I am therefore extremely happy to see the Presidency take leadership in this regard and act as a beacon to other departments to do the same.
The 8-Principle Action plan for Heads of Department was developed in response to this deliverable and it clearly outlines what each of the public service managers need to do to empower women in their respective departments.
The action plan attempts to locate Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality at the very centre of transformation within the department. It addresses the lack of accountability and compliance in terms of Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality. The intention is that these actions become infused within the Performance Agreements of Head of Departments (HODs) and Director- Generals (DGs).
Enabling environment; equality of opportunities; mainstreaming of gender equality and creating a barrier free workplace are all requirements for a transformed public service. The call is for the 50/50 gender equality in all decision making positions. It is not only about numbers of women but it is a platform from which women can influence meaningful change, and make a difference to the lives of all women.
Given that compliance with the target of 50/50 gender equality is moving at a slower pace that what we want, the Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities is currently developing a Gender Equality Bill. It is envisaged that the Bill will look into issues such as compliance, penalty measures and accountability mechanisms for gender equality in both public and private sector.
We need to advocate for equal representation and empowerment of women to enable them to play a positive and dynamic role in bringing about social justice in South Africa and contribute to improving the lives of the most disadvantaged in our society - the majority of these happen to be women.
We need to continue building capacity of women to participate fully through leadership and gender sensitive training. We also need to ensure that support structures are provided for women. Let us implement policies, strategies and programmes aimed at changing discriminatory attitudes, patriarchal culture, norms and practices that remain prevalent in many organisational structures and procedures.
Let us acknowledge the critical contribution that women have made in the history of our country and support efforts to encourage their full participation in social, economic and political spheres of life. At the workplace, let us create a conducive environment for women to rise up to managerial and leadership positions.
I wish you very fruitful deliberations.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities
