Keynote address by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, MP, on the occasion of the Ilitha Labantu Interactive Young Women’s Dialogue, Cape Sun Hotel Cape Town
Empowering the next generation: paving the way for young women in decision-making at all levels – a new strategy
The theme that I have been asked to speak on “Empowering the next generation: paving the way for young women in decision-making at all levels – a new strategy” – is of great importance to me professionally and personally. A huge focus for me as an activist and leader is to contribute to building a more equitable and sustainable world and country. Gender equality at every level must feature in that world.
Overwhelming evidence exists and shows that equality for women is progress for all! And that no solutions to our world’s and, indeed, our country’s most pressing challenges – to end poverty, reduce inequality, bring sustainable peace and address climate change – can be achieved without the equal and full participation of women.
Promoting gender equality and women’s active political, economic, and social participation is thus central to the agenda of the ANC led government.
Programme Director
We stand at a historic juncture. The full implementation of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), combined with the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, has the potential to change the lives of women and girls forever.
Therefore, Goal 5 on gender equality and empowered women and girls has to be fully implemented by all of us. In it are some of the key elements for dismantling the pillars of patriarchy, if we galvanize unprecedented action beyond our inner core of our feminist family. We cannot continue to preach to the converted and speak to ourselves. Goal 5 is for all to contend with.
In brief Goal 5 if implemented will target to:
- End all forms of discrimination.
- Eliminate all forms of violence in public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual exploitation.
- Eliminate all harmful practices (child marriage, female genital mutilation).
- Recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work.
- Ensure women’s effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership.
- Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.
- Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources.
- Enhance the use of enabling technologies, in particular ICTs.
- Adopt and strengthen policies and legislation.
That is what we have to do, together with ensuring all the other 16 goals deliver for women and girls in accordance with the vision of the SDGs.
All sectors of society are important stakeholders in achieving the success of Goal 5 and for achieving positive outcomes for women from implementing all SDGs.
Programme Director
At the start I wish to posit that it is a basic human right for women to enjoy full legal equality and equality of opportunity, and for a girl born today, in our country, to have the same life prospects as any boy.
All our societies are the poorer if they fail to tap the full potential of half their population, and do not remove the obstacles which so often prevent women from rising to leadership positions in political systems and elsewhere.
Indeed it has been shown that having a critical mass of women in leadership and decision-making positions is positive for human development in all countries – whether developed or developing, and whether countries are living in peace, recovering from conflict, or in the process of a reconstruction and development, as we are.
Gender Equality – a human right
Achieving gender equality has been a top priority for the ANC led government.
It is enshrined as a fundamental Human Right in the Constitution, and promotes and encourages respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
A number of International instruments, conventions, and decisions reinforce that commitment, including:
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979), which stresses the equality of men and women across human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil, or any other field. On political and public life, it notes that States Parties should take measures to ensure that women, on equal terms with men, have the right to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted by governments at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, also affirms gender equality as a human right and commits governments to enhancing women’s rights.
Programme Director
As a country, we have achieved many meaningful and tangible milestones in terms of improving the lives of women and girls in our country. We must take pride in our achievements and accelerate our programmes to achieve a better quality of life for all women and girls.
Thus, promoting gender equality runs across the mandates of all sectors as a whole. In South Africa we pursue gender equality across our work on poverty reduction, democratic governance, environmental sustainability, crisis prevention and recovery, and combating the spread of HIV.
As South African women, we have posited that advancing gender equality as not only an end in itself, but also as catalytic in development. The investments made in women and girls are great multipliers of development progress.
Failing to make those investments, and failing to boost the status of women and girls, thwarts the potential not only of individuals, but also of families, communities, and nations.
As well, fair representation and participation of women in governance is one of the preconditions for achieving genuine democracy. There can be no real democracy if half the population is excluded from participation and power. Athenian democracy, where only some men had voice, will not do in the 21st century.
So where are we today?
The global average of women holding parliamentary seats remains under twenty per cent, which is well below the thirty per cent target set in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and in the MDGs. At the current rate of progress, that target will not be reached globally before 2025, and long beyond that in many countries. That is too long for women and the world to wait.
There are currently only 41 women heads of parliament, myself included. Only sixteen per cent of ministers are women, and most often they are allocated portfolios like those for social welfare, women, and children.
The proportions of women in national legislatures in the world’s regions range from roughly 22 per cent in the Americas and Europe (with the 42 per cent in Nordic countries pushing the average figures up) to 20.2 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, 17.9 per cent in Asia, 14.9 per cent in the Pacific, and 10.7 per cent in the Arab States. Five countries – all in the Gulf and the Pacific – have no women parliamentarians at all.
Women as Decision-Makers
When women are “out of sight, out of mind”, meeting their needs does not get prioritised. Conversely, when there is a critical mass of women decision-makers the issues which previously went unaddressed can become priorities.
South Africa has the sixth highest number of women parliamentarians in the world – currently at nearly 50 per cent. It is no surprise therefore that our parliament has drafted far-reaching gender equality laws, including a progressive constitution that provides the basis from which to end patriarchy.
We however, need to see more young women entering politics, so as to inject the necessary vibrancy and the issues pertinent to their needs onto the political and policy agendas. So, my message to you is to get involved in politics!
It is not only at the national level that women’s leadership is driving change of benefit to women. This is also happening at the local level. In rural municipalities, for example, women-led councils approved sixty per cent more drinking water projects than did those led by men.
This matters hugely for women and girls, who bear the brunt of water collection, often on foot over long distances. We need to see much more young women become involved in the bread and butter issue and processes at local government level.
It is to be hoped that as many more women, especially young women, take their rightful place in the ranks of decision-makers, more such issues will come to the top of political, legislative and budgetary priorities.
Indeed a number of areas of great risk for women need far more attention; for example:
- The rate of decline in maternal mortality globally is well below what is needed to achieve the MDG Five target of a 75 per cent reduction between 1990 and 2015. Far more priority needs to be given to ensuring that women are well nourished, and have access to sexual, reproductive, and maternity services. MDG Five also targets universal access to sexual and reproductive health; yet high levels of unmet need for services exist in pockets of the country.
- More than 25 years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, women’s inequality and lack of power in relationships both puts them at greater risk of exposure to HIV and increases their burdens of care. In Southern Africa, girls are two to four-and-a-half times more likely than boys to become infected.
- In every country of the world women are subjected to gender-based violence and in many, including ours, the levels are chronic.
- These issues need to be addressed in the law, and through police, prosecutor, and judicial training to ensure that the law is upheld.
Programme Director
Public administration
Advancing women in the ranks of public administration is also important as a gender equality goal, particularly, because gender balance in public administration ensures that a wider range of perspectives is brought to bear on policy-making and service delivery.
While public administrations are sometimes among the most important employers of women, in many countries, they perpetuate rather than challenge gender bias. The largest numbers of women continue to be found at the lower levels of public service structures, where they have the least influence.
In our country, I am pleased to note, that progressive strategies such as targets and quotas, and capacity-building and advocacy, are yielding encouraging results.
Disappointingly, however, the private sector has made the least progress with regards to advancing women in leadership positions. This is an area in which government, and civil society must join hands to ensure meaningful transformation.
Now is the time for business leaders, who believe in justice, to take action and be part of transforming the economy and making it work for women. The barriers for women’s participation in the economy are quite universal. Every CEO in every country in the world has work to do.
All can say:
- No unequal pay under their watch.
- No glass ceiling under their watch.
- All can condemn violence against women,
- All can drive investment in programmes that keep girls at school longer and direct them to STEM.
Programme Director
Engaging Men
Experience shows, that even when women are more fairly represented in decision-making, progress on gender equality on all fronts is not always guaranteed.
The engagement of men is also essential in creating a culture of inclusion and equality. There needs to be general acknowledgment that women in decision-making is an asset to whole societies.
Just by ourselves as the torch-bearing women’s movement and civil society we cannot remove the pillars of patriarchy. We also need those who benefit from patriarchy to renounce it actively and decisively. While we must ensure women and girls define the future we want and take part in shaping it.
As well, women’s organizations are vital advocates for and independent agents of change everywhere in the world. It is especially important to affirm their role in the ongoing building of our democratic project and the deepening of our democracy.
Therefore, investment in women’s well-being, potential, empowerment, participation and leadership across the board must be accelerated.
Educated, healthy, and empowered women drive development faster. Women with equal rights, as basic as being able to own and inherit land and property, access credit, and open bank accounts, can play an even greater role in the development of their societies.
Truly equitable and sustainable development requires the weaving together of its economic, social and environmental strands through “triple win” approaches and policies. Gender equality and women’s empowerment must always be fully integrated in these approaches.
Thus, simultaneously addressing multiple constraints limiting young women’s economic participation, ranging from lack of technical job skills to reproductive health issues and lack of safe spaces or mobility outside the home is an area that needs sharper focus.
At the global and national levels, our world faces complex and interlinked challenges. They demand policymaking and innovative strategies which positions economic growth, poverty reduction, social development, equity, and environmental sustainability as interconnected objectives which are best pursued together. Policies and initiatives which empower women must be part of that fabric. As young women, you have to make sure that this happens.
Women’s full participation and leadership are prerequisites for sustainable development. If we are to build sustainable routes out of poverty, women must be full beneficiaries of and contributors to our countries progress.
We must be single-minded about the fact that change for women and girls, more than ever before, is possible in our lifetimes.
We are the first generation with a real possibility to change the power relations between men and women significantly, substantially, and enduringly. But only if we choose to focus on the most strategic, transformative and structural changes that remove recurrence of the intergenerational barriers to gender equality.
The time for talking about what to do next is over. It is time for action and it is time for change for women.
As Nelson Mandela said, on his retirement from public life, and I quote: “ You have the power to effect change- the power is now in your hands. My question to you is this: What is the legacy that you wish to leave behind?”
I thank you
