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WOMEN IN BUSINESS SUMMITWOMEN:Organising is oursafety and strengthIt is only in a transformed and truly nonsexistsociety that we can speak of real womenempowerment. Real empowerment means creatinga humane society where no young woman is made tostay at home and “grow vegetables” for her husband,says Angie Motshekga, president of the ANCWomen’s League and Minister of Basic Education.In her novel Nervous Conditionspublished in 1988, a prolificAfrican writer from Zimbabwe,Tsitsi Dangarembga, drives home abrutal truth quite familiar to us aswomen. The narrator remonstratesthat “she could not go back to school”,even though she “loved going toschool” and she “was very good atit”. Her father, a sworn patriarch,retorts: “Can you cook books andfeed them to your husband? Stay athome with your mother. Learn to cookand clean. Grow vegetables.” Thisscenario dramatises the oppressivereality of being a woman in an epochof patriarchy. Today, women accountfor two-thirds of the world’s illiterateadults, and girls account for twothirdsof the world’s children withoutaccess to education. To reach newfrontiers, women go through ‘hell’.In many respects, it is hard to be awoman.Since 1994, following thedemocratic breakthrough, we havemade great strides to empower andemancipate women. When consciousthat women’s rights are humanrights, we begin to perceive thefundamental role that women shouldplay in society. Women have beenat the forefront of the struggle fora better life. When President JacobZuma launched Women’s Monthin Bloemfontein this year, he said:“National Women’s Day 2012 takesplace during a significant year, whenthe ANC celebrates 100 years of10 I S S U E 1
WOMEN IN BUSINESS SUMMITselfless struggle – a struggle in whichwomen played a pivotal role to bringabout freedom and a society free ofpoverty, inequality and racism.” Hecontinued: “We pay tribute to manygenerations of women for sacrifices,for patriotism, hard work andcommitment.”We dedicate Women’s Month2012 to the revolutionary women ofAfrica – Charlotte Maxeke, RahimaMoosa, Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph,Ma Sisulu, Dulcie September andthe like. We are also thrilled by theelection of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as Chair of the African UnionCommission.Our government has done muchto ensure policies with a view tofull and equal participation bywomen. It has created social securitysystems to place women and menon an equal footing. However, eventhough an enabling environmenthas been created, it has not enabledus to the level where we think weshould be. Notwithstanding thetrajectory of transformation, SouthAfrica is ranked among the mostunequal societies. Women bearthe brunt of poverty, inequalityand unemployment. The UnitedNations (UN) estimates that 60%of chronically hungry people in theworld are women and girls. In thedeveloping world, says the UN, morethan a third of women get marriedbefore the age of 18, thereby missingout on education and being exposedto the risks of early pregnancy. TheUN goes on to say: “Too often, justiceinstitutions, including the police andthe courts, deny women justice.”In our submission to the ANCPolicy Conference earlier this year,we noted that a great number ofpolicies are empowering to women intheory, though not in practice. It istherefore important to look at who theimplementer of policies is, and howthose policies are being implemented.On female representation atboard and management level in thecorporate world, for instance, the2011 Women in Leadership censussays: “Change has been marginal …Although women make up more thanhalf of the South African populationand 45% of the workforce, this isnot reflected in the leadership of theworkforce.” Among the 339 companieswho were assessed, only 15 hadwomen CEOs and 18 had womenchairpersons.Intensifying the campaign tosupport women in starting upenterprises and growing existing onesis what the ANC Women’s Leaguebelieves will accelerate empowermentof women. We would begin to fasttrackwomen’s involvement in theeconomy if funding institutionswere to make available funding forwomen’s empowerment programmes.We will empower women if we wereto strengthen measures for tacklinggender-based violence and abuse. Itis only in a transformed and trulynon-sexist society that we can speakof real women empowerment. Realempowerment means creating ahumane society where no youngwoman is made to stay at homeand “grow vegetables” for herhusband.Real empowerment is bettereducation. Indeed, as a country, wehave made great strides in education.However, because of patriarchy,when gender roles begin to be definedpermanently, girls suffer. Girls dowell in primary schools, but manygirls in high school have additionalchores, such as fetching siblings fromcrèches, preparing supper, doingwashing, which eventually affecttheir performance. Gender roles alsodetermine the pace at which a girlchild performs. Gender roles affectgirls’ subject choices, usually optingfor ‘safe’ subjects. Even at universitylevel, girls seem to disappear atmasters, PhD and professorial levels.We have established that wehave the right policies to stimulateeconomic empowerment. The keyquestion is whether we all have thewill to act against gender disparitiesin power-sharing. Let us revivethe spirit of sisterhood among us,wherever we are: in organs of state,on the factory floor or in executiveboardrooms. Our ability to organiseourselves as women has protectedus in this very difficult world, andtherefore, the plea from us as theWomen’s League is to ask women toorganise. Organise where you areas business, organise yourselveswhere you are as politicians, organiseyourselves in communities – becausethat is the only safety we have.Our unity as women, our ability toorganise wherever we are, is ourstrength. Let’s use it to our benefit.Women possess the power to changelives. Given the opportunity, womencan beat poverty, inequality andunemployment. ✥Progressive women in business 11
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