Source: The Sunday Independent
Fourteen years ago, 189 nations of the world, among them South Africa, signed a pledge that would turn into what we now know as the UN Millenium Development Goals. They would become the cornerstone with which we measure development, especially in the global south, where millions were, and continue to be, affected by extreme poverty.
Goal 3, the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, is inextricably and fundamentally tied to the other goals, for without increasing access to opportunities for women, the realisation of the rest of the goals would be impossible.
Thanks to the South African government, we are on track not just to achieve goal 3, but all the goals, with the lives of our people, and in particular of our women, vastly improving and advancing.
The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) released the Gender Framework 2014 this week.
This is the culmination of an extensive study undertaken by the the women’s league into the conditions facing South African women 20 years after the birth of democracy and outlines the challenges facing women and girls in South Africa today. Together with the framework, the ANCWL has also compiled a series of policy documents covering six broad areas, including women and education, gender-based violence, women and poverty, women and health, and women in leadership.
The documents are being released for public comment to enable all sectors of society to give input ahead of the women’s league’s policy conference which takes place next month.
The ANCWL Gender Framework and policy discussion documents can be found at: http://www. anc.org.za/wl/list.php?t=Discussion%20Documents.
All South Africans committed to gender justice and to seeing the lot of women improved in this country are encouraged to make submissions.
The framework presents recommendations under the broad theme: Towards radical transformation of women’s socio-economic empowerment and rights.
The women’s league recognises that socio-economic factors such as poverty, access to funding and traditional, centuries-old stereotypes about the “woman’s place” in society continue to impede the advancement of women in South Africa.
Although South Africa has made significant strides towards gender equality, there is a need to inculcate a gendered perspective to all government planning to ensure that the particular circumstances facing women and girls are taken into account.
Within the education sector, for example, existing policies and legislation to support pupils who fall pregnant, need to be bolstered – or we face a continued situation where there are high drop-out rates from schools among female pupils, who find that once they fall pregnant, the school system stigmatises and fails to support them.
Women, and African women in particular, continue to bear the brunt of economic marginalisation and impoverishment in the country, with disproportionate numbers of women in the ranks of the unemployed.
The position of rural women must be addressed, as hunger and food insecurity in the furthest reaches of the country make it difficult for women, and by extension whole families, to escape the cycle of poverty.
Women continue to face barriers in accessing land, despite them playing a key role in agricultural production in rural communities.
The ANCWL wants to see a situation where access to and ownership of land must ultimately result in at least 50 percent women ownership of recapitalised farms, irrigation schemes and state women farms. This calls for special programmes that provide financing, training and equipment to women farmers to be given more support.
At a “boardroom level”, women in South Africa continue to face challenges in the workplace, including sexism and disparate pay.
Although South Africa has excellent policies in place to advance the position of women in the workplace, the numbers of women-owned, managed and controlled enterprises remain low.
Such asset ownership needs to be further facilitated through vehicles such as broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE).
This should also be for communities, workers, co-operatives and other collective enterprises, especially those that are women-owned. However, without access to development financing and funding initiatives targeting women, this will not be progressively realised.
Like all South Africans, we remain concerned at the high levels of gender-based violence in the country, despite a strong legislative and regulatory framework in place that prioritises gender equality and respect for human rights.
Eradicating gender-based violence starts with education and awareness raising among boys and men – including challenging stereotypes about women and girls held because of cultural beliefs.
This form of awareness-raising should be extended to sectors involved in combating gender-based violence, including the courts.
Greater support must be given to those engaged in sector-specific training that enables officials, including judges and magistrates, to correctly apply existing policies, such as prescribed minimum sentencing for certain crimes, including sex crimes.
As an organisation at the forefront of promoting gender equality not just in the public space, but also the political space, the gender framework contains policy recommendations on advancing women into positions of senior leadership.
This has long been a priority of the ruling party, the ANC. We have a proud history of advancing women in leadership positions evidenced by the fact that the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Index 2013 ranked South Africa 18th out of 142 countries.
This ranking was ahead of developed countries such as the US and replaced the spot occupied by the UK in the previous index.
Women have traditionally occupied positions of high office throughout the history of the ANC, and have developed capacities and capabilities enabling them to lead the organisation.
Ahead of next month’s policy conference, the ANCWL has prioritised the need to advance women in the ruling party. This should be across the party, from branch to provincial and executive level.
In doing so, we should not lose sight of the reality that institutionalised patriarchy continues to result in women being denied key leadership positions in the organisation.
Amid the calls for a first woman president for South Africa, it is critical that this factor is addressed, or we face a continued situation where branches choose to elect male candidates over women, often by women members themselves.
It is our position that all women elected to positions of leadership within the ANC have a responsibility and obligation to advance the cause and interests of women. It is only then that we will have equitable, representative, merit-based promotion of women to positions of leadership.