Women in South Africa
“Women don't need to find a voice, they have a voice, and they need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen”
~Meghan Markle
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Women who make up more than half the national population should be strengthened economically, not only by a means to encourage economic growth, but it is also a way of propagating women’s human rights. When we invest in woman and work to abolish inequalities, they will have a stronger chance of becoming a player in the various spaces of society.
South Africa ranked fourth out of 87 countries covered by social institutions in 2012 and the Gender Index of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It is the highest ranked African country in the index. South Africa's high ranking reflects the fact that the country has a solid legal framework for gender equality and women's rights. South Africa is also performing well on the indicators set out in Millennium Goal 3, which are development goals that focus on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
In 2000, Cabinet adopted the South African National Policy Framework for the Empowerment of Women and Gender Equality (Policy Framework), which provides for the establishment of a National Gender Mechanism (NGM). A NGM is a network composed of coordination structures within and outside the government, through cooperation to promote political, social, economic, and other forms of transformation. This is to eradicate systemic gender inequality and promote equality between both sexes. Since the adoption of the NGM model, some progress has been made in government operations and social behaviour. This has led to a request for a re-examination of the model, emphasizing the highest point of administrative coordination and therefore calling for the establishment of a special ministry for women. 13 out of the 28 ministers in the South African Cabinet are female.
Even though women have made great strides in their standing in society there is still lack of real transformation because of male resistance and prejudices. The ideology in saying that women are accommodated today, is simply based on biased employment policies and management strategies. Businesses need to start making a more noticeable effort to implement gender diversity strategies. Projects to Jumpstart this movement could be by positively discriminating in favor of women by promising an extra bonus to the company for meeting a certain standard number of women employees, staff, employers as well as in management position.
What I and the follow Queensburgh Girls High School representatives feel need to take place in this country is:
- recruitment targets for women must be established.
- a zero tolerance for any attempt at sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination must be promoted.
- train leaders engaged in the talent process to recognize stereotypes and unconscious bias about the sort of work women can do and their potential success in male-dominated roles.
- sponsor and offer a graduate program to young women in order to promote the career opportunities
In closing, it is important to understand that women are not victims. We fight for what we believe in and one day the world will hear our protest.
Nelson Mandela once said that “Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression”