South Africa has taken huge steps in the past few years to increase the rights of women in the public and private sectors and to change patriarchal attitudes. Still many gender experts believe the battle is far from won and some critics believe that in some instances women are being left behind.
“On paper there has been a great deal of movement in promoting women’s status in South Africa,” says Colleen Lowe-Morna of ÂGender Links. “There is certainly an Âenabling environment here. Few countries enshrine gender rights like South Africa.”
The problem, she says, is between the rhetoric and reality.
“Gender violence is one of the key indicators of where women are,” she says. “And, unfortunately, this remains unacceptably high.”
Mmatshilo Motsei writes in this week’s Mail & Guardian that Âgender violence is also a huge concern for her. She says that, 13 years into democracy, government reports a booming economy alongside rampant fraud, corruption and violent crime.
“Fathers rape their daughters in the name of African tradition, grandsons abuse their grandmothers for pension money, husbands kill their wives and wives hire assassins to kill their husbands.”
Last year Maggie Nkwe of the Widows Forum of South Africa told Parliament that the current socio-Âeconomic status of women in South Africa was frightening.
She said research showed that 87% of widowed or divorced women over the age of 60 are dependent on their children or on welfare and that 60% of women over 55 are left destitute after the deaths of their husbands. Also, 44% of women are single and 43% of these are single mothers.
In nearly three-quarters of families women are the chief breadwinners.
In September 2005 the government found that, of the 15,3-million women of a workable age, 7,7-million were not economically active. Of those who were economically active, 5,2-million were employed, while 2,4-million were looking for a job. The unemployment rate among women was 31%, as opposed to the 22,6% for men. Overall the unemployment figure in South Africa is 26,7%.
Lowe-Morna says that, although in government South Africa has some of the best representation in the world, the country is still lagging behind in empowering women economically.
“If you look at the glass ceiling report on women in the media, you get a clear picture that there is still much work to be done,” she says. “Just look at the fact that women in the media earn 20% less than their male counterparts.”
This year the Business Women’s Association South African Women in Corporate Leadership Census showed that women make up 51% of the adult population in South Africa. Yet they only constituted 42,9% of the working population and, even worse, made up only 19,2% of all executive managers and only 13,1% of all directors in the country. Only eight, or 2,6%, of CEOs in South Africa are women.
But the census also showed a significant increase in the number of companies employing 25% or more women directors and executive managers. The number went up from 21 companies in 2006 to 31 companies in 2007, an improvement of almost 48%. In 2004 there were only 10 companies and 17 in 2005.
The report found that state-owned enterprises normally had higher representivity on their boards. These organisations also had far more female directors that JSE-listed companies.
But, while 30,1% of South African boards have two or more women directors, 40,3% of these boards have no women directors at all. The largest (and oldest) South African industries have the lowest proportion of women directors, while more “new economy” industries have a greater inclusion of women directors.
Interestingly, of the 385 directorships held by women, black women hold more than half. A quarter of South African companies, or 82, have 25% or more women in their Âexecutive manager pool.
In mining, one of South Africa’s main economic sectors, the industry charter stipulates that 10% of employees should be women. But the progress is variable between different commodities, says Roger Baxter, Chamber of Mines chief economist, and Dr Elize Strydom, Chamber of Mines industrial relations adviser. For example, the two point out that open-cast mining operations have made more progress than large-scale, deep-level mines, with some of the open-cast operations already at the 10% target, which must be reached by 2009.
In terms of the aggregate numbers collected by the department of minerals and energy, the number of women employed in the mining sector has risen from 12 497, or 2,9%, of the workforce in 2003 to 18 694, or 4,1%, of the workforce in 2006. In other words there has been a 49,6% increase in the number of women employed in mining between 2003 and 2006, Baxter says.
Although the 15Â 300 increase in the overall number of employed in the sector in 2006 (versus 2005) means the progress on the percentages of women in mining is heading in the right direction, it is not yet at the halfway mark.
Baxter says the biggest challenge is trying to attract women into deep-level, large-scale mining. Baxter and Strydom believe that, although progress is being made, there are shortages of women willing to work in these mines or on technical studies at a tertiary level. The companies are trying to build on the progress made to offer more bursaries to women and to encourage these career options at schools — but the challenge remains the willingness, or lack thereof, of women to get involved in deep-level mining.
In government South Africa is one of the leaders in the world when it comes to empowering women.
In the judiciary 35 women have been appointed to the Bench since 2004. There have been 206 appointments to the Bench in the past three years, including 83 white males, 15 white females, 88 black males and 20 black females.
“Lately we have started a project to fast-track the qualifications of women practitioners … The project intends to assist these women to be ready for appointment as acting judges and obviously with a view to them being judges in future,” Constitutional Court Chief Judge Pius Langa told the media at the time.
From June this year the South African National Defence Force has 17 female brigadier generals. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota promoted 13 defence force members to brigadier generals, including nine female officers.
Lekota says this is a step in the right direction, but South Africa still lags behind other countries. “The African Union has now taken a position that in all institutions there must be 50-50 representation between men and women — and, although we pride ourselves of the movement in this direction, we are very many years away from the idea.”
There is still only one female major general within the defence force ranks.