Every August we are expected to be hyperalert to a range of activities occurring under the banner of Women’s Month.
It is one of the benefits of democracy that we no longer have to celebrate freedom-struggle anniversaries under the hostile gaze of police and soldiers. Now we commemorate them with the state’s sanction and budget, as we should in a country where we elect representatives to government.
Still, August is something of a difficult month to live through. On the one hand, we will be reminded ad nauseam by men and women in designer attire, who hold various posts in the government we pay taxes to, of how far we have come as women since the 1956 Women’s March.
On the other, most women are under no illusions about how far we still have to go.
While it is important to take note of this, we need to do more than simply list what is wrong with the state of gender in the nation. We need to take an honest look at how each of us engages either in behaviour that keeps us locked in this unfree state, or takes us further along the road to transformation.
The majority of the poor and under-resourced are women. Violence against women and girls is a daily reality for most, and there is little or no real recourse available for those raped, beaten, maimed or sexually harassed, to say nothing of those who are killed.
As we listen to more pontificating, including speeches by men and women who speak with forked tongues, let us reflect this August on what difference their words make. Why are we willing to subject ourselves to the words of powerful men and women who unashamedly act in hateful ways towards women, but who claim to espouse non-sexist thinking because a long time ago feminists in the liberation movement insisted on that stance?
What does this incessant talk of women’s empowerment matter if most women continue to live below the poverty line? What difference does it make to repeat the names of “women achievers” when there are no consistent programmes to make sure that most girls are able to pursue whatever it is they wish to accomplish?
Which women’s rights are we speaking about when we turn around and tell young lesbians it is their fault they were raped, or make homophobic jokes? What are we really saying about women’s intellectual abilities when we continue to invite women experts only when the subject is gender? Which citizens matter more when the Gender Commission receives a fraction of the budgetary allocation of other Chapter Nine institutions?
This is our reality.
There is a running joke that feminists and gender activists are booked out all of August because everybody suddenly needs a speaker with a special interest in gender. Yes, gender talk is in vogue in August — but it is hardly newsworthy or garnering attention during the rest of the year.
This Women’s Day, and Women’s Month, let us concentrate less on pontificating about women’s empowerment, whatever that now means, and more on playing our roles in making sure that women’s lives are better. Democracy brings entitlements, but it also brings a sense of responsibility. Responsible citizenship should mean that we all actively work to create, nurture and support behaviour and institutions that will bring about gender equality. And it means starting where we live, in whatever small way we can.
This August, let us reflect on how to level the gender playing field, and not simply speak about the need to do so. Let us turn away from empty rhetoric, and reject the use of our taxes for self-indulgent functions, workshops and other events at which last year’s speeches are recycled.
And if there is space for question time, let us put up our hands and ask the speakers how exactly they plan to practise what they preach. Let’s keep asking why until we receive answers and evidence of actions that make sense to us.
Otherwise, let us all stay at home, change the channel or do whatever it takes to drown out the noise that keeps us in the same place. In this silence, we can think up innovative ways to make South Africa a country that women are proud to own year-round.
Pumla Dineo Gqola is associate professor of media and literary studies at the University of the Witwatersrand