Every year, in August, South Africa marks Women’s Month – a tribute to the more than 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956, in protest against the extension of pass laws to women. This year marks the 66th anniversary of that day.
The month allows us to celebrate the achievements of women, but also to gauge how far we have come in transforming society – the transformation of unequal power relations between women and men – and to focus on addressing gender oppression, patriarchy, sexism, racism, ageism and structural oppression.
The South African government has implemented different legislative mechanisms to address gender equality in the workplace, discrimination, and empowering women. While it cannot be denied that there have been some changes in terms of recruiting women into high positions in the workplace, the process is slow. To address gender inequalities and unfair discrimination in the workplace, the focus should be on enforcing real change by way of proactive and aggressive strategies to enforce and speed up progress. If not, equality in the workplace will remain a ‘mere wish’ for the majority of South African women.
In 2022, South Africa had an overall gender gap index score of 0.78, ranking 20 out of 146 countries globally. The index quantifies the gaps between women and men in four key areas: health, education, economy, and politics. The country scored relatively low in economic participation and opportunity, scoring 0.42 points (Statista July 2022).