This week we celebrate August 9th, our National Women's Day. This will give us an opportunity once more to salute the women of our country and renew our commitment to live up to the obligation contained in our national constitution, to transform South Africa into a non-sexist country.
Appropriately, the ANC Women's League will also hold its long delayed National Congress later in August, which is correctly observed by many in our movement and country as Women's Month.
The matter of the emancipation of women is central to the objectives of our movement. For a long time, we have espoused the position that the women of our country must be liberated from their triple race, class and gender oppression. We have also sought to make certain that the democratic government and state work vigorously to take our country further forward towards the achievement of the central strategic goal of the emancipation of women.
Because of the importance of this issue, the 51st National Conference of the ANC, held in Stellenbosch, adopted a new resolution on women. It resolved:
"That the ANC should continue to build a strong ANC Women's League (ANCWL).
"To reaffirm the ANC 50th National Conference resolutions focusing on the programmatic aspects of the eradication of gender oppression.
"To design a comprehensive strategy on our programme to build a non-sexist society and provide a guide for the integration of gender in all aspects of our policies and programmes.
"That the one third representation of women in all structures of the movement should be seen as a minimum, to be progressively increased in order to match the demographic profile of SA, coupled with political education and capacity building programmes.
"That the gender machinery and mechanisms should be strengthened and be consistent at all levels of the public and private sectors.
"That necessary legislation must be looked at to ensure one-third representation of women in all legislatures.
"That capacity building and skills development be actively pursued through the relevant skills development institutions and structures, including the SETAs.
"That the ANC must play a critical role in accelerating efforts to build a national women's movement.
"That the NEC strengthens disciplinary measures in the ANC to address the issues of sexual harassment, abuse and violence against women and children. In addition the NEC should establish a special committee under the National Disciplinary Committee composed of gender-sensitive persons to deal with such offences.
"That the Sexual Offences Act must be finalised as a matter of urgency.
"To take forward discussions with a view to effect amendments and changes to customary and religious practices, including laws that govern the right to inherit, which are inconsistent with the Bill of Rights and other laws of our country.
"To explore the establishment of a developmental women's fund, and strengthen initiatives such as the Malibongwe Project to assist with creating an enabling environment for those women at the bottom end of the economy.
"That PAWO (Pan-African Women's Organisation) must be transformed and restructured in order to meet the current challenges women face on our continent such as those identified within the AU and NEPAD. The ANC further reaffirms the decision of our 50th Conference to host PAWO and to support the holding of the PAWO conference in SA.
"Encourage the ANCWL to develop a structured relationship with the Office on the Status of Women and the Commission on Gender Equality at national and provincial levels, through programmes that aim to reduce the impact of poverty on rural women, based on the principles of sustainability and empowerment.
"Target specific programmes to bring rural women into the mainstream of the economy."
As a movement we have an obligation to ensure that we follow up on all these matters, including those the 51st National Conference said were agreed at our Mafikeng 50th National Conference.
Quite correctly, this resolution deals with various areas of human activity, including the political, economic and social. It also mentions the important objective "to design a comprehensive strategy on our programme to build a non-sexist society and provide a guide for the integration of gender in all aspects of our policies and programmes". This seeks to address the demand "to mainstream" the gender question, rather than treat it as an "add-on".
Hopefully, the National Congress of the ANCWL will also focus on this challenge, to give further impetus to the work the ANC itself must do to implement the decisions of our National Conference. Work already done by the women of our country, such as at the recent conference held in Tshwane, categorised as "South African Women in Dialogue", have also contributed enormously to the achievement of this objective.
According to what has been released by Stats SA up to now, Census 2001 has provided us with much information on the women of our country, which should both further inspire us to do what needs to be done in general, and point the specific directions in which we have to make further advances.
The first point to make, relying on the Census 2001 information, is that we have larger numbers of females than males. The females constitute 52,2 percent of our population. This communicates the clear message that when we call for a better life for all, this means that what we do should have the larger impact on the women, who constitute the majority of our population.
Perhaps not surprisingly, three of our provinces have a proportion of females that is higher than the national average. These are Limpopo, with 54,6 percent, the Eastern Cape with 53,8 percent, and KwaZulu-Natal, with 53,2 percent. These are the provinces with the largest numbers of our rural population, the lowest levels of development, and big concentrations of poor people.
What this says is that the challenge of women's emancipation and empowerment, as visualised in the decisions of the National Conferences of the our movement, is most urgent exactly in these provinces, which are also the poorest. The poorest among these poor are women. More than any other, our provincial organisations in these areas have to make sure that they act vigorously on the issue of the emancipation of women.
If we take other figures, these will tell the story of gender discrimination in more direct terms. For instance, let us take the national figures of males and females aged 20 years and above, in the group covering those with no education to those who have completed primary school. There are 5,732,643 females in this category, and 4,512,064 males. Females therefore constitute 56 percent of those in this educational category, significantly above their proportion of our population as a whole.
Again if we take the three provinces of the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, we will see that women come out worse than the national average. In the category we are considering - being those with no education or education up to the end of primary school - the percentages, respectively, are 58 percent, 59,5 percent and 63 percent.
Interestingly, the figures at higher levels of education tell a different story. The national statistics relating to the educational range Grade 12/Std 10 and Higher, say that women constitute 51.4 percent, just below their proportion of our population as a whole.
In the three provinces we have been considering, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, the respective proportions are 56 percent, 55 percent and 52.4 percent. This probably represents the higher rate of rural- urban migration by males. This emphasises the point that in these highly rural provinces, the burden of leadership with regard to the development challenges we face, must be carried largely by women.
These figures, relating to people with higher levels of education, also communicate the important message that perhaps the message about women's emancipation and gender equality is getting through to the masses of our people. This is resulting in more of our women becoming relatively highly educated, rather than dropping out of the educational system to do domestic work or find a husband at an early age.
Nevertheless, gender inequality shows itself when we consider the category, "occupation among the employed, aged 15-65". Let us first consider the occupations described in Census 2001 as "technicians and associated professionals, clerks, service workers, shop and market sales workers, and elementary occupations".
Nationally, women constitute 36.4 percent of these categories. They make up 29.5 percent of the category "legislators, senior officials and managers". With regard to the occupations "craft and related trades workers, and plant and machine operators and assemblers", the women constitute 14 percent of the national total of these skilled workers. On the other hand, they make up 42.6 percent of the occupation classified in Census 2001 as "professionals".
What these figures signify is that the educated and better-trained women in our country are largely concentrated in such professions as teaching and nursing, as well as jobs requiring lower skills levels. To that extent, the aggregate statistics that reflect levels of education from the matriculation level upwards, hide gross occupational gender imbalances, in favour of our male population.
These conclusions stand out even more starkly when we consider the majority section of our population described in Census 2001 as "Black Africans". Among the "black Africans", in the first category we considered, "technicians etc", the proportion of women stands at 52.3 percent. The figure in the second category, "legislators etc", is 30.0 percent, fractionally above the national average. For "crafts and related trades etc", the proportion is 12.6 percent. The figure for "professionals" is 44.0 percent.
In time, Stats SA will publish other information contained in Census 2001. Undoubtedly, this information will indicate both the progress we have made towards achieving the goal of gender equality and the emancipation of women, as well as the serious tasks still ahead of us.
What is certain is that as we celebrate our National Women's Day, we cannot be satisfied merely to proclaim - Ma libongwe igama lamakhosikazi! - as we will, and must. We must also commit ourselves to implement the decisions of our National Conferences on the gender question, and, in practice, do everything necessary to advance speedily towards the emancipation of the women of South Africa and the rest of Africa. Igama lamakhosikazi ma libongwe!
