Address by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe during the National Women's Conference, Boksburg, Gauteng, August 3 2011

Programme Director
Minister Lulu Xingwana, other Ministers and Members of Parliament present
MECs and Councillors
Members of civil society
Women of our country
Ladies and gentlemen

I thank you most sincerely for this singular honour to address the National Women's Conference appropriately held during the Month of August, Women's Month. Women's Month is the time of the year that symbolically represents the scar that history has left on the face of our nation on matters of gender and by extension, human equality.

At the same time it is a month during which women of our country, black and white, united and driven by common vision, demonstrated that it is possible to overcome oppression.  Consequently, the month of August marks a period of heightened consciousness in society about the iniquities visited on the women of our country over the years and the pressing need to keep fighting this scourge as a matter of both conscience and a duty to our constitution.

From this point of view flow two most critical implications about women's month.

The first is the need to assess what government and other relevant social partners have achieved since the last time we celebrated this month, or lack of progress thereof, in pursuing the goal of the emancipation and empowerment of women.

Having assessed the efficacy of our efforts in this task, the second and last step is to recommit ourselves to continuing the acceleration of the struggle for gender equality.  In recommitting ourselves to increased efforts to eradicate oppression of women, we do so fully aware that the scale of this challenge calls for broad mobilisation of society and a sustained momentum of diffusing a new consciousness, especially within the socialising agencies such as families and schools to underpin a new set of norms and values.

From this angle it is clear that this is not a quantifiable task whose goals can be measured by a fixed time horizon.

Instead it is a long term goal which must be assessed from time to time in terms of the impact of policies that seek not only to level the playing field but also consciously empower women, and eradicate gender violence and other manifestations of gender disempowerment.  In this connection, I note the theme of this year's Women's Month, which states:

"Advancing women's empowerment and gender equality: engaging with patriarchy, negative stereotyping, cultural and traditional practices to address gender-based violence and a better life for women."

As I understand, this theme is asking us to reflect on the conditions handed down to us from history which disempower women, usually justified on the grounds of culture.  These conditions that underpin the dominance of males over women in society are known as patriarchy.

When the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) began the policy of engaging both men and women in the struggle against gender oppression, for the first time the gender issue ceased to be seen as a ‘women's issue.' Among United Nations (UN) Agencies which spearheaded this development, UNICEF was seeking to encourage positive fatherhood and their approach to this attempt was to try and breakdown gender stereotypes based on reproductive work, including caring for the children, as belonging to women. 

In like manner, the South African organisations working in the violence against women and gender-based violence, initiated the engagement of men and boys in the work of gender equality.  The focus was mainly seeing men as perpetrators of violence. This focus was later changed as it cast men and boys in a negative manner. 

The study of masculinities and how men are socially constructed has fortunately moved from seeing men as perpetrators of violence against women to constructing positive images of masculinities. 

The thinking is that a partnership between women and men can be more effectively built around positive images. The field of masculinities has now developed to include research (mainly in institutions of higher learning), training of men in masculinities, as well as the critical work around prevention and reduction of the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Some of the strategies used to involve men and boys in gender equality work include holding meetings with the traditional leaders to encourage them to ensure that women are not discriminated against in traditional practices and allocation of resources, especially land.

Some work has also gone into training of the police, judges and court officials on how to handle cases of violence against women specifically and domestic violence in general, in a manner that does not discriminate against the victims, who are mostly women.  One of the greatest challenges in working to change patriarchal attitudes and practices is that patriarchy is ingrained in all the structures and institutions of societies. In trying to change these attitudes and practices, therefore, both women and men need to work in partnership at all times. 

These partnerships should be based on support and respect for each other.  It should also be based on sound principles and theories that support gender equality. The basis for this partnership already exists in the fact that since 2003, the National Gender Machinery integrated the work being done by men's groups and organisations into the space that previously only mainly recognised women's groups and organisations.

There is now growing experience and expertise in this field. In South Africa, organisations working with men and boys seek to redefine masculinity and social norms that underpin violence against women and girls. 

On various local platforms, working with men was accepted as a vital element in dealing effectively and holistically with gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS especially.  Recommendations for working with men and boys included:

• Turning men as agents of change and subjects of rights in the gender and HIV and AIDS paradigm
• Engaging men as proponents of gender equality and health
• Avoiding simplistic gender stereotyping
• Recognising that men are not monolithic and have unequal access to health care and human rights
• Using policy approaches to take gender transformative work with men and boys to scale.

The greatest opportunity currently is that government is planning to introduce a Gender Equality Bill.  This bill has the added benefit of covering all the issues that have previously fallen through the cracks.

The research and documentation that has come out of work already done by civil society organisations and the National Gender Machinery on men and masculinities and attempts to understand patriarchy should be co-ordinated in a way that would inform the Gender Equality Law, as well as actions that need to be taken to confront patriarchy.

Changing patriarchal attitudes and practices goes to the centre of democracy and the spirit of the South African Constitution.  The opportunity is that there is recognition that patriarchy and economic exclusion are the root of discrimination against women and a lot of attempts are being made through policies and legislation at government level, and research and training at civil society level, to change these attitudes.

Policy and legislation are critical in changing practices based on patriarchal attitudes and behaviour but it is difficult to legislate the attitudes away.  For this purpose, there needs to be work that is focusing on attitudinal change.

The global strategy to transform gender relations should also include continuous education and the creation of spaces to debate issues relating to patriarchy, women's empowerment and gender equality.

As I am sure you would have reflected in this conference, in spite of these challenging social conditions of women, our society has been gradually moving away from some of these practices since 1994.

Even though we still have a long way to go, we are proud as a country for the many ground-breaking achievements we have made in terms of gender relations.  Over the years government has made strides in correcting the imbalance between women and men in the public sector.  The public sector has taken a lead in making concerted efforts to institutionalise mechanisms for the advancement of women.

The establishment of structures for the attainment of gender equality at different sites of power, such as the Office of the Status of Women in the Presidency, the Gender Focal points in the departments at all three spheres of government, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Improvement of Life and Status of Women and the Commission on Gender Equality, are the case in point.

The recent appointment of the Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities at yet another site of power, the Cabinet, should enhance these mechanisms for advancing women. In addition to these structures government has since 1995 put in place about 14 pieces of women friendly legislation to help prevent gender discrimination and enable women to benefit from the new dispensation. 

These include:

• The Basic Conditions of Service Act, 1997
• The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000
• The Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, 2000
• The Home Loan and Mortgage Disclosure Act, 2000
• The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003
• The White Paper on Affirmative Action in the Public Service
• The Domestic Worker Sectoral Determination
• The White Paper on South African Land Policy

The two pieces of legislation that women at grassroots level have used more effectively for their advancement are the Domestic Violence Act, 1998 and the Maintenance Act, of the same year.

At all times, our aim is to ensure that women from all classes benefit from as many as possible of the laws meant to benefit them.  Equally, we are striving to ensure that women at all levels know of the existence of the legislation and its potential benefits for them.

I note that some of the key issues raised in this conference going forward include the following, that:

• The empowerment of women has to be broad and diverse and should include among others rural women, young women, women with disability, women that are incarcerated and elderly women
• Economic empowerment and skills development are key issues in the transformation of the lives of women who live in poverty
• Raising awareness of discrimination and inequalities has to start in the home and communities where often the practice of inequality is entrenched alongside norms and values of communities
• Labour legislation that protects women needs to be reviewed and where necessary issues of compliance need to be addressed
• The science, technology and engineering sector needs to provide mentoring and support for young women and girls
• The information on available funding for programmes needs to be accessible to implementers and beneficiaries.

These and other key issues raised by all role players in this conference translate into goals and targets to be met by August 2012.

The only way to ensure that each year sees progress in the task of fighting unfair gender conditions in society is to keep evaluating our progress regarding the targets we set for ourselves.  Just like racism, sexism is an acquired attitude of mind, learned through social agency, and manifests its unequal power relations in varied ways.

Therefore gender oppression is not a challenge we can put on ice till the month of August, or for particular occasions. It constitutes an unsightly scar on our conscience as a nation.

Equally, it will take the full force of a common social front to devitalise patriarchy and overcome economic exclusion.

Government will continue to create conditions that empower women of our country, from a very early age, to stand on their two feet against patriarchy and economic exclusion.

I am confident that in this task, we will succeed!

I thank you

Issued by the President, August 3 2011

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