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Since the reconfiguration of the Cabinet by President Cyril Ramaphosa, some quarters of our society have rightfully exercised their right to comment on the implications of the changes on the development of the national economic, political and social landscape. These changes were preceded by Ramaphosa’s maiden state of the nation address, in which he highlighted his consideration for the reconfiguration of national departments to bring about alignment and efficiency.
Some of the comments and critique directed at the changes in Cabinet, constructive and or otherwise, were directed at the ministry of women, which is strategically located in the presidency. Central to these debates have been questions asking whether the department and the ministry have the requisite expertise to transform the gendered nature of the South African social fabric.
Around these debates are two distinct themes, namely the structural and technical capacity of the department; and the conceptual comprehension and political devotion, by public officials, to the gender transformation agenda.
To justly engage these debates, a more elaborate and nuanced discussion that locates both themes within their historical context is necessary. Any debate on the efficacy of the department of women is flawed if it shies away from confronting the significant historical moments and factors that have preceded its establishment.
Earliest among these was the women’s anti-pass law campaign in the Orange Free State in 1913, led by the first president of the Bantu Women’s League, Charlotte Maxeke. Another seminal moment includes the mobilisation and formation of a united movement of women from all sectors of society under the umbrella of the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw) in the early 1950s.
Fedsaw developed and adopted the first women’s charter in 1954, which was predicated on the intention to unite women across race and class to form a movement “striving for the removal of all laws, regulations, convention and customs that discriminate against us as women…”
The Women’s Charter was to become a forerunner to one of the largest historical demonstrations: the women’s march to the Union Buildings on August 9, 1956.
While these watershed moments laid a political foundation for the development of organised and structural mechanisms that challenged the apartheid regime’s oppressive barriers for the articulation of women’s rights, it was the Malibongwe Conference held in 1990 that began a push towards the establishment of an institutionalised structural mechanisms for gender equality in a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.
Subsequent to the conference, the Women’s National Coalition was formed in 1992 as a national alliance of women’s organised and individual concerns. The coalition consisted of women from different political formations, community groupings, the private sector, civil society, academia, and some sections of the media.
Drawing on the historically demonstrated strength of unity, the collective voice of women grew louder in criticising the domination of social, political, economic and all other organisational structures by men and their marginalisation from decision-making processes. This culminated in the launch of the Women’s Charter in 1994.
The Women’s National Coalition agreed on the necessity for the establishment of a structural mechanism for the advancement of women to be located within the presidency. It was out of this rationale that the National Gender Machinery, led by the Office for the Status of Women, was established in 1995 and tasked with advancing the socioeconomic status of women and transforming gender relations through public policy reform driven from the highest office in the land.
One of the urgent task of the Office for the Status of Women was to develop an institutional framework and legislative initiatives to safeguard gender equality and to mainstream gender perspectives throughout our newly found democracy.
Similar to the Office for the Status of Women, the department of women in the presidency, has since its establishment in 2014, been seized with advocating and advancing a gender analysis into all laws, regulations, and policies. In particular, the department is tasked to champion women’s socioeconomic empowerment by providing an oversight and monitoring role to other institutions within the government and other key sectors of our society, including the private sector.
The context, upon which the establishment of the department of women is predicated, compels us to understand its unique structural position in relation to the other organs of state. Whereas the role of state departments is to promote, through policy development and implementation, the programmes of the government of the day, the role of the department is to interrogate, using a gender lens, the impact that policy instruments may have on men and women differently.
Understanding this historical context equips us also with the analytical lens with which to engage the second set of debates, which is on the political will and conceptual understanding of gender relations by the individuals tasked with advancing gender equality.
Since its establishment, the department has been successful in advocating and influencing the inclusion of women’s concerns in critical areas of state policy, using the mainstreaming approach. Currently, we are reviewing the structural and strategic location of gender focal points in all state institutions with the aim of enforcing greater accountability by state entities to the gender transformation agenda.
In the recent past, state departments and entities have complied with the directive to establish gender focal points as an act of bureaucratic compliance without internalising the strategic relevance of such mechanisms for gender transformation.
Our efforts towards gender transformation can also be seen through other initiatives such as the development of a policy framework designed to restore the dignity of indigent girls and women through the free provision of sanitary health products. Furthermore, and moving towards the next budgetary cycle, we are strengthening our efforts towards the institutionalisation of gender responsive budgeting across all spheres of government.
Critical to the success of our national effort to build a united, prosperous and a non-sexist society espoused in our Constitution, is to confront head-on the culture of toxic masculinity, misogyny, hierarchies and languages that perpetuate the demons of patriarchal norms throughout all corners of our society, including in the public service.
We take great pride in the major progress that South Africa has recorded since 1994 in transforming the status of women. Today, women are better off than they were at the launch of the Women’s Charter 64 years ago. We have accomplished much, yet a lot of work still needs to be done. This requires both a policy and political dialogue. Those who occupy decision-making positions in all areas of society must demonstrate the political will to see women’s lives transformed for the better. This, contrary to the insinuations and misconception by some quarters in our society, is not by any measure, a work of small power.
We look back with pride at some of the major breakthroughs that the torchbearers of the women’s struggles overcame to claim their rightful place in society. The significant improvement on the status of women was hard-earned through selfless struggles by those who came before us. To retain these gains, we need a sustained, strong and a united women’s movement that mobilises the collective voice of women from all walks of life.
We need to unashamedly declare with one voice that the advancement of women is not a privilege, but a conscious struggle towards the full realisation of women’s human rights. We have the Constitution and all the legislative frameworks in place to guide us as we endeavour to transform the social fabric of the South African society. Our task is to march forth with the legacy passed onto us by the early champions of our national gender struggle.
Our contemporary, collective course is to unite across sectors, to communicate clearly and strategically, to disagree constructively, and to network across sectors in order to achieve the common goal of “striving for the removal of all laws, regulations, convention and customs that discriminate against us as women…”
As a nodal point for the advancement of women’s economic empowerment, gender equality and tackling gender based violence, the department of women has a central role to play in accelerating and institutionalising gender equality in a democratic South Africa.
Bathabile Dlamini is the minister in the presidency responsible for women.
