Date: 16/09/2003
Source: National Council of Provinces (NCOP)
Title: Pandor: NCOP debate on quality of life and status of women
SPEECH BY MS NALEDI PANDOR, MP, CHAIRPERSON OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES, DURING THE NCOP DEBATE: "A REVIEW OF THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN RESPECT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF WOMEN DURING THE FIRST DECADE OF OUR DEMOCRACY, AND THE CHALLENGES THAT LIE AHEAD", 16 September 2003
Measuring achievements
The UN body, the Economic Commission for Africa and its African Centre for Gender and Development, has undertaken an assessment programme called the African Gender and Development Index. The aim of this Index is to provide an effective monitoring mechanism for gender equality. The results of this Africa-wide Index will be contained in the African Women's Report that is due out before the end of the year. This report is an important tool for informing regional and global processes on the situation and status of women in Africa.
The Index measures gender equality, and the changes in gender relations and the effects of gender policies over the last ten years. It has two parts: a Gender Status Index and the African Women's Progress Scoreboard.
The Gender Status index is a measure of relative gender equality that captures those issues related to women's empowerment that can be measured quantitatively. The Status Index is based on three blocks: social power, economic power and political power. For example, social power includes indicators on education and health; economic power includes indicators on income, time use and employment, and access to resources; and political power includes indicators on women's position in legislatures and the executive.
The African Women's Progress Scoreboard is a measure of government policy performance regarding women's empowerment and deals with qualitative issues. Its main aim is to assess whether governments have complied with the various conventions and charters like CEDAW or Beijing or NEPAD that governments have ratified. The Scoreboard aims to capture the mechanisms that governments have to implement their gender policies.
So the quantitative Gender Index and the qualitative Scoreboard complement each other.
The Office on the Status of Women, one of the apexes of the triangular gender machinery (the others are the Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women in Parliament and the chapter-nine body the Gender Commission), has undertaken to compile this Index for the Africa Economic Commission. The Office has commissioned the Gender Research Programme of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, under the leadership of Professor Cathi Albertyn, to draw up the Status Index and the Women's Scoreboard. Their work is not complete and is in the process of being considered by the Joint Monitoring Committee here in Parliament. It is an immensely complex document and I cannot do it the justice that it deserves, but as it is the best measure we are likely to have of the improvement of gender equality under the guidance of ANC policy making, it is appropriate (even though I have no permission to quote) to highlight some features.
First, consider education as a component of social power. At primary, secondary, and tertiary levels the enrollment of girls and women is higher than for boys and men. Of course, there are still imbalances. For example, women outnumber men in the human sciences at universities and technikons, and men outnumber women in the natural sciences (overall: 347,679 women to 302,646 men making a total of 650,325).
This tertiary-level success is the product of a lower school dropout rate for girls than for boys. This is an unusual feature in South Africa, because in most African countries more girls than boys drop out of school as a result of the unequal burden of caring that girls undertake in their homes. Girls are also statistically more at risk from HIV/AIDS than boys. And, of course, it is girls who bear the immediate nurturing consequences of teenage pregnancies - even though it is official government policy that schooling remains available to teenagers, who are pregnant or are mothers.
Monitoring the drop-out trend is critical, as it is an index of women's ability to be productive in the labour market. The more girl matriculants there are, the larger the pool from which to draw for university and technikon students.
All in all, over the past ten years we have accelerated the trend of educating more girls than boys and in the long term this will have a significant effect on employment and gender equality.
Second, consider economic empowerment. We have committed ourselves to equal pay and to the elimination of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. Yet in practice much remains to be done. The first component in the category of economic power is wage income and women lag behind men in all sectors of the economy. The fact remains the women are more likely to be casual workers and low-paid workers. Even in the civil service mean wages are lower for women than men. In the informal sector, which includes domestic workers, the gender-wage gap is even wider than in the formal sector. It is notoriously difficult to measure the amount of unpaid labour that women contribute at work and at home, but the African Gender and Development Index does consider it as a crucial factor and measures time use and non-market activities. Not surprisingly there are still many more male than female employers. More men than women take out loans from banks, business partners and business associations.
Poverty and unemployment are the greatest challenges we face and women are more likely than men to be at the mercy of these twin threats.
It is absolutely critical that women farmers are given access to services that will assist them and their families to survive on the land. Also women must be given equal access to land. The Department of Land Affairs has prioritised the removal of legal restrictions (marriage, inheritance, customary laws) to landownership. The policy is there; the implementation must follow through the various pieces of land legislation currently under discussion in Parliament.
Third, consider political power. There is no doubt that over the last ten years the number of women in representative positions in public life has grown immensely. Look at Parliament. In 1997 there were only 8 women permanent delegates in this House. In 2003 there are 20. The ratio in improvement in the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures has not been of the same order. Look at cabinet. In 1994 there were three women Ministers out of a cabinet of 27. In 2003 there are 9 women out of a cabinet of 29.
This is but one indication of government's commitment to gender equality. Another is the creation of a national gender-machinery (Office for the Status of Women in the Presidency etc) for the advancement of women at the highest level of government. The establishment of this machinery was one of the objectives of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Women's full representation and participation in decision-making positions in government, policy-making and political parties accelerates the transformation of gender inequality in society. On this indicator we score extremely well on the Index.
Challenges in the future
The progress towards gender equality in social and political power components of the Index has been impressive. Yet a question remains: what has been the impact of gender-sensitive legislation on the lives of the majority of women. Lots of laws that we pass have little or no impact on changing sexist attitudes at home or in the workforce.
Clearly laws like the 1998 Recognition of Customary Marriages Act have promoted the equal status of women. This Act is the most significant legislative recognition of equality to date. All existing customary marriages are fully recognized; and wives enjoy full proprietory capacity and an equal status with their husbands. It is difficult to over estimate the significance of this Act.
Yet a fundamental challenge remains in the passage of laws to protect women from gender-based violence and abuse. In the 1990s gender violence became a global issue. In 1992 the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) defined gender-based violence as a form of discrimination. The issue of gender violence has led to the emergence of rights that depend on the state's failure to protect women rather than its active violation of rights. The elimination of gender-based violence became a human right. This right was confirmed in the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women, where protection from violence was recognized as an international human right.
Part of our response to this was the 1998 Domestic Violence Act. This Act recognizes that domestic violence is a serious social evil and an obstacle to achieving gender equality. It was a critical step towards making women feel safer than before and in giving effect to s 12(c) of the constitution: "Everyone ... has the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources".
Conclusion
Let me conclude my reading a poem by Ingrid de Kok, whom many regard as our most exciting living poet. The poem expresses women's negotiating skills through a very traditional metaphor of women's work. It is called 'Mending' and it can be found in her collection called Transfer (1997).
In and out, behind, across
The formal gesture binds the cloth
The stitchery's a surgeon's rhyme,
a Chinese stamp, a pantomime
of print. Then spoor. Then trail of red
Scabs rise, stigmata from the thread
A cotton chronicle congealed
A histogram of welts and weals.
The woman plies her ancient art
Her needle sutures as it darts,
scoring, scripting, scarring, stitching,
the invisible mending of the heart.
Issued by the Office of the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, 16 September 2003
Source: National Council of Provinces (NCOP)
Title: Pandor: NCOP debate on quality of life and status of women
SPEECH BY MS NALEDI PANDOR, MP, CHAIRPERSON OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES, DURING THE NCOP DEBATE: "A REVIEW OF THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN RESPECT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF WOMEN DURING THE FIRST DECADE OF OUR DEMOCRACY, AND THE CHALLENGES THAT LIE AHEAD", 16 September 2003
Measuring achievements
The UN body, the Economic Commission for Africa and its African Centre for Gender and Development, has undertaken an assessment programme called the African Gender and Development Index. The aim of this Index is to provide an effective monitoring mechanism for gender equality. The results of this Africa-wide Index will be contained in the African Women's Report that is due out before the end of the year. This report is an important tool for informing regional and global processes on the situation and status of women in Africa.
The Index measures gender equality, and the changes in gender relations and the effects of gender policies over the last ten years. It has two parts: a Gender Status Index and the African Women's Progress Scoreboard.
The Gender Status index is a measure of relative gender equality that captures those issues related to women's empowerment that can be measured quantitatively. The Status Index is based on three blocks: social power, economic power and political power. For example, social power includes indicators on education and health; economic power includes indicators on income, time use and employment, and access to resources; and political power includes indicators on women's position in legislatures and the executive.
The African Women's Progress Scoreboard is a measure of government policy performance regarding women's empowerment and deals with qualitative issues. Its main aim is to assess whether governments have complied with the various conventions and charters like CEDAW or Beijing or NEPAD that governments have ratified. The Scoreboard aims to capture the mechanisms that governments have to implement their gender policies.
So the quantitative Gender Index and the qualitative Scoreboard complement each other.
The Office on the Status of Women, one of the apexes of the triangular gender machinery (the others are the Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women in Parliament and the chapter-nine body the Gender Commission), has undertaken to compile this Index for the Africa Economic Commission. The Office has commissioned the Gender Research Programme of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, under the leadership of Professor Cathi Albertyn, to draw up the Status Index and the Women's Scoreboard. Their work is not complete and is in the process of being considered by the Joint Monitoring Committee here in Parliament. It is an immensely complex document and I cannot do it the justice that it deserves, but as it is the best measure we are likely to have of the improvement of gender equality under the guidance of ANC policy making, it is appropriate (even though I have no permission to quote) to highlight some features.
First, consider education as a component of social power. At primary, secondary, and tertiary levels the enrollment of girls and women is higher than for boys and men. Of course, there are still imbalances. For example, women outnumber men in the human sciences at universities and technikons, and men outnumber women in the natural sciences (overall: 347,679 women to 302,646 men making a total of 650,325).
This tertiary-level success is the product of a lower school dropout rate for girls than for boys. This is an unusual feature in South Africa, because in most African countries more girls than boys drop out of school as a result of the unequal burden of caring that girls undertake in their homes. Girls are also statistically more at risk from HIV/AIDS than boys. And, of course, it is girls who bear the immediate nurturing consequences of teenage pregnancies - even though it is official government policy that schooling remains available to teenagers, who are pregnant or are mothers.
Monitoring the drop-out trend is critical, as it is an index of women's ability to be productive in the labour market. The more girl matriculants there are, the larger the pool from which to draw for university and technikon students.
All in all, over the past ten years we have accelerated the trend of educating more girls than boys and in the long term this will have a significant effect on employment and gender equality.
Second, consider economic empowerment. We have committed ourselves to equal pay and to the elimination of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. Yet in practice much remains to be done. The first component in the category of economic power is wage income and women lag behind men in all sectors of the economy. The fact remains the women are more likely to be casual workers and low-paid workers. Even in the civil service mean wages are lower for women than men. In the informal sector, which includes domestic workers, the gender-wage gap is even wider than in the formal sector. It is notoriously difficult to measure the amount of unpaid labour that women contribute at work and at home, but the African Gender and Development Index does consider it as a crucial factor and measures time use and non-market activities. Not surprisingly there are still many more male than female employers. More men than women take out loans from banks, business partners and business associations.
Poverty and unemployment are the greatest challenges we face and women are more likely than men to be at the mercy of these twin threats.
It is absolutely critical that women farmers are given access to services that will assist them and their families to survive on the land. Also women must be given equal access to land. The Department of Land Affairs has prioritised the removal of legal restrictions (marriage, inheritance, customary laws) to landownership. The policy is there; the implementation must follow through the various pieces of land legislation currently under discussion in Parliament.
Third, consider political power. There is no doubt that over the last ten years the number of women in representative positions in public life has grown immensely. Look at Parliament. In 1997 there were only 8 women permanent delegates in this House. In 2003 there are 20. The ratio in improvement in the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures has not been of the same order. Look at cabinet. In 1994 there were three women Ministers out of a cabinet of 27. In 2003 there are 9 women out of a cabinet of 29.
This is but one indication of government's commitment to gender equality. Another is the creation of a national gender-machinery (Office for the Status of Women in the Presidency etc) for the advancement of women at the highest level of government. The establishment of this machinery was one of the objectives of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Women's full representation and participation in decision-making positions in government, policy-making and political parties accelerates the transformation of gender inequality in society. On this indicator we score extremely well on the Index.
Challenges in the future
The progress towards gender equality in social and political power components of the Index has been impressive. Yet a question remains: what has been the impact of gender-sensitive legislation on the lives of the majority of women. Lots of laws that we pass have little or no impact on changing sexist attitudes at home or in the workforce.
Clearly laws like the 1998 Recognition of Customary Marriages Act have promoted the equal status of women. This Act is the most significant legislative recognition of equality to date. All existing customary marriages are fully recognized; and wives enjoy full proprietory capacity and an equal status with their husbands. It is difficult to over estimate the significance of this Act.
Yet a fundamental challenge remains in the passage of laws to protect women from gender-based violence and abuse. In the 1990s gender violence became a global issue. In 1992 the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) defined gender-based violence as a form of discrimination. The issue of gender violence has led to the emergence of rights that depend on the state's failure to protect women rather than its active violation of rights. The elimination of gender-based violence became a human right. This right was confirmed in the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women, where protection from violence was recognized as an international human right.
Part of our response to this was the 1998 Domestic Violence Act. This Act recognizes that domestic violence is a serious social evil and an obstacle to achieving gender equality. It was a critical step towards making women feel safer than before and in giving effect to s 12(c) of the constitution: "Everyone ... has the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources".
Conclusion
Let me conclude my reading a poem by Ingrid de Kok, whom many regard as our most exciting living poet. The poem expresses women's negotiating skills through a very traditional metaphor of women's work. It is called 'Mending' and it can be found in her collection called Transfer (1997).
In and out, behind, across
The formal gesture binds the cloth
The stitchery's a surgeon's rhyme,
a Chinese stamp, a pantomime
of print. Then spoor. Then trail of red
Scabs rise, stigmata from the thread
A cotton chronicle congealed
A histogram of welts and weals.
The woman plies her ancient art
Her needle sutures as it darts,
scoring, scripting, scarring, stitching,
the invisible mending of the heart.
Issued by the Office of the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, 16 September 2003
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