Programme director Mrs Majola
Prof Mazwe Majola
CEO of BP- Ms Taelo Mojapelo
Energy SIEMENS MD – Mr Thabo Molekoa
Book contributors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning

Let me start by congratulating you for the launch of this book in women and hosting this event. I think it is timely and a necessary intervention to our national discourse. Our country seems to be at war with women. 

It is very unfortunate that as women we still have to shout to be heard, we still have to justify why we should be treated better, in all spheres of our lives, by our male counterparts. As I was reading the book, I was filled with apprehension and excitement at the same time, to learn that the expression glass ceiling was coined in the month and the year, May 1978, in which I was born. We both turned 44 years old this year. 

The apprehension was because 44 years later women still have to break the glass ceiling. According to the essay in the book written by Nollie Maoto entitled “Breaking the glass ceiling: Practical ways through the invincible barrier”, which is the first chapter of the book, the Glass ceiling is “often the result of unconscious bias – instinctive underlying beliefs about ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, social class, religion and so on.” Simply put, gender discrimination is irrational and a relic of the past that refuses to die. More significantly, gender discrimination continues to thrive because of the underlying economic advantage that men continue to enjoy at the expense of women.

This year, 47% of South African women were recorded as economically inactive. This means that almost half of the working age women in South Africa are not part of the mainstream economy compared to 35,6% of their male counterparts. According to the International Labour Organisation, the latest global labour force participation rate for women is about 47% compared to 72% for men. It should worry all of us productive potential of South Africa women in the labour market remains unused.

Women who are economically active often find themselves employed in vulnerable and precarious employment compared to men. According to statistics South Africa, 5,8% of employed women occupy management positions, compared to 9,8% of employed men.Generally, women in the workplace are faced with many challenges which include that:

Most vulnerable sectors have a highly variable demand cycle which imposes unsocial working hours on employees and can make shift patternsunpredictable, both of which are difficult to reconcile with family and care responsibilities.

Seasonal work can demand very high levels of time commitment during some parts of the year, while offering little or no work during the off-season.

Businesses can be located at some distance from residential areas, particularly in poorer countries and communities, imposing both travel and time costs on women who frequently have limited access to both financial and time-flexibility resources.

Certain work areas are traditional male preserves in terms of employment opportunity and work culture, and this can act as a major barrier to female access and opportunity. As Bongani Mthombeni-Moller, observes in Chapter 12 of the book, “women in engineering are expected to be tough as nails, should show no weakness and should not allow their family circumstances to effect through-put – ever.” This is not practical.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic women suffered higher rates of job losses than their male counterparts and this because women are over-represented in informal and vulnerable employment. A study by the United Nations development programme on the impact of COVID-19 in South Africa found that at the household level, female-headed households are more likely to fall into poverty than male-headed households.

Similarly, women entrepreneurs also face an uphill battle when starting or growing their businesses. They still face challenges such as:

Lack of access to finance

Gender Bias or Gender Discrimination of Women Entrepreneurs

Lack of Education and Training

balancing work and family life

finding a support network that shares their understandings and goals

I agree with those who have characterised the scourge of gender based violence in our country as a pandemic. What this pandemic does to women is to imprison them in fear. They live in fear that at any time they too can fall victim to this pandemic. I think we all know and agree that it is hard to exploit your full potential when you are living in fear. I Agree with Katlego Majola, who in her essay on Chapter 4 points out that “The journey to ascend the leadership ladder for women is filled with many challenges, distractions, hurdles, opposition and stereotypes, amongst other things.” However, these challenges 
are not insurmountable. As women we have no other choice but to overcome these challenges. 

My excitement about the notion of “breaking the ceiling” stemmed from a sense of optimism I felt that the time has indeed come for women to finally break the glass ceiling. My optimism stems from the fact that as women standing and seated here today and claiming our rightful place, we are standing on the shoulders on giants. Heroines of our struggle for change who refused to be silenced, who refused to be defined by stereotypes of gender roles but decided to fight to break the glass ceiling.

We stand on the shoulders of the women who marched in 1956 to demand their political rights as equal citizens of this country. I speak of heroines such as Helen Joseph, Lillian Ngoyi, Sophie Du Bruyn and many others. We stand on the shoulders of the women who kept the fires of the struggle against apartheid under the most challenging circumstances. I speak of women such as Winnie Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, Rita Ndzanga who sadly passed away last week, and many other unsung heroines.

The most important lesson these heroines have taught us is that it is possible. It is possible for women to lead. It is possible for women to stand up against injustice wherever it rears its ugly head. It is possible to “break the ceiling”. 

We each of us have to ask yourselves what kind of society do we want build? What vision for the future do we have for the institutions we lead? What is it that we are doing to ensure that such a society or such a vision becomes a reality? Indeed, our response to these questions needs to recognise the multidimensional nature of the struggle for women emancipation. It is unavoidable that any practical struggle for women emancipation and empowerment will have to implement the following, in line with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action:

On the economy:

Restructuring and targeting the allocation of public expenditures to promote women’s economic opportunities and equal access to productive resources and to address the basic social, educational and health needs of women, particularly those living in poverty; Department of Human Settlements has set aside 40% on all its grants for women.

Establishing mechanisms and other forums to enable women entrepreneurs especially in the informal sector (e.g. micro-businesses) to contribute to the formulation of policies and programmes being developed by economic ministries and financial institutions;

On access to finance:

Encouraging links between financial institutions and non-governmental organizations and support innovative lending practices, including those that integrate credit with women’s services and training and provide credit facilities to rural women.

Mobilizing the banking sector to increase lending and refinancing through incentives and the development of intermediaries that serve the needs of women entrepreneurs and producers in both rural and urban areas, and include women in their leadership, planning and decision-making;

On closing the pay gap and equitable work environment:

Promoting gender-sensitive policies and measures to empower women as equal partners with men in technical, managerial and entrepreneurial fields and equal pay for work of equal value;

Adjusting employment policies to facilitate the restructuring of work patterns in order to promote the sharing of family responsibilities;

On fighting poverty:

Enabling women to obtain affordable housing and access to land by, among other things, removing all obstacles to access, with special emphasis on meeting the needs of women, especially those living in poverty and female heads of household;

On gender based violence:

Our society must punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons;

Creating or strengthen institutional mechanisms so that women and girls can report acts of violence against them in a safe and confidential environment, free from the fear of penalties or retaliation.

In 1956, 20.000 women of all races, some with babies on their backs, from the cities and towns, from reserves and villages, marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The nonracial and multi-class character of the march has a lot to teach us today. Instead of advancing, our country seems to regressing from non-racialism and non-ethnicity. Today, we hardly ever see women of different races coming together and uniting behind a common struggle. This needs to change.

It is true woman emancipation is not only women’s business, it is everybody’s business. However, as women, especially who have been privileged enough to assume leadership positions, we bear the responsibility to further advance the struggle women’s emancipation. As the saying goes “with privilege comes responsibility”. We need stand together as women regardless of race, ethnicity and class and confront the demon of gender discrimination head on. Again Katlego correctly points out that “it is practically impossible to paralyse a subjective and oppressive system when one is suppressing 
one’s own.” 

We need to be imbued with a spirit that says “when you come up as a women bring someone with you”. “When a door is opened for you, when you go in keep the door open for other women”. This is the message the Mama Charlotte Maxeke sent us who aspire to work in here footsteps when she said “This work is not for yourselves. Kill that spirit of self and do not live above your people but live with them and if you can rise, bring someone with you.”

There is no greater way to celebrate women’s month than to confront the current state of women’s struggle with courage and determination. There is a determined effort to drill into women’s heads that the demand for change in their favour is an affront on manhood. There is an underlying suggestion that somehow men are more deserving and born to lead better than their women counterparts. We must 
resist this patronising attitude that only betrays the self-entitlement of men. The time for change is now.

Congratulations again for the launch of this fine book.

Malibongwe!

I thank you