Editorial | SA still battles inequality nearly after 66 years of struggle

Gender-based violence and gender inequalities are still underlying issues facing women.

This day, marks a prominent historical day for South Africa to celebrate great strides by women, however, gender struggle is still a concern.

The pivotal role by women in the liberation movement in general, key women achievements in all sectors, and groundbreaking moments in our recent history that continue to pave the way for the future of women in society ought to be highlighted in Women’s Month.

It is unfortunate, however, that what we see in the media space with cases of gender based violence, murder and rape, leaves a lot to be desired.

Women’s march took place on this date 66 years ago in Pretoria, Gauteng province where 20,000 women protested against the apartheid pass laws.

Federation of South African Women (FSAW) came to effect in 1954, a liberation struggle organization fought for women’s rights.

The aim of FSAW was to bring unity amongst women of the country and bring equality irrespective of race.

A Women’s Charter was adopted to call for equality between men and women.

The question that remains in the country is that, after all of this struggle and after 66 years, are women equal to men?

Inequality in Education

There’s high rate of girls who enroll in primary and secondary schools than boys. But that doesn’t make things to be better, as those careers that were traditionally meant for men, the truth is that they are still dominated by men.

In tertiary level, reports indicates that 13% of women graduate with STEM(Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) qualifications.

This means that men account for the remaining 87%.

In STEM, studies has shown that only about 28% of women enter the workforce.

According to statistics, more women are mostly likely to be unemployed than men, the reason behind this may be that hard labour is still dominated by men.

Gender-based violence

Studies have shown that a woman is raped every 36 seconds.

Women still endure hardships of abuse from men and there’s high rate of gender-based violence cases.

In many instances these women die at the hands of their loved ones.

On the streets, there is no refuge, and women continue to experience all sorts of abuse in their neighbourhoods, churches, workplace, and every other institution in society.