Jaya Josie, Adjunct Professor, University of Venda
August is Women’s Month in South Africa and, is a time to reflect upon and evaluate the progress women in South Africa in particular, and BRICS in general, have made over the past 67 years. On 9 August 1956, twenty thousand South African women representing all communities in the country, marched to the Apartheid government offices in the Union Buildings in Pretoria. For the past sixty-seven years, 9 August was commemorated as Women’s Day in South Africa. It marks the day that the women of South Africa stood up to the Apartheid regime to protest the extension of Pass Laws to African women.
On 31 July 2014, the Women’s Movement in South Africa, in conjunction with government, declared August Women’s Month. This declaration was in response to the ongoing struggles of women in South Africa and in response to the United Nations’ call on all countries to move towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. For women in South Africa and the BRICS nations in general, the SDG 5 speaks to gender equality.
The SDG 5 calls upon all nations to: “End all forms of discrimination against women an girls everywhere; Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation; Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation; Recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and family; Ensure women’s full and effective participation and opportunities for leadership and decision-making; Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights; Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, ownership, property, financial services and inheritance; Enhance the use of enabling technology in ICT to promote women’s empowerment, and finally, Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.”
Almost all these sub-goals in SDG 5 were first discussed and encapsulated in the Beijing Platform of Action that emanated from the fourth UN World Conference On Women in September 1995 in China. Women from South Africa, China, India, and from the Global South played an important role in defining the Beijing Platform of Action.
In 2023, women in South Africa have decided that this year they will place special emphasis on SDG 5 that calls for the women and girls social and economic empowerment contributing to their ability to pursue their right to a healthy life. In 2023 the official theme for celebrating Women’s month in South Africa is: “Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Improved Resilience”.
This theme links South Africa to the international campaign on Generation Equality as part of its efforts to achieve gender equality by 2030 in line with SDG 5. Underpinning this theme is a commitment to stand against a system that controls women to being subservient and passive beings at the mercy of man. In a journal article on empowerment and entrepreneurship in 2013, Al-Dajani H. and Marlow S., women empowerment is defined as a process where women are agents in the continuous cycle of enhancing abilities to control choices, decisions and actions.
As part of SDG 5 this agency is integral to inclusive and sustainable development, as economic empowerment contributes to the pursuance of the right to a healthy life (Empowerment and entrepreneurship: A theoretical framework. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 503–524. https://doi. org/10.1108/IJEBR-10-2011-0138).
Women and girls’ social and economic empowerment contributes to their ability to pursue their right to a healthy life. In South Africa today there is an awareness that socio-economic empowerment is contingent upon sustainable economic development and empowering women to be an integral part of that process. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) data shows that globally, women compromise 49.6 % of the population but have fewer opportunities to control their lives and make decisions. In a report on BRICS countries the ILO reports that with respect to women empowerment in BRICS countries, challenges remain despite all the group’s members having ratified the 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention.
The biggest challenge is not implementing the Convention in national legislation and consequently structural discrimination in employment persists. The BRICS countries need to put in place legal, institutional and government policy frameworks to deal with the roots of the discrimination. While gender equality in education and employment contributes to economic growth and development. The 2022 SDG UN Gender Inequality Index across 129 countries shows that BRICS countries are under-performing against the international average on gender.
A recent academic study on the role of women in economic development in BRICS by Pandey M. K., Sergeeva I. G. in 2022, in the (Journal of New Economy, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 43–65. DOI: 10.29141/2658-5081-2022-23-1-3) confirms the under-performance of BRICS countries when it comes to gender disparities.
The empirical study by Pandey and Sergeeva, used 2000 to 2021 World Bank data to assess women’s empowerment according to the UN Gender Inequality Index with respect to empowerment, health, and labour markets. The study found that the BRICS lag far behind when it comes to real justice for women’s empowerment. Of the five countries, China and Russia were found to have put the greatest effort in reducing gender gap between women and men. Brazil is making some effort but still lags behind, while South Africa and India are confronted by deep-seated cultural problems and dynamics that mitigate against structural changes. In India women carry the burden of home maker, producers of goods and services and caregivers.
According to the World Bank, women’s contribution to the GDP in India is the lowest in the world as many of them are employed in the farming and dairy industry, their contribution is ignored. In addition, the study found that gender based violence against women is increasing at an alarming rate. Furthermore, the study raised the issue of Indian women in rural areas without easy access to health services and their low literacy levels accompanied by low economic status, and lack of awareness of services compounds this disparity.
The study found that over the last forty years China has made progress in almost all areas when it comes to disparities faced by women. The UN recently reported that over the period, China managed to eliminate absolute poverty, especially in rural areas. This investment has led to women’s economic empowerment and equality in general. In particular China embarked upon reforms that promote women and girls in higher education, mainstream employment, better wages and entrepreneurship. In the rural areas, China has programs for vocational training, literacy courses, practical training in agricultural technologies and business and practical training to help them start their online business.
Despite nineteen years of post-apartheid government, the study found that in the twenty-first century, women South Africa are still held back by the traditional beliefs about gender roles in society. However, post-apartheid South Africa has given women more opportunities but this is accompanied by new obstacles. The women’s movement that grew out of the Struggle against Apartheid in the 1950s, has been consolidated into a powerful new force in the struggle against inequality and economic disparity for women. However, notwithstanding this development the ILO reported in 2017 that women constituted 51% of the total South African population, and yet their participation in the workforce was only at 44.3%, and at lower levels of employment.
The Pandey and Sargeeva study suggests that even in 2021, gender-based discrimination and segregation persist in the labour market where women are in low paid, poor quality, miserable working conditions, and no access to social protection jobs in South Africa. Although the post-apartheid government has introduced policies and legislation in favour of women, they face the main challenge of dealing with the inequality in accessing basic social services in health, education, transport, housing and justice against gender-based violence.
To break through the glass ceiling that prevent women from attaining their potential, women in all the BRICS countries need the support and encouragement from the forthcoming BRICS heads of state summit. The summit needs to address the challenges listed in this article if the heads of state wish to promote economic growth and development in the BRICS.
The Pandey and Sargeeva study make several important recommendations that the BRICS should consider. The study recommends work-life integration to improve productivity where working mothers may benefit from workplace flexibility; increasing and enabling access to public and private finance and resources and investment to open markets for women entrepreneurs; promoting internet technology amongst women to enable women in the workforce to be connected locally and globally; address barriers that prevent women from accessing leadership positions by creating opportunities for women; and finally, providing quality education to advance gender equality in the workforce by motivating private and public sector employers to provide ongoing education and training for women.
If the BRICS Summit takes decisions to promote these recommendations for the women in BRICS, then South African women will feel justified in the country hosting BRICS related activities in South Africa.