Download Commission for Gender Equality

Commission for Gender Equality
National Gender Summit 2014
Reviewing The Gains And Challenges Facing Gender
Equality, 20 Years of Democracy
Ekurhuleni, South Africa
9-11 April 2014
Introduction
• The purpose of the summit was to provide a platform for critical debate on
the attainment of gender equality in South Africa, and the challenges
experienced as the country celebrates 20 years of democracy.
• Through the summit the CGE sought to take stock of, and celebrate, gender
equality gains while critically assessing persistent shortcomings and gaps.
• The intention of the summit was to ascertain the current vision, political
climate and responsibility for working towards gender equality; assessing
policy effectiveness, strategy and capacity to attend the gender equality
commitments outlined in the South African Constitution, legal framework and
international obligations.
Summit Objectives
• The following were the main objectives of the summit:
 To celebrate achievements in promoting, attaining and protecting gender
equality since the inception of South Africa’s democratic dispensation in
994.
 To review changes within the country’s gender architecture and assess the
effectiveness of the National Gender Machinery (NGM).
 To consider the role of the National Council for Gender Based Violence
(GBV), the representation and collaboration of the critical role players in the
council, and its effectiveness in co-ordinating the implementation,
co-ordination and review of the 365 days National Action Plan on GBV.
 To review the legislative framework for gender equality and surface
implementation, challenges and failures as well as South Africa’s
compliance with international, regional and continental instruments that
promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Summit Objectives
 To identify challenges in building and sustaining an effective women’s
movement, and assess the effectiveness of South Africa’s women’s and
feminist movements.
 To discuss the impact of the role of masculinity in defining the role and place
of boys and men in a society premised on fundamental values of human
rights, gender equality and non sexism.
 To develop strategies to address persistent social barriers to gender equality
leading to particular forms of gender discrimination and abuse, such as
GBV, harmful and discriminatory practices, discriminatory and harmful
behaviours towards LGBTI people, sex workers and intersectional issues of
race, class and gender impacting on women
Summit Objectives
 Deliberate on the unequal burden on civil society and institutions such as the
CGE, indicating conditions and mobilising resources for necessary gender
equality interventions.
 Enable a regional and continental engagements and deliberations on
country interventions, international partnerships and global best practices in
promoting gender equality.
 Develop an action plan on strengthening gender equality institutions and
addressing challenges identified.
Summit Outputs
The following were the envisaged summit outputs:
• Development of a programme of action capturing recommendations for
strengthened gender equality institutions, policy formulation
and implementation.
• Development of appropriate and adequate local programmes of action on
promoting gender equality;
• Production of a report on the status of gender equality in South Africa, 20
years post democracy.
• A revival of feminist networking and activism on challenges to the
attainment of gender equality, and building an agenda for the women’s
movement post 2015, to inform national and international deliberations and
interventions in this regard.
Gender equality gains
•Constitution calls for equality, equal protection and benefit before the law; and
non-discrimination
•National Policy Framework on Gender Equality developed, establishing
National Gender Machinery, including the CGE and now the Women’s Ministry,
to address the social and economic marginalization of South African women
•Several anti-discriminatory laws promulgated - Employment Equity Act;
PEPUDA and Equality Courts; DVA; Recognition of Customary Marriages Act;
Sexual Offences Act; forthcoming WEGE Bill….
•Key regional and international protocols endorsed – CEDAW; Beijing Platform
for Action; SADC Protocol on Gender and Development; Protocol to the ACHPR
on the Rights of Women in Africa…
•Increase in women’s representation in politics and civil service…
•Active civil society that strives to hold the state accountable
Challenges to gender equality
•Failure to engender key development and policy frameworks (NDP; land
reform; climate change response ..)
•Failed implementation of gender mainstreaming of departmental
programmes and budgets. Conservative attitudes to gender equality (HR
issue); inadequate senior management commitment and accountability, targets,
skills and budgets, M&E mechanisms, location of GFPs..
•Gender equality reduced from political vision to “women’s empowerment” women viewed as a vulnerable group, along with children and people
with disabilities; interventions reduced to events
•State failure to adequately implement key legislation and international
treaties designed to address gender inequality and GBV – CEDAW; SOA; DVA
– training, policy frameworks and guidelines, allocation of resources,
enforcement challenges
•Inadequate funding for gender equality structures
Challenges to gender equality
•Very active civil society, but weakened by diminishing funding, and added
burden of services that should be provided by state (eg shelters for domestic
violence). Civil society is not consulted and recommendations are not taken
seriously by government.
•50/50 women’s representation not taken seriously in the private sector, the
judiciary or by all political parties.
•Institutional cultures are male dominated and remain untransformed –
women in management/leadership positions often isolated and without support
networks – leads to attrition.
•The criminal justice system fails women due to a lack of police training and
secondary victimization by the police and in the courts.
•There is a general neglect of LGBTI issues, rural women, women with
disabilities and sex workers, as well as violence against these communities.
Persistent inequalities
•Gender Based Violence: significant under reporting; lack of
funding for prevention and response interventions; duplication and
lack of coordination among stakeholders; unclear role of NCGBV;
lack of M&E of programmes; lack of access to justice and impunity
of offenders, inadequate services for survivors of GBV.
•Women are exposed to poverty in large numbers, especially in
the rural areas. Requires macro-economic response to structural
barriers to women’s equal accommodation in the formal economy.
Women’s inadequate access to education, training and skills
enhancement, micro finance for small businesses,
entrepreneurship opportunities and land ownership.
Inequalities
•Gender identities are enforced on people in hetero-normative societies, like
South Africa. Stereotypes and stigma against LGBTI people are perpetuated by
the media, in societal institutions and cultural perceptions. Attitudes of officials
and care workers are abusive and impact on the safety and rights of members
of these communities. LGTBI people experience domestic, cultural, legal and
employment barriers as well as hostility from the criminal justice system.
•Traditional and cultural practices that influence women in a harmful way
need interrogation (ukuthwala, ukuhlolwa, ukungena, FGM, early child
marriage). Many religious denominations still interpret religious texts in a
patriarchal way and undermine women’s equality. We also need an
understanding of the harmful practices of other race and religious groups in
South Africa.
Inequalities
•Women face economic, domestic, cultural and legal barriers to health care
and sexual and reproductive health rights and services. Men’s risk taking
behavior contributes to women’s ill health. Women need to be able to control
their own health and to have access to decent health care (private/public).
•There is no umbrella women’s movement that can take up gender issues and
demand interventions from government, because women’s organizations
organize sectorally.
•There has been a neutralization/depoliticization of the feminist project due to a
shift in the gender discourse. This has also depoliticized feminist activism.
Not all women’s organizations are feminist - how to bring feminism back into the
gender project?
•Men need space to organize and to discuss issues of masculinities. Men are
not a homogeneous group and those who do not benefit from patriarchy also
suffer. There should be a process of socialization to change attitudes of men
and boys.
Drivers of persistent inequalities
•Patriarchy and the specific forms it takes in South Africa
•Power relations between men and women
•Gender does not equal women: a discourse of gender that reduces equality to
a numbers game has depoliticized feminist activism. Merely appointing more
women to positions is not a feminist solution and formal equality does not
equal substantive equality.
•The technocratic use of gender mainstreaming (such as check boxes and
events) has robbed gender mainstreaming of its radical potential to change
institutional cultures and to include women’s concerns in policy and legislation.
•The silencing and marginalization of feminism as a set of ideas, as well as
feminist activism. Feminism reclaims a space for women, exposes power
relations, and looks for interventions that will change these power relations.
Conclusion
• The delegates collectively agreed on a Programme of Action (POA) that
outlines interventions needed to address areas of concern going forward.
• The POA identifies the actions and strategies to be implemented by relevant
structures to address the challenges that continue to face the gender sector
in the fight for gender equality and transformation.
• The delegates and stakeholders further committed themselves to ensuring
that the Programme of Action is implemented and that the structures
responsible for implementation are monitored to ensure accountability.
• The CGE was tasked with ensuring the full implementation of the
Programme of Action, and for engaging with the NGM and the identified
critical stakeholders.
Thank you
CGE Tipoff: 0800 007 709
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @CGEInfo