equality

The United Nations (UN) official driving the global women’s agenda has called on countries to ensure that laws enacted to protect women and girls are enforceable with strict consequences.

UN Women executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, points out that, “We will address complete access to education in all countries for girls.”

One in three women across the globe still face forms of sexual and physical violence, something she hopes will be drastically reduced as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

President Jacob Zuma says the African continent is still faced with a deficit in women leadership.

Every year on the 8th March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to take stock of what has been achieved in relation to women emancipation.

Speaking at the Africa for African Women's conference in Port Elizabeth, Zuma says the continent is moving slowly in electing female presidents compared to other regions in the world.

Rights organisation, Gender Links, says that, "Cultural practices and customary laws in Southern Africa Development Committee (SADC) limit women's ability to access, own and control means of production such as land and livestock."
 
The organisation believes that the inability by women to access means of production has had an impact on their economic independence and ability to move out of poverty.
 

Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela states that it is time for women to claim their place at the main table where Africa’s fate is being decided, where decisions on distribution of resources are being made, and Africa’s contribution to the fate of the world as a whole is being determined.

Speaking at the Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government awards, Madonsela warned that shying away women would be dishonouring the women who came before them and failing to provide an example to the girl child.

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) says that as the country celebrates 20 years of democracy, women are still faced with a number of challenges.

The commission, which is an independent and statutory body created in terms of the South African Constitution, states that one of the challenges that women face is being discriminated against because of their gender.

CGE chairperson, Mfanozelwe Shozi, has been speaking at the start of the three day national gender summit in Benoni in Ekurhuleni on Gauteng's East Rand.

North West Premier, Thandi Modise, says equal rights and opportunities for women are crucial to building healthy economies and societies.
 
Modise’s comments come as the country joined the world in celebrating International Women's Day on Saturday, 8 March 2014.
 
In a press statement, Modise explains that, "Women's full and equal participation in the political and economic arena is crucial to democracy and justice, because equal rights and opportunity underpin healthy economies and societies.” 
 

The Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill has been criticised in Parliament for not making provision for the advancement of gays and lesbians in the workplace.

This emerged on 30 January 2014 during the second day of public hearings on the bill, which is being sponsored by the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities.

In its submission, the Legal Resources Centre argues that the bill should not limit issues of gender equality and inequality as being issues between men and women, and girls and boys.

The FW de Klerk Foundation states that the ruling that it is unfair for the Department of Correctional Services to only use national demographics in implementing affirmative action targets is a victory for equality.
 
The foundation believes that the way the Employment Equity Act sought equality through demographic representation fell short of the constitutional values of non-racialism.