Women's Day 2019 – Restoring dignity
8 August 2019
South Africa celebrates National Women’s Day on 9 August every year in commemoration of the 1956 march of approximately 20 000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. They marched to petition against the laws requiring South Africans who were classified as black in terms of the Population Registration Act,to carry pass books. This year, the South African Government has selected the theme “25 Years of Democracy: Growing South Africa Together for Women’s Emancipation”. In celebrating Women’s Day under this hopeful umbrella, it’s important to have an honest conversation about the actual state of affairs for women living in this democracy.
25 years after the dawn of a democratic South Africa, women still find themselves short-changed - despite the fact that the Constitution and successive court judgements are supposed to guarantee their equality in all aspects of their lives. In 2019, women’s decisions are not respected by, for example, officials of the Department of Home Affairs, despite indicating the wish to retain their surnames upon marriage. Women (often without the help of a partner) raise children for whom they cannot obtain birth certificates and enrol in schools. Women in South Africa live in perpetual fear for their lives following an astronomically high femicide rate - five times that of the global average. Until recently, women married in terms of theRecognition of Customary Marriages Actprior to the 1998 commencement date, had no rights to marital property. Young girls in the poorer areas of South Africa are forced to miss school often, due to the high cost of sanitary products. These anecdotes paint a clear, if not depressing, picture of the state of affairs for women in the country - one of inequality across the board.
Gender inequality is not a construct that is only perpetuated by flawed laws, prejudicial public officials and violent men. Every day, women are met with the punishment of being born female when they enter shops, in the form of what has come to be known as “Pink Tax”. This term refers to the retail phenomenon that charges women more than men for similar goods or services rendered. For example, women have been known to pay more for toiletries than men do, or be charged more for dry-cleaning, simply because they are women. A plethora of research has been done about Pink Tax and whilst, slowly but surely, we are moving towards equal pricing for similar items, it is common knowledge that products marketed to women are marked up - for no reason other than the fact that the target audience identifies as female.
The pricing of goods labelled “for women” also targets a specific category of women - those who menstruate.