A Brief History on Women’s Month in South Africa
9 August is Women’s Day in South Africa, it is a tribute to the 20 000 plus women who marched to the Union Buildings to protest against the extention of the apartheid pass laws to women.
A great genesis, but where are we with Women’s Day in 2020?
South Africa has one of the worst rates of femicide in the world, with the hashtag #StopKillingWomen trending on social media and multiple marches against gender based violence, taking place. Despite this the violence and incessant violence against women continues to escalate, particularly peaking during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The attitude of law enforcement towards this problem is painted in Trevor Noah’s biography “Born A Crime”. The devil-may-care attitude displayed by the police towards the physical abuse of his mother, is still faced by South African women today despite Women’s Day pledges or political rallies and the 16 Days of Activism campaign.
The day seems to be used as a means of driving other agendas or conversations outside the topic at hand. This morning I scrolled through my Twitter feed and saw a tweet from Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Twitter account. The tweet had the hashtag #EFFWomansDayRally, but the content is about the trouble brewing in Zimbabwe. While the Zimbabwe issue is a hot and burning one that needs to be addressed, again we see women used to drive another conversation and a self-serving agenda for a political campaign.
The women’s campaigns that I see run seem trite. More like a marketing gimmick, another way of getting a comrade to get their hands on money for an event – speak words of flattery then go home and support paternalistic attitudes towards women at best and anti-woman patriarchal ideals at worst. Political rallies are the worst, women in these organisations are kept silent as the men protect each other through the “bro-code” from any scandals and gender based violence scandals, only saying something when cameras are present and one is caught red handed.
It’s time to take back women’s day and disregard all who use it as a political or marketing gimmick. We need to drive actual conversations and decisions without apologetically asking for a seat at the table. It’s time to take back women’s day for what it is. Standing for something and taking our place in the forefront, swatting away any vultures who would try and grab credit for anything we accomplish. Let us not fall into the trap of trite and trivial celebrations of women’s day as it will be a disservice to our grandmothers who marched as the 20 000 strong army of 9 August 1956.