Women,+hidden+violence+of+discrimination,+Neva+Makgetla,+B+Day

Business Day, Johannesburg, 15 August 2006
=Women and the hidden violence of discrimination=


 * Neva Makgetla**

WOMEN’S Day this year was commemorated as never before, with demonstrations and speeches about the need to ensure women’s rights and equality.

All too often, however, the focus remained narrowly on the undoubted problem of violence and family oppression.

That approach ignores the hidden violence of discrimination that persists across the economy, denying women the independence they need to exercise their new rights.

In looking at the economy, it is dangerous to generalise. Although apartheid was most notoriously associated with racial discrimination, it made special provisions for black women, while giving white women a degree of equality and freedom.

The apartheid state essentially expected African women to stay home, preferably in the rural areas, and care for children and old people. For this reason, it made it more difficult for African women than for African men to obtain permits to stay in urban areas and to gain formal education, employment or credit.

In contrast, white women were hired and promoted instead of black people, and were able to hire black women to do the household work at starvation wages.

To reverse the legacy of apartheid, the constitution and a series of laws banned discrimination and demanded employment equity. The African National Congress government has promoted black women into leadership positions to an extent found in few other countries.

Nonetheless, too little has changed in the lives of most women. Because of mass unemployment, most must still depend on social grants or family support. That, in turn, leaves them open to abuse and violence. And women end up with most of the burden of caring for people with AIDS.

According to the September 2005 Labour Force Survey, only one woman in five had a formal job, compared to a third of men. Close to two out of five African women who looked for paid work couldn’t find it, compared to one in four African men. Another quarter of black women actually wanted paid work but did not count as unemployed because they had given up looking for it actively. For comparison, the unemployment rate was 7% for white women and 4% for white men.

In most cases, a woman still earns less than her male colleagues of the same race. In 2005, two out of five men earned less than R1500 a month, compared to three women in six. An African woman with a degree earned, on average, less than a white man with only matric.

Women, especially black women, are still less likely to be employed in supervisory positions. This is true even in education and health, where most employees are women professionals. Last year, African women made up almost a third of all employed people, but less than a 10th of senior management. In contrast, white men comprised less than a 10th of all employees — but 40% of senior managers.

Even with mass unemployment, the system of social grants gives millions of women an independent income.

But younger women, who face an unemployment rate of 64% (using the expanded definition), are eligible only for the child-support grant at R190 a month. That is hardly enough to live on.

Whether they have a paid job or not, most women in SA end up with the primary responsibility for caring for the family and home. Their burden is greater because many working class households do not have running water or electricity for cooking.

Statistics SA’s 2000 time-use survey found that the average woman with paid work outside the home spent three hours a day on home labour, compared to four hours a day for women without a paid job. On average, that was twice as much time as men.

Women with children aged under 18 averaged about an hour a day on childcare. Men spent just over five minutes a day.

In short, the laws on the books are just a first step toward equality. As long as there is massive unemployment, women are caught in a zero-sum game, making it almost impossible to gain equal economic opportunities. That, in turn, makes it very difficult to achieve equality in the family.

For women really to enjoy their constitutional and legal rights, they have to gain access to their own incomes — through social grants or, preferably, job creation.


 * Makgetla is a Congress of South African Trade Unions economist.


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A250223**

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