Where is a woman’s place?

THERE is huge merit in empowering women in maledominated fields where women are still being overlooked.

Of interest is how we base our approach.

For example, if we go the Harvard route, the difference between developed and developing countries is conspicuous.

However, gender equality is not seen as a women’s issue but rather a political, economic and social opportunity.

Hence, I reiterate why I consistently encourage women to enter politics and business because of the unique role they play – it gives women the competitive edge against their male counterparts.

The position then of South African women must be seen socio-politically.

In particular, Indian women need to take a stand on persevering in previously maledominated careers.

Our forefathers and mothers came as indentured labourers in 1860; and, 157 years on, South African Indian women, through sheer resilience, have succeeded in various fields by adapting to change.

The South African transition post-1994 brought the integration of different business cultures, which have transformed local experiences but is increasingly challenging for many professionals to operate in.

Our education system has changed, but we are still stuck in the old mode of teaching competencies and our work systems are not geared towards people’s cultures or gender strengths.

For women, there is a greater gap between their technical skills learnt at our tertiary institutions and their social skills required by employers and clients.

As a way forward, businesses and political parties must recruit and train women with such skills.

Parents only teach within the context of their ethnic culture but the scope of rearing girl children, and grooming them into assertive youth with a strong identity and confidence to adapt to the diversity in the workplace, must be greatly invested in.

Furthermore, for Indian people in general to be capable, economic discriminatory legislations, such as Affirmative Action, must be scrapped. What we need is empowering legislation to contribute effectively to our country of birth.

I firmly believe that the one free right, is the right to vote.

This actually empowers women and needs a lot more perseverance because in the past 23 years of our hardwon democracy, very few Indian women have become legislators.

Yet there are nine legislatures countrywide.

However, the skills needed for Indian women to enter politics means shedding the cultural barriers of careers, which are deemed a risk to women by family.

To achieve this, Indian female candidates need specialised training and mentoring by political parties and democracy development NGOs.

Therefore, in the 21st century, for South African Indian women, political participation presents challenges.

This requires empowerment in terms of partnerships between women and men as parliamentarians, as well as the business and NGO sector, with a focus to train women to exercise their political rights, to run an election campaign with funds and to deal with the media.

I emphasise these basic fundamental tools to shape and empower Indian women, together with the skills necessary to be developed because my view is simple: “If economics is the queen of the social sciences then politics must be king.”