SA women still take back seat

DEMOCRACY: IN THE 25 YEARS SINCE THE 1994 ELECTIONS, EARLY OPTIMISM HAS EVAPORATED

Only vestiges of those early initiatives remain in place today.

Twenty-five years ago, on the eve of democratic transition, South African women were optimistic. They were confident of being included in democratic processes that would ensure greater representation for women and more spaces in the state to promote gender equality.

Before the first democratic elections in 1994, the Women’s National Coalition – a groundswell women’s movement that mobilised across race and party lines – consulted over one million women at grassroots level all over the country, to produce a Charter of Women’s Rights (a Bill of Rights for women).

By the time the election rolled around, the ANC Women’s League had negotiated a 30% party quota for women in parliament. This was no small feat.

More was to follow. The coalition – together with feminist activists and feminist academics – designed the architecture of structures in the state which they called the national gender machinery.

It consisted of the office of the status of women, the women’s empowerment unit, the joint monitoring committee on the quality

of life and the status of women, a multiparty gender caucus, gender desks in all state departments and commission for gender equality.

Feminist activists resisted the idea of a women’s department. They believed that it would lead to women’s issues being ghettoised and not being taken seriously.

The creation of these structures was seen as a deliberate attempt to build institutions that would develop routines and practices to enforce gender equality.

SA had one of the most comprehensive sets of structures on the continent and in the world. Australia used to have a comprehensive set of structures, while the US has policy agencies for women.

The initiatives in SA put the country at the forefront of creating state institutions that represented the interests of women in the legislature, the executive and the state. To aid women’s presence, the commission for gender equality was set up as a watchdog of government on gender equality.

That early optimism has evaporated. While vestiges of those early initiatives remain in place – such as a 50% quota (that was negotiated in 2007 after President Jacob Zuma came to power) plus a raft of new laws to protect women – it would be fair to say that the quota combined with the state structures did not lead to substantive representation for women. That’s to say that women’s presence in government has not lead to women’s issues being prioritised on the political agenda.

During the first parliament, feminists made legislation that would change the face of gender