SA women need to be respected

There are few topics where there is as much lip service paid as there is to the situation of women. You saw it yesterday, on Women’s Day, as the great and the good proclaimed their commitment to the struggle of women to be free from discrimination, to be treated equally and to be free from the violence of men.

You will see it for the rest of August as the country supposedly celebrates the wonderful women we have.

Yet, come September 1, after the end of Women’s Month, very little will have changed.

Women – and particularly black women – will still be at the bottom of the social pyramid, treated like second-class citizens in virtually every interaction of their daily lives and relationships.

The abuse – for that is what it is – will come at the hands of those close to them, their menfolk, as well as men in general … and from the ingrained patriarchal systems which dominate society.

Women’s Day and Women’s Month have been marked in South Africa for many years … and yet women still get raped, murdered and assaulted in horrifying numbers.

It is disturbing that, as we report today, women are losing faith in the justice system, as they see their male tormentors getting away with it, either because of the incompetence of the system, or because the men within that system do not take women’s complaints seriously.

Today, according to nongovernmental organisation People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa), the number of women who don’t report attacks has more than doubled.

Changing attitudes starts with education and this must begin at primary school level, where boys must be taught respect for girls.

And those convicted of gender-based violence must be locked up.

If we don’t act to improve the lives of women, we cannot call ourselves a civilised country.