Women Meet To Discuss Achieving Gender Parity
7 Dec 2008
7 Dec 2008
Women in government and non-governmental organisations met at the weekend to deliberate on how best to achieve the acceleration of gender parity ahead of next year's elections.
The two day consultative meeting was held by the Ministry in the Presidency, to encourage debate ahead of the 2009 elections as well as prevent backsliding in terms of representation and participation of women.
Government has set a target of 50 percent representation of women in political and decision-making positions in the country by 2015.
During the meeting on Saturday, Chairperson of the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women, Morutoa Storey pointed out that during the reshuffling of Cabinet earlier this year some positions which had been held by women were replaced by men.
She further said there was a need to explain the concept of the 50/50 quota properly as many men had the perception they would loose their job once quota was implemented.
"We are struggling to entrench the 50/50 quota and have not been dealing with this issue and explaining it properly, once you start talking about it, men think they will start loosing their jobs," Ms Storey said.
She said gender parity was essential for human development and the 50/50 campaign can improve beyond numbers and result in positive changes at society level.
"Justice can't be achieved if half of the population is unheard," Ms Storey said stressing a need to legislate the 50/50 quota and go beyond by including it in the Constitution.
Progress has been made with regard to fair representation of women in political and decision-making positions in all spheres of government. The country is currently rated 7th in the world in terms of representation of women in legislature.
Advocate Thuli Madonsela, Commissioner for the South African Law Reform Commission said it was a human right for women to participate on an equal footing with men.
She mentioned a lack of awareness of international obligation, institutional culture including race and gender bias, security concerns, parity power and resources for women as some of the challenges affecting the implementation of gender equity.
Claire Mathonsi, Women and Governance Programme Manager for the Gender Advocacy Programme cautioned women's issues should not be seen as election debate only to garner votes ahead of the 2009 elections.
According to the figures, the number of women in Parliament have increased to 33 percent between 2004 and 2008 with the majority of the percentage are from one political party.
However, in the past year, women representation has dropped from 15 to 12 percent.
"We are slowly loosing the gains that we have made, it's not good enough for one part utilising the quota," Ms Mathonsi said.
The two day consultative meeting was held by the Ministry in the Presidency, to encourage debate ahead of the 2009 elections as well as prevent backsliding in terms of representation and participation of women.
Government has set a target of 50 percent representation of women in political and decision-making positions in the country by 2015.
During the meeting on Saturday, Chairperson of the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women, Morutoa Storey pointed out that during the reshuffling of Cabinet earlier this year some positions which had been held by women were replaced by men.
She further said there was a need to explain the concept of the 50/50 quota properly as many men had the perception they would loose their job once quota was implemented.
"We are struggling to entrench the 50/50 quota and have not been dealing with this issue and explaining it properly, once you start talking about it, men think they will start loosing their jobs," Ms Storey said.
She said gender parity was essential for human development and the 50/50 campaign can improve beyond numbers and result in positive changes at society level.
"Justice can't be achieved if half of the population is unheard," Ms Storey said stressing a need to legislate the 50/50 quota and go beyond by including it in the Constitution.
Progress has been made with regard to fair representation of women in political and decision-making positions in all spheres of government. The country is currently rated 7th in the world in terms of representation of women in legislature.
Advocate Thuli Madonsela, Commissioner for the South African Law Reform Commission said it was a human right for women to participate on an equal footing with men.
She mentioned a lack of awareness of international obligation, institutional culture including race and gender bias, security concerns, parity power and resources for women as some of the challenges affecting the implementation of gender equity.
Claire Mathonsi, Women and Governance Programme Manager for the Gender Advocacy Programme cautioned women's issues should not be seen as election debate only to garner votes ahead of the 2009 elections.
According to the figures, the number of women in Parliament have increased to 33 percent between 2004 and 2008 with the majority of the percentage are from one political party.
However, in the past year, women representation has dropped from 15 to 12 percent.
"We are slowly loosing the gains that we have made, it's not good enough for one part utilising the quota," Ms Mathonsi said.
Source: http://www.buanews.gov.za/
