4 March 2011

Grannies are indispensable in South Africa. They may have been hoping for a restful old age, but the AIDS epidemic has seen them taking on motherhood for a second time, caring for grandchildren whose parents have died of the disease.
Despite her aching joints, 76-year-old Thandiwe Matzinga moves swiftly through the small corrugated iron home she now shares with three of her grandchildren: twin boys (15) and a seven-year-old girl whose mothers died of AIDS. Matzinga supports them and herself on government grants of 300 euro per month.

Luminaries from the worlds of politics, entertainment, business, the media, music and film are joining the United Nations today as it celebrates the birth of a powerful new agency giving voice to women and girls worldwide. UN Women - formally known as the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women - was established in July 2010 by the General Assembly, merging four previous UN bodies dealing with women's issues. "With the birth of UN Women, we welcome a powerful new agent for progress on gender equality and women's empowerment," says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "The challenges are great, but I believe that with the new energy, the new momentum and the new authority that UN Women brings, these challenges will be met. True gender equality should be our shared legacy in the 21st century."

In his Budget speech, Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan made specific reference to creating safer communities.  While we welcome the increases to the budget allocation, we await to see how the department of Police and Justice and Constitutional Development will spend it. With the technological revolution, we are fast becoming “online communities” and we are also seeing more crimes perpetrated using advanced technology. As  online spaces are also becoming unsafe (a reflection of what is happening in our society), especially for young girls and women, we need our police and justice system to respond to the challenges. Perpetrators of gender based violence are increasingly using technology to lure, track, monitor and stalk women and girls.

Access and the participation of women and girls in the field of science and technology will be the focus of this year's United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
During the CSW, which will kick off in New York on Tuesday, countries around the world, including South Africa, will need to answer a question on whether there has been any improvement in increasing the number of girls and women in the field of science and technology.
The CSW will focus on access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work.

The annual meetings of Commonwealth women's ministers and officials began on Saturday 19 February in New York, with an assessment of the progress and challenges in implementing the Commonwealth's 10 year Plan of Action for Gender Equality. The 24-member Monitoring Group is currently chaired by Hon Dr Shirin S Chaudhury, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, Bangladesh. Members discussed the prioritisation of work areas over the remaining five years of the plan - and how best to collaborate and assess the needs of women across the five regions of the Commonwealth.

During the International Sex workers' day, 03 March 2011, Sex workerstook to the streets of Johannesburg, in South Africa marching for their human rights. "We will not be made invisible, we will not be silences – we are human beings deserving of human rights! We want access to justice, health care and an end to the arrests of sex workers and we want to be able to work safely. We want our right to choose our own work and to be protected by labour legislation like other workers. We are marching to show sex workers that they are not alone! We are marching to stand together!"

March 8th marks the globally renowned International Women's Day which celebrates the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present and future. International Women's Day honours the work of the Suffragettes, celebrates women's success, and reminds of inequities still to be redressed. Suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote. The word 'Suffragette' is derived from the word "suffrage" meaning the right to vote. The first International Women's Day event was run in 1911.

United Nation’s theme for International Women's Day this year is Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women. Given this year’s theme, “..equal access to…technology” Women’sNet will commemorate International Women’s day during its hosting of the Feminist Tech Exchange from 7 to 9th March.