Does South Africa attend to issues which affect women the most?: a reflection

Abstract

In this reflection I pose this question and thus reiterate a concern that has been raised by different scholars writing on gender and social justice. This question has been posed from a variety of angles to list a few: by scholars writing on HIV and AIDS (Mswela 2009, Muthree and Maharaj 2010), women's inability to enforce the use of condoms (Boonzaier and de la Rey 2003, Mash et al 2010), and intimate partner violence (Fox 2007, Norman 2010). Despite highlighting these concerns, there are a number of human rights gains that South Africa and the world at large can list with regard to the emancipation of women. A significant decade for women was the 1980s and the policies that emanated from the Beijing conference. Resulting from this landmark conference, numerous discussions and a number of programmes aimed at improving women's lives have been spearheaded by the UN and some sovereign countries, including South Africa. Invariably, a call for the recognition of women as equal citizens is made by Hassim, Metelerkamp and Todes (1987), Bennettt (1993) and Meintjes (1996). Concerned about issues that affect women the most, these subjects are insistently probed by these authors both as social and institutional issues and at an individual level.