By Mary Otieno When I was a child, it was taken for granted that during my school vacation visits to relatives in Nairobi, I would spend much of the time doing household chores in exchange for little more than food, transportation, and the excitement of being in the city. Not until years later did I […]
gender equality
Posted inEquality
Gender equality progress is mainly all surface
You’d be forgiven for thinking this International Women’s Day is different from the others. In recent years, we have seen some apparently radical changes in the way women are seen as well as an expansion of opportunities. This year, it will seem to some, we can use the day to remember recent triumphs of female […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#FeesMustFall: You cannot ask women to be vocal in public and silent in private
There are many reactions to what is happening right now. There are feelings of annoyance, anger, feelings of injustice and indifference. The selection is an emotional buffet. But one thing no one can deny is that this is the stuff of legends. Many will remember, or make up, where they were during the epic #FeesMustFall […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Lifestyle
Normalising intimate partner violence among Soweto youth
By Matamela Makongoza, Mzikazi Nduna and Janan Dietrich One of the greatest challenges facing young people today is intimate partner violence. This is usually perpetrated by young men against their female partners. For instance, three out of 10 adolescent males in the Eastern Cape reported beating or raping their partners, and this type of intimate […]
Posted inEquality
#IlookLikeASurgeon: A hashtag campaign that leaves me cold
#ILookLikeASurgeon first appeared on my timeline a week or so ago. I was interested in it because I’m a surgeon in training. Background: it’s a campaign against gender stereotypes. Piggy-backing on a campaign called #ILookLikeAnEngineer, it aims to show that surgeons are no longer just good-looking white dudes (think: Chris Barnard in the sixties) flanked […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General, Health, Lifestyle
Fantasies of binaries: Why are we so uncomfortable with difference?
By Pierre Brouard By Sunday May 17 I would have participated in a panel discussion on LGBTI migrants and asylum seekers at an Idahot event organised by the Alliance Francaise in Sunnyside, Pretoria. Idahot is the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and is intended to celebrate sexual and gender diversity. This celebratory spin […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General
Truth: Ruminations on a photograph
By Dr Thirusha Naidu TRUTH Ruminations on a photograph of a woman and her malnourished child at the Apartheid Museum Johannesburg, South Africa Standing amidst signs proclaiming her “Yesterday’s TRUTH” Pot-bellied, gasp-eyed child slung across her hip A white ’n black portrait against a brick wall Strewn, like gold dust onto mine-dumps, from early eGoli […]
Posted inGender violence, General, News/Politics
Why I criticise the government, intombazane and other degrees of equality
As someone recently told me, “it’s very easy to criticise the government”. That is true, but deserves further thought. The reality is that this is exactly what our current political dispensation fought for. The lives lost, families torn apart and the blood shed was all done in the hope of creating the very freedoms that […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Africans have a responsibility to ‘make it happen’ for African women
By Rhulani Thembi Siweya March 8 was International Women’s Day, which has been celebrated throughout the world since 1911. This day is marked by various events from one country to another with young and old women at the forefront of these celebrations. This year the women’s day was celebrated under the theme “make it happen”. […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Do men deserve any praise?
As I hopped onto the taxi this morning, I spotted a man peeing on the side of the road. At that moment, as someone who is anti peeing on the side of anything, toilet seat included, I just swelled up with rage. I was also listening to a breakfast radio show as they spoke about […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Remembering Mandela the feminist
By Ntombenhle Khathwane As a black woman, like other black women, I have it tough. Especially in the world of business, corporate and academia: black women have to work harder than any other, including black men, to gain recognition, promotion or even entry. Since I left formal employment and started building a business, I have […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The river runs dry: Gender equality in South Africa
In 1789 France’s Ancien Regime, its monarchy and traditions, were swept away by the tide of the French Revolution — only for these laws and customs to reappear some years later. Struck by this, Alexis de Tocqueville remarked that it was as if a river had plunged underground and resurfaced a distance away, the river […]