Women were recently urged to be steadfast in their quest for emancipation in a world that seems to be skewed against their social well-being and progress.
This was said during Women’s Month when in August, society ponders solutions to their plight of inequality. Despite being a majority, many are subservient to men, hence the term ‘in a men’s world’ where many are maimed and killed by intimate partners. According to the United Nationa, this makes the home the most dangerous place for them. Many are also denied equal access to opportunities and due recognition for their role in nurturing society from cradle to the grave.
This was a theme that female social entrepreneur Moleboheng Matli highlighted as necessary for women, supportive men and society, in general, to think about this month. “We should seek a fairer world with men as equals and not compete in the home when nurturing and caring for children and family, change the working environment to ensure equal remuneration for similar work and enable women to lead in their struggle for emancipation,” Matli said.
A graduate, businesswoman and head of Matli Foundation, she was born a ‘farm girl’ in the Free State and counted herself as lucky but deserved, to have started her formal working life in the presidency of Thabo Mbeki. “Most policies for the democratic dispensation on gender equality and women’s themes were crystalised then but not always implemented.”
This she said resulted in the public service practice and social discourse not acculturating gender fully in the home which is the basic tenet of society and at the workplace. “Things ought to change from the family unit and cascade upwards as part of the building blocks for social change rather than relying on enforcement measures.”
She urged women to seek social emancipation first before all other hierarchical needs often associated with material issues. Their full emancipation requires a new social thinking, behaviour and conduct as a way of life practised in the home and community, particularly among women if they are to be effective leaders of their desired change. “We instead, embroil ourselves in self-destruction through the pull her down syndrome rather than building a culture of sisterhood for our benefit.”
This she said, results in misplaced energy and effort and, silo mentality for individual gain at the expense of complementing each other for the broader benefit. “We should unite if we are to influence men and get their full support,” she said.
While the rural farm background exploited her grandparents’ labour, Matli also lived through the grinding poverty of informal township life with her parents and later, a single mother. She drew her personal strength from the mother who parented and managed to educate all her offspring at a time when patriarchy was interwoven with the struggle against apartheid.”
Often it’s the pulse in the heart of women that get society going she said, referring to the mother’s own education was promoted by an uneducated grandmother. “She smuggled her away to school when the grandfather who discouraged education for girls was away.”
Matli said this about the continuing lesser emphasis on the education of girls. “More ought to be done for them beyond the once-off take-a-girl-child-to-work and the limited mentorship programmes. “The nation loses potential leaders when their innate nurturing instincts are not complemented with education to help curb many social ills like violence, criminality and also corruption.”
Women she said are naturally selfless and born to care but are changed in attitude later on life through the influence of men’s outlook on life. “We can be the solution to most of the crisis besieging the country”
She urged for the sisterhood to urge girls to aspire, value education, honesty and openness towards each other when seeking solutions. “In that way, we will turn our scars into stars.”
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