Men must stop covering up for, or condoning, abuse

Johannesburg poet and writer Arja Salafranca summed it up perfectly in a tweet yesterday: “My wish for this Women’s Day is that we may no longer have need for such a day.”

The fact that there is a Women’s Day means the nation is enjoined to think about women – for a day and, at most, a month. As we recognise their achievements, we also mourn the position in which many find themselves – as second-class citizens and victims of a brutal, entrenched patriarchy.

That we need to have a Women’s Day means that women are a long way from being equal to the men who run the country and who run women’s lives.

So, how do we get to that place where Women’s Day – and the plight of women – is nothing more than a chapter in a history book?

It requires a revolution in thinking – and it is men, overwhelmingly, who are going to have to drive that
revolution.

First and foremost, men are going to have to accept that women are on the same level as them and that they
have no right – through culture, religion or just sheer physical strength – to dominate women.

Men must accept that gender roles – with the woman as housemaker, child-rearer and caregiver – are no
longer cast in stone and that they, men, will have to take on some of these duties.

Men must accept that there must be equal pay for equal work and that women must be given the same opportunities in the workplace as men.

Men must also stop covering up for, or condoning, abuse … whether sexual, physical, emotional or psychological. This perpetuates the festering cesspool in which gender-based violence thrives and multiplies.

Ours can never be a truly free society until women are free – in every aspect of their lives.