‘Women’s Day’ in South Africa is a misnomer

It is difficult not to be torn – intellectually and emotionally – about the concept of International Women’s Day, marked yesterday.

On the one hand, every occasion we have to highlight the plight of women should be grabbed with both hands.

However, against that is the nagging feeling that putting a name and a day to a campaign to improve the lives of women is more than a bit patronising … not to mention that it once again puts women in a psychological ghetto by “allowing” them one day to try to make their voices heard.

South Africa is probably the “poster boy” (and we use that expression deliberately) for the oppression of women. Our men beat them, rape them, murder them.

And won’t pay them what they are worth or anything like a man gets for the same job.

And, every year, those men – posing in plain sight as sympathisers – get to roll out the same platitudes. And every year, more women die. More women get raped. More women get beaten. More women suffer discrimination in the workplace.

Until we – the men and women – of this country realise we are the same human beings, our moral imbalance will continue.

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