August 9th marks National Women’s Day in South Africa and to celebrate, Girls & Football SA organized a mini-game day at the Fives Futbol fields in Cape Town, South Africa.
In addition to recognizing International Women’s Day on 8th March – South Africa celebrates its very own National Women’s Day on 9th August. Since 1994 Women’s Day has been a public holiday, but the roots of the celebration are found in 1956, when 20, 000 women marched on Pretoria to petition against a further strengthening of the pass laws.
The march was regarded as an expression of courage and determination of the country’s women, which represented all races and layers of society, and had delegates from as far away as Cape Town and Port Elisabeth. Current prime minister J. G. Strijdom refused to meet with the women, but was delivered 100 000 signatures that the Federation of South African Women had collected in protest to the further restriction on people’s movement planned by the apartheid government. On the South African government’s web pages today it is noted how this “was a turning point in the role of women in the struggle for freedom and society at large. Since that eventful day, women from all walks of life became equal partners in the struggle for a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.” FSAW continued to work closely with the ANC, and showed continuously how “the stereotype of women as politically inept and immature, tied to the home, was outdated and inaccurate.”
These days, the South African government has declared that the entire month of August is to be considered Women’s Month, and the African Union has further declared 2010-2020 to be African Women’s Decade. This focus is commendable, and South Africa’s progressive constitution, gender equal policies and strong commitment to the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) indicates that things are moving in the right direction. However, most women in South Africa still experience on a daily basis the gender discrimination engrained in society. Despite advances made in political life, women are still often under-represented in the economy, and young girls are a high-risk group as victims of crime, rape and HIV-infection.
For these reasons, National Women’s Day serves as a much needed pause for reflection over where South Africa is today, and where it wants to be in terms of gender equality. Speeches and marches are held, but also more informal events to celebrate female strength and passion. We wish all in South Africa and the rest of the world a happy women’s day!
