Gender Empowerment

The dissatisfaction index and the gender penalty
How does South Africa stack up? And where to from here?

At the outset, let us acknowledge that South Africa (still a toddler, after all, when it comes to democratic rule) has come a long way since 1994. It has been nearly 70 years since 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest draconian pass laws. These strong, resilient women left a list of more than 100 000 signatures outside the Prime Minister’s door, singing “Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo” (You strike a woman, you strike a rock). There has been progress toward creating a society in which all people have equal rights, where all people feel empowered, and in which the myriad and varied voices of the Rainbow Nation can be heard. Simultaneously it would be disingenuous to ignore areas in which we are lagging, as it denies us the ability to close the gaps.

Since 2006, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has published a Global Gender Gap Report, which serves as a tool to assess the progress of numerous countries and regions toward achieving gender parity (where all genders are equally empowered).

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