Aug-Sept 2014 K.indd

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www.cosatu.org.za • AUG/SEPT 2014

unions remains prohibited. That is why we should not keep quiet when women are exploited because of their socio economic plight. That is why when those that claim to be providing employment opportunities to women whilst degrading their dignity will always be condemned. As COSATU we have called for decent work and a living wage especially in the vulnerable sectors that are mostly occupied by women. As women in the trade union movement we have a responsibility to participate actively in shaping this movement through programmes that are informed by challenges confronting women in the communities, rural and suburban women. The triple crisis (unemployment, inequality, poverty) and triple oppression (race, class, and gender) continues to be at the face of women in our country and in the African Region. As the great revolutionary leader Samora Machel said: “Just as the struggle of African women cannot be waged and pursued outside the context of the struggle of our peoples for the liberation and emancipation of our continent, so the freedom of Africa cannot be effective if it does not lead, concretely, to the liberation of the women of Africa”.

It remains a fact that the economy of this country resides in the hands of white males and almost all the top 20 paid directors in JSE listed companies are white males. On average, each of the top 20 paid directors in JSE-listed companies earned 1728 times the average income of a South African worker[23]. On average, between 2007 and 2008, these directors experienced 124% increase in their earnings, compared to below 10% settlements that ordinary workers were forced to settle at. Having said this I must hasten to say that we must however not lose the dialectical interconnection on a gender struggle that includes males and the need to have such a struggle led by the women themselves. Women structures in our unions must begin to mobilise, organise young and old women and realise that they have a huge role to transform all types of patriarchal tendencies that exist starting by supporting women leaders elected and fundamentally, identifying leaders amongst themselves for strategic positions in leadership. In simple terms we need to ensure that the progressive gender resolutions adopted in our congresses are implemented and budgeted for and critically, political support for these structures is fundamental. We have a task to ensure that sexism in the movement including in the trade

focus on uplifting the position of the middle class woman and the rural working class woman remains at the margin of economic activity. The situation remains worse for rural women who are still faced with limited access to education and skills training, and limited access to other social services and modern infrastructure which further contributes to a life of poverty. Historically, rural women have lacked access to basic services and opportunities. Studies show that if rural women had equal access to productive resources, agricultural yields could reduce the number of chronically hungry people by between 100 and 150-million. Studies also show that women make up more than two-thirds of the world’s 796-million illiterate people. According to global statistics, just 39 percent of rural girls attend secondary school. This is far fewer than rural boys (45 percent), urban girls (59 percent) and urban boys (60 percent). But does this mean that there are no common struggles which must unite woman – the answer is there are many common struggles which women, regardless of their class position, will need to wage on the basis of a common platform and that is why formations like the Progressive Woman’s Movement which cuts across ideological lines are relevant.

Amandla!

24 Community Survey, 2007. [23] This is far worse than in the US, where it is estimated that CEO pay was 319 times that of the average worker in 2008. See America’s Bailout Barons, S. Anderson et.al, Institute for Policy Studies, 2009, p.2.

Gender Agenda