{"id":3817,"date":"2020-08-26T13:20:25","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T13:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracamacheltrust.org\/?p=3817"},"modified":"2020-08-26T13:20:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T13:20:25","slug":"gender-equality-realising-womens-rights-for-an-equal-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/featured\/gender-equality-realising-womens-rights-for-an-equal-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender equality: realising women’s rights for an equal future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Eye for Ebony<\/p><\/div>\n

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Thursday, August 9, 1956, might have begun like any other day but it South Africa; it marked a turning point in the country\u2019s history. In one of the largest protests ever held in the country, 20,000 women of all races marched to Pretoria\u2019s Union Buildings with a petition containing more than 100,000 signatures. Organized by Federation of South African Women (FSAW or FEDSAW) petition was to protest a new law that targeted those defined as \u2018black\u2019 to carry a pass in a bid to maintain population segregation among other unjust restrictions during the apartheid era.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The women reportedly sang a song Wathint` abafazi, Strijdom! (You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock). This phrase has since come to\u00a0<\/span>represent the courage and strength<\/a><\/span>\u00a0of South African women. This powerful show of unity would go on to have a ripple effect for generations to come. Interestingly, it wasn\u2019t until 1995 a year after South Africa transitioned from the system of apartheid to one of majority rule that the first National Women’s Day was celebrated on August 9. Subsequently, August was declared National Women\u2019s Month!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Since then National Women\u2019s Month has been a time to underline several issues including education for girls, gender pay gap, discrimination, harassment and violence in the workplace and home. This year\u2019s theme is \u2018Gender equality: realising women’s rights for an equal future\u2019. A theme that ties well, with a lot of the work that the Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust is involved in.\u00a0Like the women who marched 64 years ago, the Trust boasts of diverse networks of women from different walks of life and in different professions in over 16 countries across the continent. <\/span><\/p>\n

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This year on Women\u2019s Month celebration, the Graca Machel Trust chose to shine a light on women who have led with the courage to ensure that the marginalised voices and faces of women everywhere are recognised and acknowledged. This comes in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, whose reply effect is currently being felt globally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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As our founder Gra\u00e7a Machel noted in\u00a0<\/span>a collaborative open letter<\/a><\/span>, \u201cthe fragility of African health systems is revealing itself and women and children are most vulnerable to the lack of attention and adequate specialized services the diversion COVID 19 is causing resulting in an anticipated surge in child and maternal mortality\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite this pandemic has reminded us all of the resilient nature of women. This resilient nature that affords women the strength to rise above their circumstances to soar into the opportunities that lie ahead. The Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust networks members have been engaged in work that sees them take an intentional stand to be at the forefront of the rebuilding of our world. A world that will be built back better, equal and just for all because the normal of yesteryear was nothing but a burdensome normalizing of the abnormalities of injustice, rape, sexism, marginalization and inequality for women. Our network members have learnt from this, as it too was their reality. <\/span><\/p>\n

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They have equipped themselves to be the needed agents of change for the world with the various programmes offered. Our women celebrate the meaning of this day and all it represents with an understanding that a new dawn has come for women and they stand ready to deal with it. As a Trust this too is what we celebrate on Women\u2019s Month!<\/span><\/p>\n

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  Thursday, August 9, 1956, might have begun like any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,81,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-highlight","category-womens-economic-and-social-advancement-highlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}