Women Development and Empowerment in South African Polity

Abstract

The question of women’s development and empowerment is not new in the world. As such, there has been an increasing awareness of the matter, especially that development has had a differential impact on power relations in society, usually to the disadvantage of women. For countless times, the world has had many pro–women empowerment measures and proclamations made by various governments and continental and domestic agencies, but women continue to be overlooked in crucial spheres of life such as politics, law, education, and training, as well as working environments. This paper used a desktop review method to first, identify the underlying factors behind power differentials between men and women in leadership and society at large, and second, examine how such factors compound gender inequality in South African polity. The discussion shows that South Africa’s and the African continent’s experience with women's empowerment and recognition in the political landscape still exhibits gender disproportions with which the compounding factors cannot be differentiated. These include, inter alia, the inconsistent application of a political will to keep women in leadership spaces and the existence of patriarchal systems embedded in many African cultural practises. The paper concluded by strongly arguing that any development that is based on patriarchy is anti–development and must be rejected. Any efforts made to elevate women in to positions of power would mean an end to the old question of gender inequality, but this requires serious, deliberate policy interventions and implementation.