Happy Women's Day

This list of figures was published in the latest Elle Magazine, under the tagline “Just look how far we’ve come!”
I feel I may have missed something – am I meant to be excited that I have a 1 in 3 chance of being raped if I’m a woman in South Africa (and a 76% chance that I’ll know the perpetrator)? That the rate of HIV-infection for females over 2 is 3.6% (as opposed to 1.5% for male)? That my life expectancy is 52 (as opposed to over 80 in the USA)? That I’m six times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner in South Africa than anywhere else in the world?? But wait, light on the horizon – 41% of Jacob Zuma’s cabinet is female! And you can tell how seriously they take us by allowing us to share a Ministry with the Youth, the Disabled and Disability…
When I posted some of these stats in a Facebook status, more than one person messaged me to complain about how depressing it was, and how I’d ruined their day. No one seemed too worried about the fact that it’s true. And bear in mind that if these stats don’t apply to you – if, out of 3 of your female friends, none have been raped – then there’s a group of 3 females somewhere else in South Africa making up the numbers – 2 of them have been raped, or one of them has been raped more than once.

So much for “If you strike a woman, you strike a rock”…

SA women are on top, sort of …..(?)
Women comprise 51% of South Africa’s population of 47.9 million people. The average South African women has a life expectancy of 52 years. She will marry when she is 27 years old and have 2.6 children. There is a 60% chance that she lives in an urban area and a 50% that, if asked, she will tell you that she is happy with her home life. There is a 66% chance that she is positive about South Africa’s future.
According to the UN Gender Development Index, South Africa is ranked 94th out of 157 countries.

Political Power:
* Women play an important role in political decision-making in South Africa. In the last elections, the IEC found that 55% of voters were women.
* South Africa is well on track to achieve the SADC target of 50% women in political decision-making roles by 2015.
* At national level, women make up 41% of President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet, with 14 ministers and 12 deputy ministers being female.
Many traditionally male-dominated portfolios (defence, energy, mining, science and technology) are in the hands of women, a trend which bean with former president Thabo Mbeki.
* South Africa ranks third in the world (after Sweden and Rwanda) when it comes to female parliamentarians. In 2009, 131 MPs are female, up from 120 in 2007.
* At provincial level, the percentage of women in government posts is up from 30% to 43%, with Limpopo province employing the most number of women.
* There are some issues concerning women’s equality in political that remain of concern to gender activists:
- in the recent elections, only four parties – the DA, Women Forward, ID and Keep It Straight and Simply (KISS) – had women leaders
- Western Cape premier Helen Zille’s appointment of an all-male cabinet from many quarters.
- Reactions to Zuma’s new Ministry of Women, Youth, Disabled and Disability have been mixed. Some gender activists have welcomed the decision, others have criticized it as patronizing to women.

Health: It’s an issue:
* A woman born today in South Africa has a life expectancy of 52 years, well below that of developed countries such as the US, where female life expectancy is now 80 years. South African men have a life expectancy of 50 years.
* HIV/AIDS related diseases, TB and pneumonia, are the leading causes of death among women.
* 28% of South Africa’s poorest women have no skilled health care practitioner present at the birth of their babies.
* 56% of South African women are overweight or obese, and 15% of women over the age of 15 have been diagnosed with diabetes. 43% of girls do not get sufficient physical activity.
* One in seven women will be diagnosed with cancer in her lifetime (men have a one in five chance). The most prevalent form of cancer affecting South African women is cervical cancer, followed by breast cancer. Only 28% of women between the ages of 25 and 44 years have been screened for cervical cancer.
* The Health Professionals Council of South Africa has slightly more female practitioners registered than male, however two thirds of all medical doctors registered with the HPCSA remain male.

Mothers without others:
* South African women are having fewer children later in life and a greater number than ever before are single moms.
* In 1993, 15% of South African women with children under the age of 16 were single. Today, it is 40%.
* 48% of all women with children under age 16 have no partner – a 41% increase over the past 15 years.
* 15% of women with babies under two are aged between 16 and 24, down from 20% in 1993.

Working moms in South Africa:
Only two out of ten single moms work full-time, while 6 out of 10 moms with children under 16 are unemployed.
A quarter of all married moms, or moms living with a partner, work full-time, and one in 10 work part-time (Source: SAARF AMPS 1993 and 2008 AB).

Learning to Lead:
* Women are still more likely than men to have no formal qualifications. In 2007, 11.3% of women over the age of 20 had no formal qualifications (14% in 2002).
* Female students at tertiary institutions outnumber their male counterparts. In 2007 55.5% of students at public institutions of higher learning were female.
* In 2007, women comprised 44% of the staff at public tertiary institutions.
Only 420 of the 1675 professors recorded in 2007 were women.

Succeeding in Science:
* In 1992, women represented just 30% of those working within the field of science and technology. Ten years later, that number has risen to 40%.
* Today, the number of women graduating in the field has increased, but women are still vastly under-represented.
* A 2008 study commission by the National Advisory Council on Innovation found that of 22 major science and technology companies, only one had a female CEO. For the most part, women were still not represented in top management.
* There is some cause for optimism, however. Earlier this year the Engineering Council of SA released a report showing that the number of women in the industry is on the rise. This year the council’s female membership exceeded 2000 for the first time – from only 814 female members in 2003.

Sports: Are the playing fields level?
* In terms of funding, media exposure and corporate sponsorship, women’s sport lags far behind the male sports.
* The team sent to the Beijing Olympics was 39% female – 57 of the 136 athletes were women. The proposed team for the London Olympics in 2012 currently includes 39 athletes – 10 of whom are female.
* Only 12 of the 73 national sports federations registered with SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee are headed by women.

HIV/AIDS:
* At the current rate of infection, teenagers have a 50% chance of contracting HIV during the course of their lives (LoveLife).
* Half of South Africa’s new HIV infections occur before the age of 25.
* Over 18% if adults aged 15-49 years are HIV-positive (UNAIDS).
* The HIV pandemic disproportionately affects women.
* Over 13% of females over the age of two are HIV-positive, compared to 8.2% of males (HSRC).
* 29.1% of pregnant women are HIV-positive (Department of Health, 2006). – potentially out of date.
* The rate of new infections for women over the age of 2 is 3.6% - 1.5% for men over the age of two (HSRC, 2005).

Be careful out there:
* Violence against women in South Africa remains unacceptably high.
* One in three women will be raped during her lifetime.
* A woman is 6 times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner in South Africa than anywhere else in the world.
* In 2007, police recorded 50 497 incidents of domestic violence.
* One in four women in South Africa is in an abusive relationship.
* The good news is that the SAPS recorded an 8.8% decrease in reported rape in the period April-December 2007.