COSATU Discussion document : Commissions

- COSATU

Title
COSATU Discussion document : Commissions
Creator
COSATU
Subject
COSATU
Date
Mar 2012
Type
text
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10962/135190
Identifier
vital:37246
Description
COSATU, along with other alliance partners, was very instrumental in the creation of national gender machinery that was put in place by the democratic state after 1994. COSATU was part of a very important meeting held in 1995 to discuss national gender machinery which was held at the World Trade Centre. This meeting concluded on a Commission for Gender Equality, the Office of the Status of Women and the mainstreaming of gender in society. The South African women’s conference held in Amsterdam from 13-18 January 1990 and tagged, “Malibongwe Women’s Conference” was a pivotal point in South African women’s history. This conference was able to discuss the preferred role of women in South African politics and society. The conference analysed the challenges faced by women and proposed a number of resolutions to address with women’s emancipation as well as gender equality. These focused on working women; education, health, culture, family, women’s unity, natal violence and repression. “The subsequent programme of action gave the notion of a struggle for ‘non-sexism’ greater prominence, and recognised that national liberation did ‘not automatically guarantee the emancipation of women.’” This was a pioneered the discussions on the establishment of national gender machinery in line with global democratic practice and the mainstreaming of gender across society and its institutions in order to avoid the “ghettoisation” or marginalization of women and women’s issues in South African society. These discussions were initiated by the Women’s National Coalition (WNC). As the negotiations for South Africa’s transition to democracy started two to three years before democracy, women found themselves marginalized once again. They quickly formed the Women National Coalition which was able to push for women’s inclusion in the negotiations processes as well s to fight for women’sissues to find their way onto the negotiations’ agenda. The Women National Coalition was able to do this very effectively as it had established a “Negotiations Monitoring Team which provided reports and information to Women National Coalition member organisations”. Through this coalition, a “Women’s Charter for Effective Equality” was developed built on the back of the “Women’s Charter” that was developed in 1954 by the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). The coalition continued to exist and to provide leadership and to draw on the resolutions of the Amsterdam Women’s Conference. This ensured that an even broader consultation took place amongst women back home in South Africa to strengthen the Amsterdam resolutions and to put a plan in place for the implementation of new WNC resolutions, hence the constitution was able to include women’s concerns including the inclusion of a Commission for Gender Equality amongst the institutions referred to in Chapter 9 of the South African constitution. The Presidency was also given the mandate of being in charge of the gender programme and in this office the Office of the Status of Women was located.
Format
99 pages, pdf
Publisher
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
Language
English
Rights
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
Rights
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher
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