Every year on 9 August, National Women’s Day commemorates a significant historic event that should be taken more seriously than it already is. In 1956, 20,000 women marched to the Pretoria Union Buildings in protest against pass laws. The purpose was to present the prime minister, JG Strijdom, with a petition and a request to meet.
The Union Buildings in Pretoria, where 20,000 women protested peacefully on 9 August 1956. PHOTO: Liezl Human
“Helen Joseph and Lillian Ngoyi were two of the leaders,” says Professor Amanda Gouws, Political Science lecturer and SARChI Chair in Gender Politics at SU. “Strijdom did not come out to receive the memorandum.”
After Strijdom’s refusal to meet with the leaders of the protest, the women proceeded with a thirty minute silence.
Gouws says that National Women’s Day should be taken more seriously by government agencies, as this day can be used to shed light on important women’s issues in South Africa.
“It is the one day in the year that there is a focus on women’s issues and women’s rights,” Gouws says. “It can help women to set the agenda for what types of policies they need from government. It also raises awareness on [issues such as] gender based violence.”
She further says, “I disagree, however, with the idea that Women’s Day should be celebrated as ‘an event’ [with] ‘koek en tee’, as government agencies often do. It should be taken far more seriously than a once a year ‘koek en tee’ event.”
Professor Julie Claassens, the head of the Gender Unit in the Faculty of Theology, wrote two pieces for the Cape Argus and News24 in 2017 and 2018, respectively. She told MatieMedia that these pieces shows “both a sense of the significance of Women’s Day and how [she] relates it to [her] field of study”.
“This courageous act so many years ago stands as a beacon of women of all colours and creeds, from all walks of life, who can march together, [and] say ‘no’ together,” says Claassens.
But while National Women’s Day is a significant day to remember, South African women are still faced with many obstacles, such as violence and high murder rates.
“It is not just the violence that gets to us; it is also the too many examples of women who are still excluded from decisions that have a marked impact on their lives,” says Claassens. “In so many instances we haven’t made much progress”.
The most recent report by Statistics South Africa, titled “Crime against women in South Africa”, shows that the South African murder rate of women remains significantly higher than the global average. The report also shows that the South African rape figure is amongst the highest in the world.
National Women’s Day was first commemorated on 9 August 1995.