WOMEN STILL FACING HARDSHIPS: SKWEYIYA
By Thabo Mokgola, Pretoria

August 11, 2003 – (BuaNews - Pretoria) Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya says efforts to free women from the hardships they encounter on a daily basis need to be accelerated.

Addressing the Woman's Day celebration in Klipgat, near Pretoria today, Minister Skweyiya said though government had progressed in addressing the problem, women were still faced with adverse living conditions.

'No matter how hard we try to redress past imbalances, the mothers of our nation and their children, are still battling with poverty, child and spousal abuse, high unemployment and retrogressive cultural practices,' he said.

He said his department had made it its mission to alleviate poverty and to further lessen the burden on women and children.

The department recognised a number of factors that contributed towards the poverty of women in the country,' he said.

'Some of these are the gendered division of labour in the household, the low value accorded to women's work with the concomitant clustering of women in low-paid jobs, the legacy of inferiority status borne of the past discriminatory civil and traditional laws that have denied women access to land, loans and property,' he said.

He added that poverty, unemployment, HIV/AIDS and social exclusion further aggravated the situation because they impacted on the very structure of women's lives.

'It is estimated that of the people living in condition of dire poverty women, particularly those living in the rural areas, constitute over 70 percent,' said the minister.

The event was attended by some of the country's celebrated musicians like Dolly Rathebe and Merriam Makeba who have played an imperative role in the fight against women oppression.

Today's celebrations marks the 47th anniversary of the 1956 march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria by 20 000 women to protest against the then oppressive government especially the pass laws.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200308110998.html